The Wannabe

I’ve wanted an iPhone since the first time I played with one in an Apple store.  I’ve always used a Windows Mobile phone so I was a bit hesitant to switch platforms, but I decided that it was worth the risk to get a device that is unlike anything else out there.  My wife and I decided that because of the price, I would have to wait until the end of August.  Everything was on track until I was notified that the trash can of my dreams was back in stock!  I made a deal that I would postpone the iPhone purchase until October if I could get the trash can.  Yeah, it was worth it!

Then, a week ago my wife and I went to dinner and she surprised me with a shiny new iPhone!  I couldn’t believe it!  I almost wanted to skip dinner and go straight home to use it.  After a week of non-stop use, I have to say that it’s a truly amazing thing.  It may not be the revolutionary device that Apple describes it as.  I wouldn’t really call any of its features revolutionary.  There are plenty of phones that can surf the “real” internet or get email and weather and stocks or play music and videos.  There are plenty of phones with slim cases and large touch screens.  So what sets iPhone apart?  For me it’s the interface, plain and simple.  It’s clean and intuitive and looks amazing.  And most importantly, it just works!  I’ve had one Safari crash…and that’s it.  Even loaded with content it’s fast and stable and doesn’t experience any of the problems that I had with my Windows Mobile phone.  Sure, some things could be better.  The camera could use some options and Adobe Flash would be a nice addition to the web experience, but none of these things are enough to keep me from saying that the iPhone is the best handheld device I’ve ever owned!

EDIT: I wanted to add that one of my favorite features of the iPhone is, in fact, revolutionary.  While visual voicemail isn’t new, to the best of my knowledge the iPhone is the first cell phone to have this feature.  Click on Phone and then click Voicemail and you have before you a list of all of your voicemails, including the names of those who left them.  Just click the voicemail that you want to hear, no matter where it is in the list, and it starts playing.  No more wading through voicemail from your mother or your aunt to get to that really important voicemail.  I’ve been using this feature at my work for about a year now and I can’t tell you how amazing it is to now have it on my cell phone too!