iPhone

What follows isn't so much a review of the iPhone, but merely my experience of acquiring and owning one.

I managed to resist the sexy charm of the first generation of iPhones, given the hefty price (starting at $499!) and my personal tendency to avoid being an early adopter.

However, when my ancient LG decided to start turning itself off intermittently about a month before the iPhone 3G came out in July of 2008, I knew the time had come. The 3G (confusingly, this refers to the cell phone network, not the third generation of the phone) was definitely worth the wait. It was cheaper, faster, smaller, lighter, had better battery life, had real GPS, and the headphone jack was no longer irritatingly recessed, which required an accessory to use non-iPhone headphones.

Most importantly, as the iPhone 3G was released, the iTunes app store was launched, which changes everything. Third party developers can now create applications of (almost) all kinds which can the be sold (or given away for free) via iTunes (available on both OS X and Windows). It is incredibly easy to install applications... you can even do it directly on your phone. After just 6 months, there are thousands of applications, many of which are actually useful and implemented well. The iPhone took smartphones to the next level, challenging the Crackberry and clunky Windows Mobile devices.

There are plenty of things that aren't ideal about the iPhone. It's still quite expensive, it doesn't have cut and paste, it's only available on AT&T, it doesn't support Flash, doesn't record video, the camera is pretty feeble, and not everyone is a fan of the virtual keyboard. This is probably not the phone for folks who are on a budget, who live or work where AT&T coverage sucks, who would pay a fortune to escape their current cell phone plan, or who are devotees of text messaging (especially tactile texters) and non-stop emailing. There is also the legitimate argument that Apple is suppressing creativity and competition by keeping the App store in lockdown (unlike Google's Android). Apple must approve all applications, takes a cut of all sales, and will not permit applications that compete with its own software (e.g. a podcast downloader app) or that it deems inappropriate for whatever reason. On the other hand, this probably makes for a better end-to-end user experience, which is Apple's whole gig.

But really the bottom line is that having a usable, flexible smartphone has had a huge impact on my daily life, especially while traveling. It's like having a tiny laptop with me at all times, allowing me to do just about anything: surf the web, identify a song on the radio, know what my friends are up to, find a tasty local restaurant, get from place to place, remotely control my music library, check my cash flow, and of course, listen to music and watch video. That's just the tip of the iceberg... with applications and software updates, more functionality is available by the minute, literally. From what I've heard from speaking to friends, everyone I know that has an iPhone would be hard-pressed to give it up. It also sure doesn't hurt that it's purty.

Even if you don't get an iPhone, a smartphone is the way to go. Check it out and make your life better. And stay tuned for my favorite iPhone apps!

Heard about it from: Massive Apple PR campaign and buzzing around entire geek community
Get it from: Apple, AT&T and even (gasp) Wal-Mart