Getting the iPhone my wife had promised as a birthday present was and wasn't an easy task. My wife's aunt's 70th birthday party was Friday, so standing in line at the Apple Store in Westfarms was not an option for me. I'm not sure I would have wanted to do that anyway, although I did stand in line for 10.4 there, which is the first time I've stood in line for the release of anything. My plan was to get online at 9PM EST and order one online, eat the ten dollar shipping and hopefully have it next week.
One flaw in this plan. Well, two flaws. I took my MacBook with me to the Higgins household, where the wireless is free and the yard is large enough that war-driving isn't an issue. I felt kind of bad about this. 9PM was likely to be right around that awkward time when we either should have left half an hour earlier or we would need to stay later to get Ian settled. The second was there was no guarantee that- the Apple Store would be able to handle the load, that there would be many phones being sold online, and so on.
I got on the site and although I got a few http service unavailable, I was able to get through the ordering process. However I stopped short because the estimated shipping time was 2-4. Weeks that is. Weeks ? I was willing to wait, trust me. But I was thinking I'd be waiting a week or so. Not a month.
I drove up to the Apple Store in Westfarms after calling to confirm they were in stock. The local ATT store was out of stock, so that was my only option. I walked in, was taken directly (although the store was packed, the line was short to check out. I bought the phone, turned around and walked out and drove home.
I didn't get to activate it until six hours later. That took all of 5 minutes (I was already an ATT customer).
I've been using the phone for a day now and here's what I've found:
The phone is incredibly easy to use. I actually kind of like my Treo 700P, but only compared to the cell phones I loathe. I am still not good at dialing with the touch screen. No such issue with the digital number pad on the iPhone. It's a joy to use. Recording a greeting ? How cool is it that you don't have to dial into your voice mail ?
The internet. The ATT coverage in my area is rated as good (on a scale of moderate to best). On the wifi at home, it rocks. On the ATT network- it works. It's good enough. It looks awesome, the flip orientation is great, and if you have the fingers for it you can move around the internet pretty damn well.
The camera- that's the biggest letdown. I'm a recent convert to the value of a camera on a phone. My Treo camera is simply a better camera which takes pictures with more vibration than the iPhone seems to tolerate.
Music and video playback. I was surprised how good the two tiny speakers on the bottom of the phone are and how good they sound.
Syncing- awesome, just awesome.
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