gdgt

After many years of suffering through "feature" phones, I was finally able to purchase an iPhone 3G. Using OS X for the previous few years gave me high expectations of what apple software and hardware can do. It's safe to say that it has exceeded my expectations on every front.

The hardware is very holdable in the hand and offers a nice sleek look. I use a clear hard plastic case so that I can see the white back. I haven't seen any scratches on either the iPhone itself, which is impressive considering the amount of times that I have dropped it (several times on concrete). I've never been much of a cell phone touch typer, so the lack of a physical keyboard hasn't given me any issues. The camera is so-so, but I usually carry a canon point-and-shoot with me, so it suffices. The inclusion of GPS on this device has saved me several times from being completely lost; I look forward to the new turn-by-turn applications. The ability to surf pages over WiFi has killed many airport hours when my laptop is inaccessible.

iPhone OS has been a great breakthrough in the mobile space. It's annual iterations have shown what's possible for computing on the go. Blackberry, Palm, Microsoft, Android, and S60 haven't come close in the past; only WebOS has started to catch up, but Apple keeps pushing the bar higher.

The wide variety of applications has seemingly infinite possibilities, but I have only really seen the use of a few apps regularly. Most useful are the financial applications that allow me to access my accounts without having to go to the website and login. I tweet regularly and follow many people, so of course I use a twitter app; My favorite so far has been Tweetie. MLB at Bat is really great when I can't be at home and watch baseball from MLB.tv. Kindle has let me leave home with reading material that doesn't require any extra space.

The only really bad part of the iPhone is at&t. I don't know if the service will greatly improve with another carrier, as I've been with at&t since before it turned into Cingular and back to at&t. I do know that my travels in Japan using Softbank's network have shown me what a real network is supposed to be like (I've only used the phone part, as I don't want to pay for international data).

Overall, the iPhone 3G is an amazing experience, a breath of fresh air for someone so long kept in the past. I would recommend it to anyone, without hesitation on my part, that's looking for a phone that can do more than just text and call. Even with at&t.