iPhone 3G

I'd like to start this post off by telling you that I'm not a Mac user. In fact, I find the constant Windows-bashing that Apple does to be very annoying mainly because I'm an avid fan of all three dominant operating systems: Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Originally, I was going to go to the AT&T Wireless store to purchase my iPhone 3G but in the end I opted to go to the Apple Store in Village Point. I have to admit that I was really surprised by the pomp and circumstance surrounding the launch (and I have been told that this is par for the course with Apple). They provided those of us in line with coffee, bottled water and at one point even sent someone out to answer questions before the store opened.

When the store opened, the first of us were taken in and the employees clapped as we entered. It was a little cheesy but very neat to see the level of presentation Apple went to. While I had originally planned only to get the black 8GB model, in the end I decided to go with the 16GB model simply because you can't upgrade the memory on the device and its going to have to last me at least a couple of years.

Interestingly enough, AT&T Wireless doesn't offer any kind of an insurance plan for the iPhone 3G. You're restricted to buying an Apple Care plan. This is provided for free for the first year, and paying the additional money gives you another year beyond that. After asking the sales person, I was assured that I could opt in for the plan at any time during the first year so I didn't spend the money. I may though as I get close to the end of my first year; I'm on the fence about it. Even with Apple Care the phone isn't protected against the owner accidentally dropping the phone which seems like a bit of a rip off to me. I mean, think about it; I believe an iPhone is far more susceptible to failure caused by the owner dropping it than failure due to defect. In the event that a defect were present, I'd think it would manifest itself within the first year...

 All in all, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. The first bill is likely to be pretty high due to the activation fee and the fee to move my existing number so I'm expecting to cringe a bit when I see it, these things are all par for the course though when starting service with a new cellular provider so I'm not faulting AT&T for them; I'm just pointing them out.

The only real disappointment I had with the entire experience was the fact that I couldn't get the phone activated in the store because iTunes' servers just couldn't handle the load and died an early death. As a result, I was without phone service for about 11 hours as my phone number had transitioned to the new phone, but I couldn't set up my voice mail on the new phone.

With the iPhone 3G came the 2.0 firmware and the new iTunes App Store. As more and more applications are released onto the App Store, it will mean that there is less of a reason to jail break your iPhone. Apple advertised over 500 applications at the launch of the App Store, however a lot of those applications were just different developers trying to do the same thing.  For example, there were three (that I know of) applications to check movie listings and show times. Of them, I preferred BoxOffice although a friend of mine prefers Movies.app. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. BoxOffice is a little buggy and likes to crash randomly, but it displays the Rotten Tomatoes rating for the movie, which I love. Movies.app doesn't display the rating but does allow you to view the trailer. I'd really like to see a blending of these two applications.

What really surprised me about the selection of applications at launch was a distinct lack of an SSH client. The iPhone needs a port of Putty something fierce. As of today they have a VNC client which is rather neat. The ability to manipulate my home PC from my iPhone intrigues me greatly.

I didn't think I would be gaming much on my iPhone. In fact, the only games that I had on my Motorola Razr were two timeless classics: Tetris and Bejeweled. Both of those games were available at the launch of the App Store, but for a drastically inflated price. At $9.99 per game I opted to buy only Bejeweled, although I must admit that it was a very tough choice. In reality though if both games were priced at a more reasonable $4.99 I'd have both on my iPhone right now. They're two great puzzle games and good time wasters when you've got nothing else to do or are stuck waiting somewhere.

All said, I love my new iPhone and as cheesy as it sounds, the experience of being there for the launch was well worth it.