Things I love about the iPhone, in no particular order:
- I admit it: cool factor. (Though, why shouldn’t useful be cool?)
- One hard button to rule them all. Simplicity. Elegance. Utility.
- Phone and iPod functions are exquisitely integrated.
- Scrolling and zooming in and out on full-function web pages.
- Access to web and email from almost everywhere I care about.
- Applications: YouTube, WiFi Music Store, Google Maps with traffic.
- Support for WPA Personal.
- Durability.
- A beautiful, bright, big screen.
- No more pocket dialing. Hurray!
This is a shorter list than my list of gripes, but a few of the things mentioned above still impress me every day, even as I near 3 months with the device. For example, it’s close to sheer bliss to swap back and forth between the listening to the iPod and using the phone. The music fades out, whether you’re answering or calling; you talk on the phone; then the music fades back in, right where you left off. Words belie the beauty of the experience. Go to an AT&T store and try it. You’ll see what I mean.
One other item of note; the single word “durability” doesn’t really give you much of an idea of what I mean. There’s “oh no! My iPhone fell, but landed on my shoe… whew!” on the one hand, and “augh, that’s the fourth time this week that I’ve bent over and sent the iPhone scurrying across the floor” on the other. Let me just say that any other device would have been terribly scratched up by now. It took me a while to remember not to put it in the same pocket with my car keys, but it’s no worse for the wear. In fact, the back of the case has some light scoring from such adventures, but the glass is in fantastic shape. What few scratches that are visible are difficult to find even with the display turned off.
If this thing ever malfunctions, I hope to add one more thing to my list. I bought AppleCare. If I need to use it I’ll let you know how it goes.