So, having lived with the iPhone for a few days now, I can comment a bit more on it.

Overall, I like the device. It's been quite handy in several situations already, though most of the situations another smartphone could have also worked. The integration I think is what makes the device worth it over other phones though. Today for example, my coworkers and I needed a place to go for lunch that wasn't going to take forever. Our first attempt resulted in a long line, so we began thinking of alternatives. Noone was really sure how busy another place nearby was, so I quickly looked it up on the maps app, then dialed them right there. Turns out they had a 20 minute wait for a table, so we ended up finding another place. During this process, I simply opened maps, typed in the name, then tapped on the marker on the map. From there, I got a screen with the number, tapped it and was calling. No need to jot down a number somehow or try to remember, because the phone and map application were so well integrated.

Web browsing on the device is one of the best parts for me. Since it's not trying to scale the page some how to a small screen, sites work as expected for the most part. The zooming in on what you want to read becomes second nature, and being able to browse in portrait or landscape works well. The only real complaint I have with the browser is an unavoidable problem on a small screen anyhow. And that issue is the requirement to have to scroll back and forth quite a bit to read some things. Flash compatibility would be nice, but I don't feel like I'm missing much by not having it. Since it isn't pulling down flash items, browsibility over EDGE isn't bad. I'm getting a bit over 200k/s bandwidth, where as on wifi it hits about 1.1mbit. Since it transitions onto wifi easily, I'm rarely using EDGE anyhow. Having tons of free wifi access spots around town helps that.

Durability so far seems great, and from seeing the torture tests out there, I feel comfortable leaving the phone in my front pocket.

Camera, I'm actually surprised at how good it is. I forgot my normal camera at an event recently, and used the iPhone. For a 2 megapixel camera phone, the shots were decent.


My complaints with it are:

Mail. I live on smart folders at work, and the iPhone client has no such concept. It's also appears to only check the inbox for new mail, so on an IMAP account, I have to manually check other folders that get mail delivered to them directly. I'm hoping for full Exchange support with push as well, since the IT guys might allow that at work.

Inability to switch to landscape mode in any app. This seems to be something really inconsistent on the device. Some apps force landscape when they play video, but video in Safari doesn't. Not all apps allow a voluntary switch, and Mail could use a landscape mode for some messages.

Inconsistency with the double tap zoom between HTML mail in Mail vs Safari. Safari seems to try and zoom to the proper level based on what you double tap on, but the same doesn't carry over to mail. Mail requires a lot of pinch zooming on HTML newsletters to get to readable levels.

Syncing between multiple machines. Any iTunes media has to be synced from one machine. I have my music on my MacBook Pro along with audio podcasts. Video content including video podcasts live on my Mac Mini attached to the TV. So if I want both audio and video on my iPhone, I have to manually copy files on the OS side and import them into iTunes on one machine.

Adding to the syncing issue is the inability to sync PDA side stuff to multiple machines. The iPhone can bond the PDA side to a different machine then the iTunes content, but it's still a 2 way sync only. If I sync at home, then go to work and sync, it merges data. If I then go home, it merges again, quickly creating issues in Safari with bookmarks becoming duplicated, and lots of manual conflict resolution in the calendar and address book. .Mac syncing would fix my problem here, but I still refuse to pay $99 a year when all I would use of .Mac is the multi machine syncing.

Ringtones. I used to assign distinct custom ringtones to the people who call me frequently on my old phone, including some text to speech to be able to know who was calling without even looking at the phone. With the iPhone, I'm stuck with the built in ringtones, and then have to remember "Is Bob the Scifi sound or is Ryan?"

Notes seems pointless to me. I'm assuming this will sync to Mail in Leopard, but for now, it's worthless.

Lack of USB file storage space. I can't use the phone as a thumb drive.

No IM client. Being able to respond to IMs on the go would be great.

EDGE network usage can block incoming calls. Not sure this is going to be fixable by software either. So maybe it's a good thing an IM client doesn't exist.

This is more of a phone company rant, but I can't believe they can justify $20 a month for unlimited data, but still only include 200 text messages in my plan. I will be using SMS more, but not a ton more since I have to count my messages.

*edit*
Forgot about bluetooth. The iPhone is oddly crippled here. All it uses bluetooth for is hands free kits. It doesn't integrate with the Address Book in OS X, to allow me to SMS people and reject calls from my computer. It doesn't allow me to tether it to a PC for internet access. It doesn't allow me to sync to the PC with it for the PDA side stuff, forcing me to find the cable for my laptop every time. And it doesn't allow me to send pictures or contact information to other bluetooth phones. I'm hoping at least some of these features get added over time.