Random thoughts:

--I can't leave the house without this thing. Just like so many other Apple products, you're hooked in no time. I go bananas driving in downtown Toronto stopping at every stoplight for two wasted minutes. Now I play for those two minutes, jumping on people's wifi connections and checking mail (woo hoo).

--I spend less time at the computer. This thing really is a portable life management and pleasure system. Taking a crap, the most sacred of life's pleasures, is now spent browsing forums. If they only knew. LOL.

--The icons, the navigation, is all smooth as silk. No lags (on wifi of course) in the UI, gorgeous fonts, the whole look is amazing.

--Battery life is okay, not great, and I'm not even making calls. BUT I am searching for wifi hotspots most of the day, and that's intensive on the battery.

--Prepare for every person in the world to ask you about the thing. If you're a nerd and can't talk to girls, buy one of these. Everyone in the world knows about them and wants one. I've made lots of new friends ("What up Vanessa?")

--Shock time: the battery takes 4 hours to charge!! CRAZY! In this day and age, four hours??? My battery has still not fully charged (supposed to glow) and there are brown marks which appear on the back, apparently a well known problem.

--Mail is cool, but limited. All of my accounts from Mail synced up in seconds, which I LOVE. I've spent so much time configuring frickin email accounts across machines that this was well appreciated. Having said that, mail options are limited and shortcuts minimal. Still, for someone who hasn't had a real portable web device with full mail functions, it's absolutely awesome. They'd better fix some of the issues in updates though.

--Wifi is awesome, though a few issues. It doesn't always recognize known networks--maybe 50% of the time it does. You find yourself logging in and out of wifi connections a lot. But hey, what do you expect for free? (Wait a sec, the phone cost me $600! LOL) Other than that, it just plain works. Haven't had a single dropped wifi connection that doesn't have to do with range.

--iPod: No manual management of songs is RIDICULOUS. Yes, there are workarounds, but didn't Steve learn his lesson about limiting us? People are pissed, and I'm one of them.

--Which brings me to the final comment. I love this thing. LOVE IT. Life changing device AGAIN, just like with the ipod, then the video ipod (my portable commercial-free network on the road, along with my expensive output cable). But this is a very closed system, and unlike the past where Apple exerted the power, I believe it won't be so with this. There is waaaay too much pent up energy over this device to allow Apple to dictate the terms. Just you watch:The tail will wag the dog.

The irony is that Steve created the appetite and I strongly believe that appetite will now exert its will on the future of the iphone. This is in many respects a new world device with old world restrictions. Best of luck keeping people from hacking, cracking and reorienting this thing. Can't wait for Cory Doctorow to start pushing Steve to open this thing up. :)

If Apple does not listen to its users, who paid mightily for this pricey toy, they'll lose control of the thing and more importantly will alienate people like me. I didn't pay $600 to have them lock me out of the phone on the next update. Listen to the sound of 1,000,000 Canadian or Australian or British hacked iphone owners saying "They'd better not!"

Ultimately, the power of the mob is greater than Steve Jobs. The music business didn't believe that, the movie business didn't believe it. Let AT&T be the big loser, Just not me. If Skype is blocked from the device, and it gets stuck with third party workarounds, I'll be pissed. Voip is the future and god help the idiot who tells me I can't do it on my $600 phone.

Finally, screw Rogers. Once the iphone is unlocked (tick tick tick), I'll pop it on to my cityfido plan and use the data only through wifi. And they'll be a zillion people just like me.

Thanks Steve. You've done it again. Just make sure not to take me for granted when the updates roll and the hackers hack. :baby:

Interesting links:

http://www.freetheiphone.org/
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=123
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134397-c,iphone/article.html
http://www.everythingiphone.com/forum/
http://www.seeqpod.com/ (streaming music to your phone--very cool)
http://code.google.com/p/telekinesis/ (it works and it's CRAZY cool)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/24/business/wireless25.php

Thank goodness you're in the minority or Apple might as well stop spending millions on R&D. I'm so disgusted I sincerely hope Apple finds a way to render your phones useless.

Great little mini review! One question:

--iPod: No manual management of songs is RIDICULOUS. Yes, there are workarounds, but didn't Steve learn his lesson about limiting us? People are pissed, and I'm one of them.

What do you mean? You can't pick which songs in your Library go on the iPhone? Or ... what?

EDIT: Just did some Google research -- heh -- and found out that you can't pick songs, you have to create playlists and sync those playlists. That is pretty lame. No drag and drop. Wow.

I can't believe this is the first time I've heard about this -- the lack of drag and drop is, in my mind, almost a deal-killer (especially in Canada, where right now any iPhone is not a phone, but a glorified iPod). The ease of use of songs on the iPod is what makes the iPod so great. Wow.

Here's the story I found, for others:

Apple emasculates the iPhone | The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/09/apple_neuters_iphone/)

Thank goodness you're in the minority or Apple might as well stop spending millions on R&D. I'm so disgusted I sincerely hope Apple finds a way to render your phones useless.

Yea, I guess the $600 I spent on the phone barely covers meals in the cafeteria in Cupertino.

What exactly are you disgusted by? Consumers wanting choice? :rolleyes:

Great little mini review! One question:



What do you mean? You can't pick which songs in your Library go on the iPhone? Or ... what?

You can't just drag and drop songs at will. You can only sync playlists, which is one extra unneeded step. Annoying.

I agree with most of what imachungry said....I too have an iPhone that I've been using for a few days now....I blogged about it at length last night at 3am ;)

johnbiehler.com » Blog Archive » The one about the iPhone (http://johnbiehler.com/2007/07/14/the-one-about-the-iphone/)

I had to cut myself off as I was expecting the sun to come up before I even got to through all the things I wanted to blab about.

It's definitely a 'game-changing' device.

The reality is that despite what some people think in this thread, people outside the US will get and use iPhones....the Apple feeding frenzy is in full tilt with a device like this. Those that doubt it haven't touched or used one.

Thank goodness you're in the minority or Apple might as well stop spending millions on R&D. I'm so disgusted I sincerely hope Apple finds a way to render your phones useless.
I sincerely hope you're the only one sharing this opinion.

I whole heartedly agree with imachungry.

Essentially correct that there is no manual mode. Ditto for the Apple TV as well.

The reality is that Apple has changed their sync methodology with the iPhone and Apple TV. iTunes doesn't just update a database on an external hard drive any more, but rather uses some other type of sync protocol with the device, and the OS on the device itself takes care of writing these changes to the database. Hence no "Disk Mode" either at this point.

This new sync method is obviously much better-suited to allowing for cleaner interrupted synchronization, such as would be necessary when a phone call comes in while syncing. With current generation iPods, yanking it out of the cradle in the middle of a sync can be disastrous in many cases.

Of course, this new sync methodology doesn't automatically exclude the ability to put content onto an iPhone manually, but it does mean that they would have to redevelop this capability into the new sync protocols.

Whether it was Apple's intention to forever exclude manual management, or whether they just haven't had time to write it into the new protocol is anybody's guess, but there are rumours that it's coming in a future firmware update, so we'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, the reality is that managing a separate playlist and syncing only the content of that playlist isn't really that much of an inconvenience, and actually has some advantages to using a purely manual mode. The only reason you really require manual sync is if you either use your iPhone on more than one computer or you don't keep your content on your computer after you've stored it on the iPhone.

(As an aside, I concur with most of the OP's impressions, although I can't muster up quite as much enthusiasm for many of the lifestyle changing aspects, having already been a smartphone user for about six years now :) Of course, the real magic in the iPhone was never about what it can do, but rather about how it does it, and that is the really exciting part... I just wish it could do more.... )

I hate to sound like an a$$, but I can't wait for winter to roll around. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. "Touch" devices were clearly not created by people living in eastern Canada. Go to Ottawa and use your fancy new iPhone. I dare you to take your gloves off in -35 deg weather. Hell, there's no way I'd use an iPhone in Toronto, and it's considerably warmer than Ottawa.

Good luck folks.

A7

I hate to sound like an a$$, but I can't wait for winter to roll around. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. "Touch" devices were clearly not created by people living in eastern Canada. Go to Ottawa and use your fancy new iPhone. I dare you to take your gloves off in -35 deg weather. Hell, there's no way I'd use an iPhone in Toronto, and it's considerably warmer than Ottawa.

Good luck folks.

A7

Good Luck? Do you even own a cell phone?

In the winter time I am hard pressed to see any BlackBerry users out there typing away at -35C temps a message or E-mail. Actually I have seen them at bus stops doing that, but there are a few that don't care I guess. But for the majority you barely see that, they usually wait until they are inside. If you needed to, there are hand gloves with open fingers that can keep your hands warm and you could still use your iPhone ;).

The iPhone is designed to answer without even touching it. So it could be in your pocket and there is no need to take it out. There are headphones, or a bluetooth headset that can be used. Plus just like every other touch device or handset out there, people are not stupid enough to be typing or surfing on their cell phones when it is -35C outside.

Apple did think about this as they do have several states in the U.S.A. that do have winter conditions like we do and with the temperatures. So I am not sure what your complaint is.

I've seen one of these in action--not been allowed to touch it. It's everything its claimed to be and more.

Question for imachungry or anyone,

When Rogers releases the iPhone... do you think the one you bought in the US will work? I assume all you'll need is the Rogers SIM card... which I imagine you could get from Rogers. In theory they should be the same phone.

The iPhone purchased in the US is still locked to AT&T so if/when Roger's does offer an iPhone, the Roger's SIM it won't 'just work' in the AT&T iPhones....an unlock is still needed on it.

Interesting. clearly I don't know anything about phones. But I just assumed that as long as you have the special rogers/iphone sim card installed.... the phone will work on the rogers network.

The phone itself being exactly the same — the only difference being the sim card.

I guess it will remain to be seen if the phone is exactly the same when it's released in other countries...I would think there may be contract or regulatory issues that could alter what another country would get on their iPhones.

For example, Roger's may opt to not offer visual voicemail so the internal software would be slightly different. Not that it would not work with an AT&T phone, just an example.

Like most things about the iPhone, there is a whole lot of speculation and rumour and not whole lot of 'truthiness' (to steal from Steven Colbert) out there.

The iPhone is designed to answer without even touching it.
You are right... I did underestimate the earphones. BUT that means you HAVE to have the earphones in at all times, which is not always the case. So are you saying that having a bluetooth device or the earphones in are a requirement of carrying the iPhone in the winter? And what about making a call? Does the earphone button do that too?

Believe me, on any phone I own, I make sure there's an easy way to answer it with gloves on. And I can easily call anyone in my address book with my gloves on too.

Plus just like every other touch device or handset out there, people are not stupid enough to be typing or surfing on their cell phones when it is -35C outside.
No... I certainly hope not. But are you telling me that people aren't stupid enough to use an iPod in -35? How do you skip tracks on the iPhone? I can click my iPod with my gloves on if I want to skip track, go back, or pause. Even from my pocket!

No matter how you try to spin it, touch devices are not fun in winter. There's a reason they released it in the summer. And I'm happy for you, and applaud your enthusiasm, but the simple fact is the iPhone will suck in the winter. You can mark my words... once winter hits, watch the number of posts that come up on here complaining about the iPhone.

A7

Interesting. clearly I don't know anything about phones. But I just assumed that as long as you have the special rogers/iphone sim card installed.... the phone will work on the rogers network.

The phone itself being exactly the same — the only difference being the sim card.
Based on the way that different phones work on different carriers today, it's very unlikely that an AT&T iPhone will ever work on Rogers (without actually being unlocked, of course).

Conversely, chances are good that a Rogers iPhone (when they offer one) won't work with an AT&T SIM card either.

The issue is not any magic in the SIM card itself, per se, but rather the phone itself being locked to only accept a SIM card from a given carrier. AT&T SIM cards from other phones will work in the iPhone, for example, as long as it's a fairly recent-model phone, and as long as the activation has otherwise been completed via iTunes. However, the iPhone will patently refuse to accept a SIM card from any other carrier.

This is exactly the same way cell phones work with different carriers today. To be fair, current phones are subsidized by the carriers, thus giving them an incentive to behave this way (ie, Rogers isn't going to subsidize a phone that you're not going to use on their network). However, the fact that there's still a vested interest in locking you into a longer-term contract would speak to the fact that they have no desire to sell you a phone and then let you use it elsewhere.

Of course, the iPhone is a game-changing device, and Apple has a lot more influence on it, so anything is possible, but I wouldn't bet the farm on the AT&T iPhone models ever being usable in Canada unless somebody figures out how to actually unlock them.

The iPhone purchased in the US is still locked to AT&T so if/when Roger's does offer an iPhone, the Roger's SIM it won't 'just work' in the AT&T iPhones....an unlock is still needed on it.

Which is inevitable. At worst, I will sell the phone back into the US market, or use it the way I am now, which is a great device perhaps equipped soon with Voip.

Couldn't agree more....so far the wifi functions along with the touch video ipod make it worth the money for me....the fact that it might be a phone soon makes it that much more useful. Plus the developer community is exploding for the iPhone so it's only going to get more useful.

I'm not even sure I'd sell it if the phone unlock doesn't come through (and Roger's drops the ball and doesn't offer it in Canada). That was my 'plan b' before having it for a week now....

Couldn't hold off any longer. Just picked up an 8gig model off ebay for $570 including shipping. Not bad if I say so myself. Phone should be here by friday. Now they just need to figure out a way to unlock the phone.

I'll post impressions once I receive it!!

$570? Hmm........... hope you get it.

Update:

I love this thing more than ever. I'm hooked. It's over.

People stop me all day and are also blown away. Say what you want but people don't react this way to some Nokia or whatever. So many people grab the thing from me and start taking pics and surfing that I had to remove all my pron and objectionable links because it's become like public property, lol.

The interface is now so smooth and crisp it's frightening. I haven't even made a phone call with this puppy. When I do, Steve Jobs will have fully owned me.

All kinds of issues with it--headphone jack is different, doesn't work in my car, etc etc--but in the end, I've submitted to the power of Apple again.

I'm not sure I'll ever go on a plan in downtown Toronto. I've gotten used to not paying for any data, like a free bird. :baby:

$570? Hmm........... hope you get it.

Tell me about it. I have quite a bit of experience purchasing things online and I think I've done my homework - but you never know until the actual item arrives. Payed by paypal (credit card) so I'm not worried if anything goes wrong.

Just to let other people know, I've been looking on ebay for the last week and deals are to be had. I've seen a small # of 8 gig models sell for $500 US and quite a few go for $550. They are usually BUY IT NOW options so you need to act fast. Just make sure your buying from a reputable seller.

Can you tell me how you unlocked the phone as i bought one and want to know how to unlock, i know the sim cannot be unlocked yet.

What did you use to unlock the phone, I know sim does not work yet

Everything can be activated except for the phone.

I'm mac based so I will use:

Anderson Technologies » Blog Archive » Activate your iphone without AT&T Service: (http://www.anderson-technologies.com/archives/5)

I am on that web site and is seems a bit tricky, Did it work for you i suspect it did. How do you extract the file to your desktop, not sure a pretty new mac user

Please just read everything + all the comments. It is very easy. You should be able to just double click on the downloaded file and it will extract to your desktop.

I figured it out and my phone is coming in one day. ONly thing different in my terminal is that my cursor is not flashing. Is that a issue.

I figured it out and my phone is coming in one day. ONly thing different in my terminal is that my cursor is not flashing. Is that a issue.

Not an issue. Mine wasn't either when I did it. Worked within a minute or two of fiddling, and I have no technical ability.

When you stated you fiddiled with it you mean that the cursor did not flash and you did the commands and it worked. Did you have to do it a few times. On the instructions it states in 3: to make sure you quit itunes. When i start i plug in my iphone to my computer then type my commands. It seems step 2 i do not need my iphone connected. If i need help when i get my phone in a couple of days would you be available.? if i have issues. I should be able to get it as i am a bit tech savy and have figured stuff like this out before. Also how do you like the calendar function.

I hate to sound like an a$$, but I can't wait for winter to roll around. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. "Touch" devices were clearly not created by people living in eastern Canada. Go to Ottawa and use your fancy new iPhone. I dare you to take your gloves off in -35 deg weather. Hell, there's no way I'd use an iPhone in Toronto, and it's considerably warmer than Ottawa.

I live in Montreal (it's colder here!) and I use my iPod and cellphone without a headset all winter. Even when it's -35 you can take your gloves off for a few seconds. Actually I've really frozen the hell out of my hands when I've had conversations for over 10 minutes when it's cold out... maybe a headset purchase is in order.

Thank goodness you're in the minority or Apple might as well stop spending millions on R&D. I'm so disgusted I sincerely hope Apple finds a way to render your phones useless.

:lmao: :clap:

Don't be silly! Apple is hardly going broke on iPhone hysteria extending internationally. It's not like he robbed the Apple store to get one and is now distributing so-called "hacked' iPhones Robin Hood style for Canadian citizens. (Um, and if someone has hatched up a similar foolish plan, uh, that's soooooo wrong and, unethical, and uh, please save one for me?) In fact, the advertisement value of people like imachungry in markets where there are no iPhones yet (so people are still vitally interested because they've seen very few of them) is pretty big, as you can see from his posts.

Actually, as far as Apple is concerned, a sale is a sale. It's not likely they're getting any kickbacks from AT&T on iPhone activations, so really it's not Apple that needs to be particularly concerned about people buying iPhones and using them in other countries, beyond the fact that it doesn't properly "market" the full capabilities of hte device.

I []do[/i] believe that Apple required activation of the iPhone prior to use both as a concession to AT&T (ensuring that all units sold would be to AT&T customers) as well as to ensure that from a marketing point of view, the iPhone would truly be sold as a phone. They don't want it to compete with their iPod lineup, and it's also not in their best interests to announce the iPhone as the greatest thing ever to hit the cell phone industry, and then have a majority of units being sold as if htey were iPods, and nobody actually using the phone features.

However, Apple is not losing any money on people who buy iPhones and bring them to other countries. They've still sold another iPhone in the process. Further, it's not like these folks bringing iPhones to Canada are costing AT&T any real customers.... After all, how many Canadians are really going to activate and use their iPhone on AT&T?

but didn't Steve learn his lesson about limiting us?

Apparently NOT!!!! :mad:

The whole iPhone exercise is one of user control by Apple (Not just the iPod-esque functions).

No apps. Locked, locked, locked. Mandated carrier. No way (that I can find) to turn off Edge (data use). :mad:

The more I learn about iPhone the LESS I like it.... :mad: :(

Anyone else beginning to get negative about this exercise in controlling the customer??

That's the way the iPod has always been well the newer releases at least, create playlists and sync playlists with the iPod. I think it's a great system.

Apparently NOT!!!! :mad:

The whole iPhone exercise is one of user control by Apple (Not just the iPod-esque functions).

No apps. Locked, locked, locked. Mandated carrier. No way (that I can find) to turn off Edge (data use). :mad:

The more I learn about iPhone the LESS I like it.... :mad: :(

Anyone else beginning to get negative about this exercise in controlling the customer??

I felt the same way until I got one. Then I softened somewhat.

Now what I find most distrubing is the tone on all the boards of religious intolerance to anyone who brings up legitimate problems with the iphone (there are thousands of people talking about hundreds of problems), as if somehow Steve Jobs and Apple are immune to the kind of crazy picking apart that happens with every other device.

I guess when you got a religion you got a religion.

Either way, I'm hooked. I do spend a lot of the day trying to fix things about it. If I had a real job, I'd be fired.

.

That's the way the iPod has always been well the newer releases at least, create playlists and sync playlists with the iPod. I think it's a great system.

?? I have an iPod Video and I have an option to manually manage the thing... :confused:

I felt the same way until I got one. Then I softened somewhat.

I suspect this would happen if I could actually get my hands on one. :D But (silly me) I want the phone function, so until it is clear that Rogers will accept a previously hacked, US purchased iPhone I wait, if somewhat less than patiently... :D

Now what I find most distrubing is the tone on all the boards of religious intolerance to anyone who brings up legitimate problems with the iphone (there are thousands of people talking about hundreds of problems), as if somehow Steve Jobs and Apple are immune to the kind of crazy picking apart that happens with every other device.

I guess when you got a religion you got a religion.
Dogma of any kind sucks....

.

Apparently NOT!!!! :mad:
No apps. Locked, locked, locked.
Wow, where have I heard that from before? Oh yeah, that was the DOS users laughing at the Mac back in the 80's and 90's. Have to have an open system, nobody wants a closed system.

Hmmm, how is that open system working out now? Any 12 year old knowing how to cause havoc with the Windows registry.

Is your landline telephone locked? Is the computer system in your automobile locked?

No apps. Funny that was the major complaint of the Blackberry when it first came out, still true today. Have you looked at the applications that are available for the Palm or Pocket PC platforms? There are thousands of them! Have you found more than 2-3 that are actually worthwhile? Because if you have, I applaud you. I found two for my Palm, Agendus which is an enhancement for contacts and scheduling, and ScorePAD, a baseball scorekeeping software application that I think is the best thing I've seen on a PDA. Agendus starts at $29.95US and ScorePAD starts at $39.95US. I really question how these companies are making money at these prices although I do know that ScorePAD is widely used in the scouting industry.

As someone who earns income from consulting in the IT industry, and developing database solutions, there is no money to be made developing applications for a device like the iPhone that would be standalone. It is much more cost efficient to develop web based apps and distribute them. Would you pay $100 for an app for your iPhone? That seems to be a good low level price for a developer to make money on. But in comparison, that is over 15% of the price of the unit itself.

I agree that there are shortcomings. But some of the things that people have whined about are just plain ridiculous.

You need to stop thinking that everything HAS to be designed like everything else before it. And you have to put this into perspective, this is the first release of a product that I believe is unique. Just imagine what version 2 might be like?

Yeah, I don't agree with you there... closed system as what you're calling a mac back in the day doesn't relate to how the iPhone is a closed system. You could still stick a floppy in the drive and copy files to and from the computer with ease.

It's a moot point, since it's already been cracked and the file system is now accessible anyway.

Having owned numerous Palm and PocketPC devices, I can say I MUCH preferred the thousands of apps available for the PocketPC platform compared to the slim pickings available for Palm. There were lots of games and useful utilities that I used.

Having to use Safari as the means to run software is still lame IMO, so I'm glad people figured out how to access the file system. Who knows, maybe there will be a way to add full OS X software to it at some point.. or at least, a better incentive for people to develope stuff for it. So what if there's no money in it for companies to develope full-blown software for the iPhone? Doesn't mean hobbyists can't program some neat stuff... limiting to Safari limits the potential of the software.. there's only so much you can do with that app.

As far as pricing software goes.. anything over $20 is pushing it, unless it's something really kickass... But I don't think it would be feasible for any software developer to base their livelihood solely on making apps for one device.

Still in love. Get yourself one asap. You'll never think about the $600 once you have it and it's taken over your life. Some more thoughts a week on:

--It now works in my car. I whittled down my headphone plugs and it now plugs right into my car's aux input and plays through my stereo. (yeah!)
--BUT, and this has been covered a lot on the boards, the "slide to unlock" thing, which is initially really cool, eventually gets on your nerves. In the car, you have to slide to unlock to get back into itunes, which, if you're driving, requires you to be stopped or risk death of yourself and other people. Get rid of that feature, I say.

--Grease is baaaad for the touch screen. The smallest amount of grease makes the screen useless. You'll use your shirt and your jeans a lot to remove tiny amounts.

--Two freezes, temporary ones though, in two weeks of use. This morning, it died after the battery conked out and didn't come back to life until I reset it. "Wake up my sweet!!" All in all, better than I thought. UI never lags, which is brilliant.

--The photo app is so fabulous, the camera takes very respectable photos, that if it weren't for the fact that this thing is a PHONE AFTER ALL, this would be an amazing photo tablet ON ITS OWN. When you flick your finger to move through a photo album, watch people's faces light up in amazement. It's really something.

--Wifi browsing just blazes. It's good enough to get things done, but not good enough that you'll spend hours surfing. Good if you're an adult ;)

All in all, the thing is still a game-changer to me, and blows away anything in the market. The fact that this thing is a movie theatre (a tiny one, yes), an ipod, a computer and a phone still KILLS me. All in one!!

And one day, I'll be able to use the phone. ;)

Prices on craigslist look to be dropping somewhat. Get yourself one. :baby:

Having been playing with mine for a little over a week now, I'm inclined to mostly agree.

I signed up for GoPhone service, but of course that doesn't include Canadian roaming (that's not a bad thing considering the rates, though). Works fine when I travel stateside though (which I do often enough on business to justify it :) ).

My E90 is still my primary phone though, since the iPhone is lacking so many of what I consider the basic necessities for a power-user/business user. I'm not even talking about the stupid high-end bells and whistles like GPS and video recording (although the E90 does those, it's certainly not a deal-breaker, nor the reason I bought one)... No, the iPhone needs to take care of the little things, like cut-and-paste, task support in the calendar, voice dialing, vCard/vCal support, better SMS capabilities and even just a basic IM client.... Exchange ActiveSync would be a bonus, but is not strictly necessary as IMAP works well enough.

Unfortunately, the situation is such that I really, really, really want to like the iPhone, but every time I try to use it for real-world use, I constantly run into things that I can't do on it, and end up frustrated. Mind you, the beauty of the interface, and how well it does the things it does do is such that it's easy to miss all those things it doesn't when you're merely playing with it, as opposed to trying to accomplish a specific task. Further, if you haven't been spoiled by being able to do some of these things in the past, you might never notice some of these omissions either.

All in all, it's the sexiest device I've ever used, but it's unfortunately just far too limiting for my normal day-to-day practical use, at least for now. :(

I too signed up using the GoPhone service....partly to just activate the iPhone and because I knew I would be on vacation in California (ironically visiting a friend that works at Apple) and wanted to have a US based phone number while down there.

Now that I've been using it for a week, with full AT&T service, I'm totally in love with it. Although the Edge service has been spotty, as has the AT&T voice in various places around town. When it works, it work pretty well but speeds seem to vary.

The battery life I've gotten has been excellent....especially considering it's still a 'show and tell' device where you seem to show it off to numerous people anywhere you go.

Once I go back to Vancouver later today, I'm going to miss the unlimited data access...of course there is wifi and I'm usually surrounded by open networks. I'm also (for now) going to miss using it as a phone....which has been great aside from some poor reception areas. The visual voicemail is very cool as is the SMS service.

As jhollington mentioned, there are some things missing compared to other 'smartphones' but I think those will come in time and software updates from Apple. I actually haven't missed my treo at all on this trip as I've been able to do just about anything I needed to. Even my laptop has been left behind more times that I expected because the iPhone 'just worked'.

As for imachungry's comment about grease: it definitely is a fingerprint magnet...I think moreso that any other device I've had. I just carry a microfibre cloth I got from the dollar store and it cleans it up in 2 seconds.

I have encountered a few what I would call slowdowns where it takes a little longer than previously to do something. This happened a few times during one of many sessions of taking a photo with the camera and then sending it via email to Flickr (which is a sweet process by the way). It's not unlike when you do something in OSX and you get the beachball briefly.

I've also had various apps crash/stop working and then get dumped to the home screen. Usually this was because I was doing multiple things like emailing photos while listening to the ipod and the mail app was automatically checking email....as has been noted, it does this pretty gracefully and everything starts back up again.

I haven't had to restart/reboot the iPhone at all during my trip either.

As imachungry said, it truly is a great device but it's not for everyone....in the same way that the video iPod is great for some people and the nano is better for others.

I'm happy and will patiently await the unlock for the phone side while I enjoy the rest of the features it has.

Hey retrocactus,

Question, I'm in California for the week starting tomorrow. Can I buy a pre-paid AT&T card and just activate my iPhone in the US for a week. I'd love to spend 20 on a card, then use my Telus Moto where I always end up spending at least 100 extra in cell phone charges for a week in the US.

I can't say for sure as I haven't tried it (just buying a minutes card alone) but your only prepaid option during the activation (via iTunes) is to use the GoPhone prepaid option....you have to get the $20 data plan (unlimited) and you get $29.99 worth of voice/sms minutes (everything is $0.15/minute or sms msg). They have other plans that cost more depending on how much extra $ you want on the card...which expire in 30 days.

To even do that you need a US address and credit card and use the 999 trick on the Social Security number. Some people have been reporting that it doesn't work anymore and it forces you to wait for an email from AT&T so YMMV. You will also be auto enrolled in a reoccuring monthly charge ($59.99 on the cheapest plan) to reload the phone which I've cancelled.

Unless you can do the above, your best bet (assuming you want an iPhone) is to activate it using one of the software methods (which I haven't tried) and not using it as a phone while on your trip.

Sounds complicated. I think I'll just stick to it as a wifi device/ipod. At least I know in the US, especially LA... free wifi is far more prevalent than it is in Canada.

That said... can someone please crack the iPhone for rogers!

A family friend from Cali was visiting us over the weekend, he brought his iPhone up with him.

I can't believe I actually got a chance to play with it - it was remarkable. I'm still not sure I'd drop $600 to buy one - maybe if I had more money to throw around, but I digress.

The menu was nice and quick, the screen is stunning and all in all, it's a very neat package. I found the silver bezel trim sharp (literally); it wasn't sitting on the body 100% and if you ran your finger along it, you could feel where it stuck out - for you woodworking types, thing of a hand plane where you strum your finger against the blade to evaluate the depth of wood you want to plain off.

The camera is really good, and the iPod and speakers sounded really nice. Wasn't too fond of the ringtones, but you can't have it all I suppose. I didn't get a chance to listen to the call quality, but still another fine Apple product.

:)

To even do that you need a US address and credit card and use the 999 trick on the Social Security number. Some people have been reporting that it doesn't work anymore and it forces you to wait for an email from AT&T so YMMV. You will also be auto enrolled in a reoccuring monthly charge ($59.99 on the cheapest plan) to reload the phone which I've cancelled.
From what I understand, the all-9's loophole has been closed, probably moreso due to the sheer volume of activations being done in that manner.

In my case, I just punched in my Canadian SIN (it's the same number of digits) and my U.S. business address. Naturally, I failed the credit check since it was a SIN and not an SSN, and was then offered the GoPhone service. I used a Canadian credit card, although it does have my U.S. business address listed on the account as an alternate shipping address, but it otherwise worked just fine. Of course, I should also mention that I already have a U.S. iTunes account setup on that address as well, mind you.

I don't believe that the people that complain about the cold winter pass their time with their gloves on ALL the time. I live in Ontario and work in the downtown core and I take my gloves off to dial on my regular cel phone and in order to navigate on my Nano so I don't understand what these peoples problem is. In reality I think that included setup on the headphones to answer call is actually easier to operate than other setup (like bluetooth headsets) try to answer a call by pushing a little button with gloves on a tiny headset versus squeezing the button on the iPhone headphones with gloves on:cool: .

Guy