Yup... I got one... On Friday I broke down from any form of restraint and purchased an Apple iPhone. I strolled into the local Apple store and picked up a 4GB model. The whole process took less than ten minutes. I took longer to pick out a case, none of which really appealed to me. The folks I do know that have an iPhone suggested I get a case, as the phone is a bit slippery to handle.
The activation process was done entirely at home, on this Mac. Everything to do is done through iTunes. Version 7.3 of iTunes is required to activate/sync iPhone. Supported host platforms include OS X 10.4.x, Windows XP SP2 and Vista. It is a bummer that 10.3.x is not supported, as I still have some 10.3.x Macs and consider it a very useful system. I really would like to see how this works on Vista, but cringe at the thought of trying it. I chose the basic AT&T plan for iPhone, now dubbed "jPhone" just like the iPod(s) have been dubbed "jPod". The plan covers 450 minutes, unlimited data, nights & weekends, with 200 text messages. An iTunes account is required because that is how the billing is handled, which tells me that direct purchase of content through iTunes on the iPhone is coming.
The phone picked up my wi-fi connection and connected over WPA2 without a hitch. The edge network provided by AT&T is a bit slow, akin to dial-up, so wi-fi is the best option. My e-mail and settings were seamlessly pulled from Apple Mail and Contacts. I do not usually use Apple Mail or Contacts, but instead choose to use Mozilla Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a much more versitile program and works cross-platform, making it easy to import/export data & settings between computers running different operating systems.
So far, the battery consumption has been very good. Not too many people have called me yet, but it is good. The phone has a sleep button that seems to power the device off. However, if a call comes in the device wakes and receives the call. Working this way, the phone will have a very large battery resouce.
Today I used the phone to check mail, the weather while out and about. The calendar application I found to be a bit tedious. The calendar crashed three times while I was entering date appointments, losing the data in the process. The method used to select the date is very new, resembling a casino slot machine. That takes a little bit of getting used to.
The internal camera is a 2 megapixel unit without a flash or zoom, making it useless in all but great light outdoors, during the day. Reaction time for the camera exceeds any camera I have ever used, coming close to my Nikon D40 SLR.
A word out to all of the a-holes on the highway who think 80 mph is not fast enough. I drive like an animal because there is no other way to get anywhere around here. Also it makes up for all of the time I spend idling at 10 mph in traffic. Really, if 80 is not fast enough, check your driving and you are going too fast.
80 in a 55 = 4 point ticket $600.00-$700.00 + reckless driving.
So, to all of the a-holes from Philly & Jersey coming back from the shore slow the f*ck down.
I now have some photos on Flickr. I bought a Nikon D40 SLR so I can be able to take quick and decent pictures of my daughter (when she arrives). I used to use PhotoBucket.com for my online photo needs. Photobucket is great, save one thing, the big add in the middle of the window. Flickr's interface is much better.