My first week with the iPhone

So, I've spent a week with my new iPhone. I thought I would jot down a few thoughts on my experience so far. I could just say, "It's freakin AWESOME!" and leave it at that. I'll go a little further and give a few details.
As was pointed out to me recently this is my first internet enabled phone. I have played with a few of my friends phones in the past. Last year I went on a quest to find a smartphone that I could get into and tried out several of the then top of the line internet enabled phones. I chose to go with none of them at the time. They didn't feel 'right' and I didn't want to pay a bunch of money and be stuck with something stupid. I was very very leery of anything with Windows Mobile on it for obvious reasons. What I have discovered is that I did not miss out on a thing. I got my first smartphone at the perfect time. I got the smartphone that everyone else should have been making but were too stupid to make. The iPhone.
This phone has been a joy to use. A joy to setup. When something is your constant companion like our cell phones tend to be these days you want something that doesn't fight against you. Something that helps you. There has been an enormous amount of hype over this device. So much so that even I, lover of all things Apple, started to question whether it could really be that great. I feel stupid for ever doubting. In my opinion Apple held back and could have been even more ebullient in their marketing and praise for this device.
It's the interface stupid.
There is something about Apple and the interface design they create for their devices. It just makes sense. Well, most of the time. The iPhone isn't perfect. I had it for a few days and an update came out for the operating system software of the phone. Apple fixed several issues and made the phone work even better. There are still a few quirks I notice here and there, but it's like being on the most beautiful beach in Hawaii and getting a few grains of sand stuck between your toes. It's so stinkin beautiful you don't even care! And, big wah, so you have some sand in your toes! That's what it is like. Sure you notice things but they are usually no big deal.
I could go on and on about all the great experiences I have had this week alone but I don't want to bore you. Here are a couple.
1. Google maps - someone gave me bad directions but I had the address. I realized I now have an internet phone. I pulled over and in 1 minute I had a satellite picture of the building on my gorgeous iPhone screen and I could see how to get where I needed to be.
2. YouTube - I ordered take out from a restaurant one night last week. As I sat and waited the 15 minutes for my food I played around with youtube and watched several videos, read and answered an urgent email and received a phone call. I actually wished the restaurant had taken longer when my food arrived.
3. Signal. Alloysoft created an app that allows me to control my iTunes catalog at home from my iPhone. I have Airtunes setup so I can pipe my iTunes music to my home theatre stereo. Now I don't have to go to my mac to control things. I whip out my iPhone and can pick playlists, start and pause my music. Booyah!

Setup and syncing were flawless and I was amazed at how quickly it went. Within ten minutes of plugging my phone into my Mac I received my first phone call. Dead simple, elegant and it was fun. I've watched the wife labor with her Treo for the last year and was a little worried. Well, it has gone so well, the wife is ditching the Treo and taking my old phone until we can get her into an iPhone. Bye bye Treo. Bye bye Palm. I predict this company will be dead within a year.
I heard all the complaints before the phone came out and since it has been out. AT&T's EDGE network is slow, there is no exchange email. Well, I have my exchange email coming to my iPhone. I can send and receive. EDGE is slow compared to WiFi at home or the office. I have used EDGE several times to surf and to use Google maps etc. I would like it to be faster but it wasn't painfully slow. I think the people complaining about these things are techno snobs. They think everything everywhere should be connecting at 100 gigabit speeds. Whatev.
The only real comlaint or glaring issue I have seen so far is the lack of support for Flash in Mobile Safari. So many sites use flash now that it really is apparent that the browser doesn't support it. I've heard different reason why but hopefully they'll fix this issue soon. If it's true that Flash is a memory hog and eats up processor bandwidth then it could really kill the surfing experience on the iPhone.
The battery. My phone sits in the charger dock all day at my desk and I leave the phone on all the time. It is true that if you try to go 2 days straight without charging and doing a fair amount of video watching and surfing etc. the battery will run down. I did that over the weekend. I don't have a car charger yet. I wouldn't have been surprised if the battery life was shorter for a device like this.
It took a little getting used to to use my fingers to navigate through the interface. I learned and the phone was very forgiving. It seems so natural now. I had to answer the wifes Treo over the weekend and I literally thought of the old rotary dial phones when I was done with her phone. That's how different the iPhone is. It truly is revolutionary. The best comparison I can make from my personal experience is to the time when I got my first Tivo/DVR. It changed my life. It changed the dynamic in our home. I felt after only a week that I couldn't live without it. Now, I look at my iPhone and think the same thing. This could go down as the bestest birthday present I ever received! Booyah!