[OT] iPhone anyone?

[Chipp Walters]

OK, fess up. Which ones of you (Stephen?) waited in line yesterday to get
their hands on iPhone? How was/is it?

I didn't get one yet..I think I'll wait for V2 when they kick up the speed
to 3G.

Cool things:

   - Plays Music and Video
   - State-of-the-Art interface
   - Real and Full WebBrowser
   - Did I mention it's Gorgeous?
   - Plenty large data-wise

Not so Cool things:

   - Slow Internet access compared to 3G
   - No way to jot down a note or sketch a diagram (like PocketPC phones
   can do) and no handwriting recognition or stylus use. Even Newton had this.
   A finger has long been known to have limited pointing resolution.
   - No chat client
   - No removable battery
   - No video camera
   - Developers can't write apps (outside webapps) for it
   - No removable media for quick uploading/downloading of data. In fact
   you really can't put your own files in or out other than through iTunes, and
   those are limited to audio and video files (unless you put files in a
   separate, non-accessible partition)
   - No MMS (Picture Messaging)
   - No over the air downloads for music or video
   - No stereo bluetooth (Why? If there ever was a device which demanded
   stereo bluetooth, it's this one. Even my lame Verizon phone has stereo
   bluetooth)

I understand gadget-crazy having bought the very first Mac available, and
first Newton available. I also had a PocketPC phone for a number of years,
and while not an iPhone I liked the following features of it:

Favorite feature:

   - Hooked up to my notebook computer via Bluetooth to give me instant
   3G access to the Internet

Other features I liked:

   - Email (just ok)
   - Writing and sketching via the stylus
   - Handwriting recognition is astounding
   - Had some pretty cool programs, including many of the standard ones
   (Word, Excel, etc..)
   - I actually liked reading books with this thing with many different
   book reader apps. Is there a book reader for iPhone? I know about Audible,
   but I mean a text viewer with autoscroll. Even if there was, I suppose
   there's no easy way to put a book file on the iPhone.

Features I didn't like:

   - Hated the touchscreen phone dialing and/or data entry when not using
   a stylus
   - Microsoft is so lame at interface design. They actually tried to
   create a 'mini PC' interface for PocketPC. Geez.
   - Never used the Music player as I was always worried about killing my
   battery. Hmmm, wonder if that's a concern for iPhone users as well?
   - Hated the browser. Inet Explorer for PocketPC REALLY SUCKS


Just some of my own opinions. As I said, I'll take a wait and see on this
one now.

-Chipp