iphone first impressions

There is quite a bit to report here and I'll plan on posting several time.

Let me start off by saying that this is one of those life changing sorts of technolgies. I think nothing these days of making a phone call at home, jumping in the truck and finishing the call somewhere else. Remember when 'cordless' phones were all the rage...you could even go out on the front porch and use it. Now think about wi-fi...you could even use it on the front porch...now think about walking out of the local arena, chatting with a friend, deciding on a place to meet, looking it up on the internet (while walking to your car), having directions by the time you got there and then deciding what you were going to order on your way to meet up...welcome to iphone. Now imagine waiting for an appointment, getting a call to schedule another apointment, jumping on your calandar, and scheduling the appointment during the call. Welcome to life changing technology.

Cool: everyone looks to see what you have and impressed that this is the 'new' iphone...I'm sure that effect will wear off in about 4 minutes

Physical: The phone is surprisingly heavy. It makes the other phones I have feel like cheap plastic junk. The drawback to the wieght (1 oz) heaveier than my other phones is making a long call with no headset...amazing how buff I'll be in a few weeks holding that extra oz up to my ear! The thing is feaksihly thing. The switch to turn the ringer on and off is really nice.

Phone: The phone is adequate but not stellar. If you want the world's best cell phone get something else, if you want the best little techno-mate I've seen get an iphone. The volume of the ringer, the speaker phone and the handset could all be louder however they all seem to sound good (especially the ringers...to bad my phone is on vibrate 99% of the time). The bluetooth sync is easy and iphone is really smart when it comes to letting your select the source for a call. Integration with contact and websites is awesome and the visual voicemail is really nice...makes total sence.

Ipod: still learning how to do that...any help on the best way to sync music? I can't seem to get mannual mode to work. It was really neat to be at the gym jamming on some tunes and just have them fade away so I could take a call.

Safari: WOW...sure it could support flash but seriously, find me something better. I was on a walk and could almost instantly find that we were under a thunderstorm warning when I saw the lightning in the distance. I can check mail, surf, and have all sorts of information at my fingertips almost instantly. We don't have 3G yet but edge isn't too bad. I still can't wait for 3G.

Mail: really the only problem I have here is that I don't think my cable account will sync when not on the cable network...I was thinking about switching to a more portable email address already so I guess now is a good time to do it. Works great with our Yahoo junk mail account (just incase I want to keep up on the spam).

Calandar: I remember now how great it was to have a PDA...I love love love having an electronic calandar back. I'm having some sync issues (until I get it on the enterprise account) and Jodi's won't sync at all...I still need to do more work there

Camera: probably better that other phones I've had but disappointing seeing how nice everything else is

Interface: mindblowing

virtual keyboard: I've not used a little bitty plastic keyboard much but this one seems just fine

Unlock: I still get a smirk on my face everytime I slide that little bar

Missing:
- tasks list (hello)
- the absence of the ability to use a stylus and the ability to recognize handwritting really hold the iphone back as a computer replacement
- GPS seems like it could work lots better
- cut and paste functionality
- microsoft pocket word and excel
- a cradle
- a windshild wiper and fluid so that it can continually clean the screen as you put your greasy little fingers all over it
- the sync sofware doesn't seem to be very configurable or let me really move files like I'd like

Issues:
- when trying to down load a high resolution picture the phone crashed...yes, it is ridiculous to try to download a high resolution picture to view on a little sceen
- smudges and smears front and back
- I'm sure at some point (like when a larger model comes out) I'll wish I had more memory that 16 GB (I can still remember when the first gig hard drives hit the market about 1995)