Mrs. fall-line came through in a big way this week with a killer birthday present. I now find myself as the proud owner of a shiny new 8gb Apple iPhone. I’m not going to pretend to write a full fledged review of the device, as there are about 1.3 million (really, I checked) others out there which you can read until your eyes fall out.

After using it for a few days, I do have a few thought’s I’d like to share for the curious among you.

Most importantly, I love it. It’s a real joy to use. Day to day operation is smooth and beautiful in a way that makes you appreciate the mundane stuff like listening to voicemail. As long as I’m not thinking about he purchase price ($600), or one of the troubles I mention below, I’m filled with a warm fuzzy feeling from using it.

The good:

• Contrary to some pre-launch speculation, it’s actually the easiest to use phone I’ve ever owned.
• SMS messaging is a breeze. I’ve never been a texter. This device has changed that. I can write entire sentences in the time it took me to write the first word on a traditional phone.
• Google maps is handy. No GPS unfortunately, but it’s still very useful to have such a responsive and powerful map interface in your pocket
• E-mail, web browsing, calendar, alarm clock, etc all work well (though leaving room for a little improvement in some areas.)
• It’s the best iPod I’ve ever used. Full stop. It’s awesome. I would like to have more than 8gb in storage sure, but I’m happy to sacrifice storage for the other (phone) functionality.

The bad:

• It makes me nervous. I feel like I’m going to scratch it, drop it, or loose it. One big downside to carrying such an expensive device with you all day is that you create a relatively high risk of damage. I feel the need to protect it with a case.
• The battery life isn’t tremendous. It’s not terrible, in fact it’ll go longer than most smart phones do. I’m accustomed to not having to charge my mobile phone for 2-3 days at a time though, so it’s a little disappointing to get a low battery warning after one day of heavy use.
• I don’t like that the only apps available are web apps. True, it’s easy to develop handy apps for the device, but there needs to be a way of accessing some of these tools when not connected, or without having to wait for..
• EDGE, it’s no 3g. ~59kps of data speed is enough, but we could do better.

Despite the complaints, I’m a satisfied iPhone owner. In case I wasn’t clear in my introduction, the good far outweighs the bad in my opinion. Is it worth $600? Well, I can’t answer that for you. I still struggle with this question for myself in fact. I’m very glad to have received it as a present, but I’m not sure if I would have bought it under other circumstances. I got one though, and I’m very glad to have it.

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