Full iPhone Review - A Week Later
I have had my iPhone for over a full week and have gone from thinking this is the best thing on earth to having withdrawal symptoms from being away from my blackberry.
The absolute most important thing to know about the iPhone for current Blackberry users is that the iPhone is NOT a Blackberry. Blackberry’s e-mail service is very reliable, always on, and does real push e-mail. This means you get notified often within seconds after an e-mail is sent to your address. The iPhone offers “push” mail - but through yahoo.com. A week into using it, it seems a little wonky. I have had e-mail delays - more than 15 minutes where the push technology does not seem to be working.Â
Additionally - Yahoo.com requires you to send from your yahoo.com e-mail address. You can’t mask your corporate address to this address. I even forked over $20 to upgrade to their plus service, which allows you to send from another e-mail address while using Yahoo Mail in a web browser, but I don’t see where I can do this when replying to e-mail directly from the iPhone.
If e-mail is important to you, and every minute counts - Blackberry is still king here.
Outside of e-mail, iPhone tells a better story.
Its by far, the best iPod ever! Navigation between files is easier. No more click wheel to deal with - you can just smudge and flick your way to your favortite tunes. A feature I like best is the speaker. With my previous Video iPod (still have) and my iPod mini (still have) I have often wished it had an onboard speaker so I could hear my tunes or podcasts when I did not want to wear the headphones. No I can. I can just sit the iPhone down - and have it play my tunes or podcasts without any extra devices. Sure - its no bose speaker system, but it works.
 As a phone - very user friendly - easier to dial and manage contacts than my Blackberry. The conference feature works well - as does sound quality. I had a Blackberry 7250 and its not known for its sound quality, but the iPhone sounds clearer than my 7250 for sure, and the spearker edition is nice here as well.
 As a browser - best mobile browsing experience ever. Your Blackberry can’t do this! I can surf the net - as I would on my laptop - and get the latest from CNN.com, Digg.com and several sites I check on a daily basis. If you just doing normal surfing - and you do a lot of it - the iPhone can become a possible laptop replacement. If sites you visit often use high end video or flash and complicated log-in scripts - don’t expect much from the iPhone as Flash is not yet allowed and only Quicktime formats of video are able to viewed on the iPhone.
One odd bug - many occurances of a phantom - back to home screen - button.  While surfing and doing various iPhone tasks - I occassionally get bounced to the homescreen. I suspect this happens when the application I am using crashes, and instead of a bad error screen - iPhone says - I think you should just start over. So - maybe its just going ahead and doing the restart as any tech support official would tell you to do. 
On a scale of 1 to 10 - I give it an 8.5. Push e-mail is must-fix for Apple/Yahoo/AT&T. (Not sure who needs to fix it - but it needs to be fixed as it does not work as advertised.)
The wait continues
Now under 2 hours till iPhone and the line continues - but out of sight from my standpoint.   The freebies continue as well. Chick-Fil-a shakes, Starbucks Coffee and now Red Bull! Pic above is actually the free shirt I picked up when the Perimeter store opened. Line was much longer then - but we still have 2 hours to go… :-) (also wishing I did not forget my camera….)
Two quick links - Northpoint and Lenox.
2:30pm Not Much Different
Still in line - but line length seems to be slowing. Can’t see the store front - but looks like its closed. They do have a guard out front.Â
Line up to 50 or so
More persons joining the line this afternoon. Just after lunchtime, still over 5 hours to go. Wondering how many phones they will have, then how many 4 Gig or 8 Gig models they will have.
Now inline and online at Perimeter Mall
Well - today’s the day - and a long day at that. Right now I am sitting on the floor in Perimeter Mall - kinda in line for the iPhone. Kinda because I chose to sit near a power outlet that’s actually about 20 people away from the end of the line. So I plan to let 20 people infront of me so I can have power the rest of the day. We will keep you posted as the day goes by - but for now… I will try to catch up on work stuff…
Quest for an iPhone begins
The hunt for an iPhone begins this Friday and I am just hoping the hype does not get out of hand. I have a pretty busy job, but it just so happens I start my long awaited vacation on iPhone Friday, so I have a little more freedom when it comes to planning my day. My current plan is to pick up the device at the Apple Store in Perimeter Mall.  We know that the Apple Store will close at 2pm and then reopen to sell the iPhone at 6pm. I am fearful that people will start waiting in line early in the day…. thus one may need to stand in line ALL DAY? Lets hope not. I am not sure I can handle standing outside the Apple store from 10am to 6pm. Will have to wait and see.
How Expensive is the iPhone? Really?
$2,000+? Read on
Will the iphone be worth the wait?
Or perhaps - just plain worth it at all? I have to admit, I really do want to be one of the first to purchase and use the iphone, but my hesitation is almost to the point of surpassing the urge to purchase.
I have practically prepared for an iphone purchase for over a year. The preparation is quite costly as well. I am near the end of a two year contract with Verizon. If you don’t ready every line of the fine print, you can easily find yourself renewed on a new term. Each month where the family has exceeded our minutes, I get a text message inviting me to upgrade my plan to save money. Changing my plan in anyway automatically renews my term for atleast one year. Thus, we don’t upgrade our plan and keep paying overage fees to allow us to be free from Verizon this July.
Is Cingular AT&T any better? I doubt it.Â
AT&T is one source for the hesitation. What contract will they tie early adopters to? Early ads had fine print that stated USE of the iphone would require a two year contract. This statement has been removed, but that definitely sounds like a lot of reason to hold off. USE? No discount on price in exchange for a two-year committment, just the fact that you want to use it requires a two year term? Let’s hope that line of text was removed for a reason.
Other questions remain as well. Will the multi-touch screen work? Will it work as good as touted? How good is the e-mail application? Will it work as good as a Blackberry?Â
In short, we’ve seen the keynote. We’ve seen the ads. Is that enought to validate a $500 to $600 purchase? I have heard, but not verified, that Atlanta’s Lenox Mall Apple Store might have an iphone on display when they reopen this Saturday. We might just have to check this out and see for ourselves.
UPDATE: Visited Apple Store at Lenox early Saturday, June 9th - No iPhone in sight. Did get a nice shirt however. Store staff said they would have them on the 29th.