Going on three days with the iPhone now. I have actually been stopped on the street and accosted in a bar by curious Apple fanboys, so I feel like I’ve earned my wings as an iPhone user. (Not an iPhone owner, by the way: this is a loaner unit from Apple.) Some further notes:
— I’m a whiz on the Blackberry, but I am still an extremely unskilled iPhone typist. I’ve been reduced to one-finger peck-typing, down from two thumbs. On the other hand, it’s tough to go back to negotiating the Blackberry’s menu-based UI, which really isn’t a true GUI. I feel like I’m going back through time when ever I pick the thing up, and thus am haunted by the fear that I will kill my own grandfather and forever corrupt the integrity of the timeline.
— The little almost-invisible, clickable mike that comes attached to the iPhone’s ear buds is kind of adorable. I have now had the experience of taking an incoming call while listening to music (actually the audiobook of Half-Blood Prince), and it’s sweet’n’seamless, the way the playback fades out and then back in after the call.
— I’m continually amazed at the sheer usefulness and richness of the Web browsing and Google maps features. Yes, there are things to quibble about with the iPhone. (Quibble du jour: I have had a couple of accidental-operating incidents. Once the iPhone managed to accidentally call my ex-spouse from my back pocket. I miss the simple hardware locking switch on a conventional iPod.) But when I watch the iPhone load a page from the New York Times, I just want gibber insanely and burn a witch. This thing is pretty damn sweet.
— I wonder if everybody at Apple is thrilled about the iPhone feeding frenzy. While this certainly counts as one of the biggest launches in Apple’s history, media-wise — definitely in the top two, the other being the first Mac launch — you have to keep in mind that it’s very atypical: because of the way the FCC works, Apple was forced to announce 6 months before launch, which it never does, and with that kind of buildup the buzz gets out of control. And Apple, as everyone knows, is all about keeping control.
— And you gotta love those backlash stories about how the iPhone “failed to sell out” its first weekend. Which just means Apple managed its manufacturing and inventory properly, and declined to induce artificial shortages.
— I regret saying, as I did in my review for Time.com, that the iPhone’s photos had a glowy, vaseliney quality. Having shot some more, in various light conditions, I’m more and more impressed with their crispiness.
— My iPhone still stubbornly refuses to transform into a robot of any kind, or declare its allegiance to either the Autobots or the Decepticons.
Anybody else got one?