Many folks have wondered when I would cave in and get an iPhone. Oddly, some people *assumed* I got one on day 1. So let's get something straight - I'm not *that* crazy.

That said, the appeal of a handheld device that I could use to browse the web and check email over WiFi at home and when out really got me. Add the fact that I heard that as a *phone*, the iPhone was excellent finally convinced me to shell out more dollars than I should have for the iPhone, protective shield for the screen, and a holster case.

I have not been disappointed with the phone (two exceptions which I'll discuss later).

First, the phone does just look cool. You think it's big, and maybe compared to my Nokia 6126, it is. But not offensively so. The screen is the most readable thing I've used in a long time. Intuitive interface. And the thing has, to me, the best sound quality for phone calls over any phone I've owned in the last 4 years at least. It also holds calls my 6126 used to have problems with, and I thought the 6126 did a great job. I live in a notoriously bad signal area (because all cellular towers tend to point away from my house). This phone makes cell usage usable in the house.

It paired up easily with my Nokia BH-900 headset. Works great. No complaints there. I was somewhat relieved about that - I like my BH-900 very much and I really didn't have the money for a new Jawbone headset (even though I hear those are great too).

As an iPod, I like it very much. I never thought I'd find a use for the YouTube program, but it has come in handy. And of course, because it's an Apple product, it syncs perfectly with my Mac. Movies are also a bit nicer to watch on this device than on my previous iPod. You just have to remember, though, that this is also your phone so if you kill the battery watching a movie, your cell phone is off too.

Battery life is pretty good - 3 days easily without charging unless I'm heavily into email or movie watching....

There are two irritants. The first is ringtones and Apple's somewhat heavy-handed tactics to drum up business from the iTunes Music Store. I have a series of old MIDI ringtones (converted to MP3) that I am just used to. And want to continue using. And find it just very difficult to do so. If Apple offered these goofy ringtones that I like on iTMS, well, I'd probably buy them. But they don't and they go out of their way to keep me from using them. Fortunately, there's iToner which has allowed me to install a bunch of my old MIDI ringtones.

The second is a little more esoteric. iPhone mail refuses to display email messages which were forwarded as an attachment. If someone takes a client like Thunderbird, selects a message and forwards that message as an attachment, the message shows up on the iPhone as an icon named "mime-attachment". The issue is that iPhone mail appears to not understand message/rfc822 message types. This is exceedingly frustrating for me and I have filed a bug with Apple.

I am hopeful that Apple will open up the iPhone to developers. This may sound silly, but it would be nice to get a game of solitaire on this thing....

People have also complained about being limited to using EDGE only instead of WCDMA or "3G". For me, this isn't so much an issue - when I'm surfing or reading email, it's usually from on a WiFi network. If I'm truly out and about, I'm usually only checking mail or trying to do a few specific things (like check flight arrivals) which really aren't bandwidth intensive. I also do wish Apple would get a Flash viewer on the iPhone as well - if only so some websites don't come up completely blank (that said, that's poor coding to me anyways, but...)

8 out of 10. This is the only first generation Apple product that I can say that so far I've been this happy with.

Tags: Technology