I just had to have the lastest so I paid a kid to stand in line and get me one at 6:15 pm Friday. Been dying all weekend to put it to the Monday test and use it in my work.

So far it has been a blast. Look forward to a call coming in as well as one I can make. Seems to work flawlessly with my bluetooth sunglasses.

Outlook 2007 sync’ed over my 1009 contacts and all my calendar items without a hitch.

I love the instant traffic updates on the Google Maps. One of it’s slickest features and very speedy even on Edge.

One didy I really enjoy is calling GOOG-411 and finding where I want to go via the phone. At the point where they say, “Do you want me to dial it now?” I respond with “Map It!” and then hang up. Within 10 seconds I receive a text message on the iPhone that has a link to my location in Google Maps. I touch that link and it opens the iPhone browser with a stick pin right where I am going.

I keep finding little gems like this with work use that make me so happy I dumped out of my Nextel Blackberry.

So far, I am having as much fun as the day I got my first Tablet PC. I miss those exciting exploring adventure days.

It won’t be a “second gen device” that gets you into Exchange, Vistio has already announced they will deliver Exchange and Notes in the 3Q 2007.

Most of the hater blogs I’ve read this past weekend haven’t made one very serious transition: Windows Mobile requires you to buy the “next gen device” to get an upgrade. Apple has a consistent history of releasing software upgrades with new features on a regular basis. That list of “it doesn’t do this” or “it doesn’t do that” will be shorter in the next few months, and I won’t have to buy a new iPhone, unlike the Windows Mobile platform.

Also, I’ve already got secure corporate email/todo/meetings on my iPhone. Lotus Notes supports a secure web email server and the iPhone works very well with it. So in addition to getting all of my personal emails plugged in this weekend, I now have access to my corporate email as well.

Color me one very happy camper.

“it’s truly a consumer device”

Glad to see my six months of repeating that mantra has finally paid off. :)

All this talk about a great iphone- but in reality the new blackberry 8800 series with T-Mobile is cool and I really like their plans. For example I purchase the 5000 min plan with free nights and weekends for 129.00 a month and blackberry data package for 20.00. Dude this is way better than ATT high packages.

Blackberry rocks- and to set the record straight I’m a mac and pc guy!

Well too bad. Iphone is such a fun device. You don’t just buy Iphone for serious work; you buy it for fun right? What about your Mac?

I’m with you Kevin, great piece.

@fog city dave: don’t feel like reading this blog anymore? that’s your choice. don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

I came close to giving in and buying one. But for me it came down to many things.

1.) No phone as modem. Big issue for me.
2.) Can’t install anything. There’s so much this phone * doesn’t * do that this is really a necessity.
3.) Keyboard situation. I type a lot.
4.) No GPS support.
5.) No Exchange. I mean real Exchange. IMAP is a joke.

But it is pretty. Just not practical for professional use. Windows Mobile does it all and more and has since 2002.

Kevin,

I’m amazed you haven’t been hit too hard by the apple fanboy response to this post that much!

I was expecting this post to have 250 comments all yelling out “how can u not love teh iPhone its perfect you r dum this blog sux bye”

I’ve been carrying two phones for almost a year so I’m already OK with that. As I’ve just returned my Treo 700p to my former employer, the N95 will provide my business line and tethering and the iPhone will be my internet, e-mail, media device. I know I’m in a really unusual place having two of the coolest phones available in the high-end media segment. Lucky me.

My lack of impulse control can be blamed in large measure on my accountant assuring me that the iPhone is a legitimate business deduction in my consulting and blogging work. I can afford it, and so decided to ignore all of my own considered opinions about how the first-generation was flawed (no user swappable battery or memory and a lock to a provider I had no existing business with).

I have to tell you it is an amazing device and absolutely raises the bar for mobile devices from the UI experience and sheer sexiness perspectives. I don’t have any pangs of remorse (yet). I’m off to San Jose this afternoon for a quick trip and we’ll see how the iPhone does as a traveling companion on the plane and on the go.

I tend to agree with you that the device is more of a consumer play than a business solution. But my lines are pretty blurred and I can envision a day where a future version of the iPhone could be the only converged mobile device I take with me.

I guess I was under the mistaken impression that this was a blog about mobile devices (using mobile devices since they weighed 30 lbs, etc.), so it was fairly shocking to me that you wouldn’t even bother to go down and simply touch one of the most important mobile devices in the last ten years. I didn’t realize that this was just your personal blog or something. That’s cool. Bye bye…

Les, I went to the AT&T kiosk intending to buy one, had my credit checked and left thinking I was having one ordered for me. All that was left was the phone call for my credit card info. Valid minor point on the post headline. The “magic” I mentioned in the post was the Apple marketing, press hype, etc….kudos to Apple for knowing how to market and present a great product. Regular readers know I’m also the “early adopter” type: three HDTVs in the house, first one bought in 2001, waiting in lines for the XBox 360, purchased one of the first available UMPCs, etc….

Dave, it doesn’t matter how good any feature is if it’s not one of the most used features I need. I mainly use my phone for three purposes: phone calls ;), a modem for my 7-inch slate UMPC, and e-mail/contacts/calendar items from my Exchange server. Yes, I browse on the phone, but it’s not one of the primary functions I need. If it was, that would change my entire purchasing logic. I don’t need to go to the store and play with an iPhone to know that the browsing experience is excellent, of that I have zero doubt. To pay $600 for a great feature that isn’t high on my priority list just doesn’t make sense.

Scotty, auto-rotate is a nice feature. I’ve had it on my XV6700 to a degree for nearly two years. I slide out the keyboard and the screen auto-rotates. Is it the same? No. Is Apple’s solution more elegant and useful. Yes. Is that worth my money considering the devices I already have? Not to me. To you and others, maybe…

I also do enjoy my Zune Pass subscription. All you can eat for $15 a month has been awesome. IF (big if) Apple had a comparable subscription plan, that would have made this choice more difficult for me. No argument that the iPhone might be the PMP-type device that Microsoft could and should have had by now. For me personally, it doesn’t matter: I almost always have my UMPC with me which runs Windows Media Center…I have a nice 7-inch PMP with a touchscreen and 800×480 res. ;)

Again, great comments by all and I’m thrilled to see this didn’t turn into a ‘battle of the fanboys’. One last time: I think Apple’s iPhone is innovative and has already changed the mobile phone and handheld computing platforms in a positive way. If a second gen device comes out with native and full Exchange synchronization (contacts, calendar, tasks in addition to mail), plus true 3G data, ability to tether and more uses for Bluetooth, I’d strongly consider it. I still want that music subscription plan though! :)

I picked one up. I guess I’m enough of a consumer, though I’m an IT guy. I can IMAP my Exchange mail to it, my personal accounts work fine, email is gorgeous and it all works very well at home and work while near WiFi.

I have a Q for work and have had an MDA in the past and, between those two devices, my experience with WM5 hasn’t been great. The Q is terribly slow in the UI, the MDA was pretty slow, I’ve had the device lose signal to the point that I’ve had to reboot it, etc. I thought about getting a Mogul and going Sprint but I just have not been pleased with Windows Mobile as a phone OS…so for me, I don’t have any apps and it’s no big loss to lose that functionality.

The iPhone so far has had it’s share of little foibles but it’s so lovable that I’m willing to forgive them until Apple gets around to making the OS more robust. :)

Oh yeah, almost forgot one more iPhone killer PVP feature: syncing.

When I watch Dirty Dancing and re-sync my iPhone, iTunes will pick up playing DIrty Dancing right where I left off on the iPhone. re-sync again and the iPhone picks up from where I stopped in iTunes.

Pretty cool and useful.

The iPhone’s double tap (you don’t pinch Safari, she’ll slap you) zoom actually examines where you double tapped and does a smart contextual zoom/re-flow. Something Opera never did. The re-resolutioning/re-flowing of the zoomed area is pretty sweet and much higher quality than a simple zoom like Opera does. But the killer iPhone browser feature has to be the auto-rotate landscape, swooning… I also appreciate the higher powered hardware acceleration, panning is like dragging around a piece of wax paper under your finger. Opera was always a bit pokey, even with touch/stylus to pan with.

Two people in the iPhone line were discussing how they had ditched T-Mobile that morning via tips from The Consumerist. Locally AT&T has much better coverage than T-Mobile, I was exchanging local dead zone tips with them while we waited in line.

Before I left work Friday I already had two bids on my iPod 5.5G. When I flip it I figure I’ll have close to half of my iPhone paid off. I know there isn’t much of a resale value on Zunes since Microsoft announced the 2G Zune, what do they call it? Zone 1G Killer err iPod killer err iPhone killer. So you would have had a harder time recovering part of the $600 iPhone tab plus since you own no DRM’d music due to the Zune Zone subscription lock in, you’re definitely much better off sticking with the Zune.

I think people have been missing a real story on the iPhone. With iTunes as the easy rip-less legal source for TV, video podcasts and movies the iPhone is quietly I think going to become the portable video player device Microsoft has been telling everyone they needed (but Microsoft could never implement.) I forget what PVP you carry in your gadget bag but the extra weight and space for a Zune, Dash and PVP will help keep you from getting flabby right? Sort of a Microsoft supplied all in one work out gym in your gadget bag. :-)

Kevin.. I thought your reasoning was pretty valid until you actually compared Safari on the iPhone to Opera Mini. I would love to see this: go down to an Apple Store.. don’t buy an iPhone, but just play with one of the demo units for 5 or 10 minutes.. then come back and read this blog entry again and see if you feel the same way. If you do, great.. I tip my hat to you. At least take one for a test drive first.