iLove for $500, Alex

OK, ok. I was done waiting. So I went out and got the iPhone instead of just sitting around drooling about it.

I can sum it up best this way. What a freakin' COOL device this is.

Yes, it's got a hefty price tag. But when you think about it, it's a LOT of things wrapped up in one. It's a Palm Pilot/Organizer/SmartPhone/iPod/Handheld computer all wrapped up in one. Do I think it's worth it? I do.

Yeah sure I already have an iPod. And a laptop. And an organizer. But all that STUFF is a lot bigger than this device, which is about the same thickness as my now old phone, the RAZR. My main thing was that after having such a skinny phone I was going to feel like I had a truck in my pocket. But surprisingly, it is not a difference at all. The only big thing was that I have one of those Belkin clear cases, so now I have a clear, thicker clip hanging on the outside of my pants instead of a gray one.

Here's what I love about my iPhone: (Highlights. There's a LOT more than I wish to type!)

It synchs through iTunes. Brilliant. iTunes is easy to use and most people have at least heard of it. There are downsides to this, and Apple gets a point off for not allowing a drag and drop of music or picture files like it does for the iPod. But..still very cool that there was no complicated new software to learn

That's a good segway into the second thing I love. It "matches" my computer. I'm a die-hard Mac person (4 Macs in my house...no WinDOZE thank you) and a lot of the "Oooh ahhh" stuff the iPhone does is already something you've seen an incarnation of in the Mac OS. So within 10 minutes of owning the phone, I was comfortable checking email (which looks just like the Apple Mail) and using the text message feature, which looks and feels just like iChat. Freakin awesome of Apple to take this most excellent way of computing to the next level by putting it out to people who may not have seen it before.

It is so much easier than a handheld computer. That's one tech gadget I never wanted to buy because honestly...I don't have the patience to learn to use it. It's a whole different animal to me.

Internet anywhere. Awesome. And you can switch to WiFi very easily if you need to. My house is a giant wireless network...we can access in any room. So it's nice to use that since it's faster than using the EDGE thing from AT&T because we have fiber optic as our provider.

My bill went up only $20. As an existing AT&T (well actually Cingular) customer it was painless. I went in, got the phone, paid and was out the door in like 15 minutes. Sweet. My bill had gone down about $15 when they switched to AT&T anyway, so it's not even going to be noticed come bill time.

Synching with Address Book. Also very cool. Now I have everything in one place when it comes to contact info

Email - super easy and I have it set up so that I still download the messages to my regular computer too so I don't miss out on anything.

It comes with an ultra cute mini dock (like the one the iPod used to come with but smaller) Aww! Also it comes with a cool wiping cloth that says iPhone on it. You know so you can wipe your nasty face grease off the thing. (The ONE thing I don't like about these cool new sleek phones with larger displays. They ALL have this issue)

And this is petty but that little "Sent from my iPhone" signature is just damn adorable.

Things I don't like:

The whole drag and drop thing. Maybe for future versions they will fix this.

You can't use your existing SIM. That part REALLY sucks. I mean, technically you COULD put your old card in there after you activate the phone, and there are many stories of people on the Net who have done it. But...I just dropped a lot of money for this thing and I'm not about to go tinkering with it like that. So I did it the old fashioned way today which actually was OK because...I needed to clean that address book out!

The touch screen thing takes some getting used to. I have rather large fingers so I am constantly typing the wrong letters. I will hopefully get used to that part soon but my fingers are not likely to get smaller. And you can't use a stylus and cheat. I already tried.

So if you are out there and thinking about getting one...do it. You're gonna love it. =)