1. Jason:

I couldn't agree more! My favorite things about the iPhone (and Apple in general) are the little touches:

• Screen goes dim when you put it to your ear so you don't put people on hold or dial numbers with your cheek (hated doing this on my Treo)

• Google Maps auto-completes addresses from your address book.

• Typing "learns" the words you use and gets used to you as much as you're getting used to it.

• The best iPod ever: Pause with a click on the earphones button (don't have to dig it out of your pocket, unlock it, press pause)-- screen is gorgeous

• Made me tolerate YouTube again. : )

-Joseph Nilo

Posted at 1:44PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Joseph Nilo

2. I agree with all your points except the camera. The zoom capability on the Blackberry gives the illusion that you are framing a better picture by zooming in on your subject, when in reality you are getting pixelation and motion blur. The iPhone takes better quality pictures than my Blackberry Pearl.

As for keyboard, I agree that it works quite well. I can't quite type with two fingers yet on it, but I can motor along quite well with my index finger. The predictive text gets better with every hour of use it seems.

I do miss having copy/cut/paste. There was a phone number in an email I received today and I could not figure out how to copy it to my address book without calling the number.

I also find it interesting that the iPhone has no task list or MS Office interpretors. I am glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks these features are ridiculous for a handheld device.

Posted at 1:47PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by John Swords

3. oh and I don't love the camera design and find it hard to stabilize...don't care. It's still the best handheld gadget EVER!

Posted at 1:53PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Robert Seidman

4. Best handheld gadget EVER. even though Edge is painful for the Web and even though it can't stream my media library yet (flash update should fix that) and even though I can only make outgoing phone calls because my hasn't ported yet -- best gadget EVER.

The screen is magnificent. Video display (MP4) is beautiful. Touch screen zooming -- genius.

I predict the desktop real-estate on the "Home" page of icons is going to be...very valuable.

Posted at 1:54PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Robert Seidman

5. According to this video ( http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html ) it looks like the iPhone can take a beating and still work.

Posted at 1:56PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Bill Erickson

6. I became a lot less worried about dropping my iPhone after seeing the hell PCWorld just put one through:

http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html

Save for a tiny scratch at the bottom of the device after being dropping from about 4/5 feet onto concrete, iPhone came out unscathed, even after having car keys deliberately scratched across the glass display. That said, I'm still not going to *try* and drop it, but I'm certainly not nearly as worried anymore.

Posted at 1:59PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by David Chartier

7. has anyone successfully gotten their corporate MS Exchange email to work on the iPhone, especially without tweaking Exchange IMAP settings. lots of folks i know do not control their company's Exchange box and the IT folks say "no" to every such request

Posted at 2:04PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Baratunde Thurston

8. The camera takes great pictures for me, so long as the lighting is right. I miss having a little mirror on back for self-portraits though. Also, a flash would be great.

As far as the durability, uh, how do you know it's "Fracked"? Have you dropped it?
PC Word did a test which I'm sure you've seen by now. The guy tried to scratch it with keys, dropped it on carpet, tile, and concrete, and it kept on plugging. Looks like a tank to me. (See: http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html )

Posted at 2:12PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Bill Bessette

9. What about SPEED?

Posted at 2:15PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Tim Street

10. As soon as it gets available in Europe Ill buy one. But...

Email is THE most important application of the Blackberry and the only reason I keep it with me at all times (yes, all times!). You say here that the iPhone wins over the Blackberry when it comes to email. If that is true some people might end up prefering the Blackberry after all making the Blackberry the real winner of this 'iPhone VS Blackberry' contest thing...

Posted at 2:24PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

11. I read a blog posting over the weekend that claimed the iPhone actually stood up rather well to some drop testing. I'd love to find out whether this is true...without killing an iPhone of my own. Anyone have any video?

Posted at 2:36PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Scott Johnson

12. i'm a longtime blackberry guy.

I bought the iphone friday night.

there's a lot to love (screen, ui, form factor, wifi, browser) but it doesn't work with MS exchange, nor does it do wireless sync. nor does it do push email :(

breaks my heart since email is the priority for me.

I'll probably just keep it as a souped up ipod.

my post friday at midnight:

http://sabet.typepad.com/bijanblog/2007/06/my-iphone.html

Posted at 2:42PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by bijan sabet

13. Jason,

We've had at least two heavy drops here at SmugMug, one particularly high velocity onto concrete, and the phones are fine. A little dinged and scratched on the corners, but functionality and screen are intact.

So your mileage may vary. :)

Posted at 2:51PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Don MacAskill

14. Jason.. I've seen you mention the Helio Ocean a couple of times..did you get a chance to check that out.. as far as value..It matches up quite well against the Iphone.

Your Boys weigh in http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/30/helio-pits-apples-iphone-against-ocean/

Thanks,
Tom

Posted at 3:05PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Blendah Tom

15. The iPhone has to be more durable than the 30/60/80 GB Video iPods if for no other reason than the iPhone does not use spinning drive storage.

Posted at 3:08PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by John Swords

16. Jason,
How do you like it as a phone?
I've ready a review or two saying the sound quality was good but the volume not particularly loud.
My Blackberry Pearl, for example, gets very loud, which is great for walking down the streets of New York.
Are you happy with the iPhone audio?

Posted at 3:21PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by farrell

17. "iPhone not as good as Blackberry in terms of input (i.e. keyboard).... Now I'm 75% sure he is right."

Does this suggest you're 75% sure iPhone will be as good or better for input of email after the first week?

Posted at 3:52PM on Jul 2nd 2007 by Hans Omli

18. "The iPhone is FRACKED if you drop it."

Not true.

PC World dropped it from four feet onto a concrete sidewalk (a couple of times) and it survived:
http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html?tk=synd_macworld

- Jason

Posted at 11:02AM on Jul 3rd 2007 by Jason O'Grady

19. BlackBerry what?

There are no "blackberry", there is "blackberry + model name".

Posted at 11:36AM on Jul 3rd 2007 by Vygantas Lipskas

20. I do not understand, why the iphone has such a crappy camera, even my 2 year old nokia phone has a better one!

Posted at 1:20PM on Jul 3rd 2007 by Kahuki