I Have Been Assimilated: LOVE, LOVE, LOVING the iPhone

The minuses first:

1. it didn't allow me to stream video from my Orb Networks setup. I believe when the forthcoming flash upgrade comes this problem will be resolved.
   


2. I could find no way to simply drag and drop items from my iTunes to the iPhone. I had to create playlists for the iPhone and then "synch" the playlists. I find this annoying. But not so annoying that it's not my favorite gadget EVER already.
   

What I love:

(don't let my bad photography/equipment put you off, the screen's display is very amazing )

1. WiFi works and works WELL. While the included Safari browser has limitations, notably lack of support for Flash/Java and it didn't stream my Orb even though the iPhone does use 3GP for YouTube (this seems to be some special coding, I can't go into the Youtube environment and enter whatever URL I want), it's really cool and fun to use.
   


2. The touch screen issues – are a non issue for me. I love the touch screen. I doubt I will be composing a lot of e-mails or blog postings on it, but it's not hard to use and maneuvering the web is easy and fun once you get the hang of it (which takes about 30 seconds really). The smudging is also a non issue even with my oily skin – the screen is so nice that while it's on, you can't actually see any of the smudges. They included a polishing cloth for wiping the screen and they probably will sell a lot of these as accessories, but it's a non issue.
   


3. You can browse the web and listen to music at the same time. Very cool.
   


4. The video display is magnificent. Though I personally had no issue watching video on the smaller iPod screen, the improvement was dramatic. Also, this display is crisper than any I have ever seen. You can put HD on your iPhone and it looks GREAT. (note: 8GB isn't a lot of space for this usage, so you can't put a lot of HD on there, but it can be done!).
   


5. Because the microphone is built into the wire of the right ear bud, I can now determine left and right by sight from a distance and this for me is definitely an improvement to the overall experience.
   

A few notes:

1. I ported my landline to this phone and the port is not complete yet, so I have not used the phone other than for a couple of outgoing calls. On the plus side, AT&T now works in my flat (3-4 years ago, I couldn't get service in my home). On the limited data set I have I did not find the call quality as good as Verizon's, but I didn't find it bad enough to care either.
   


2. I do not care about the Edge network and how fast or slow it is. I haven't used it because I haven't been anywhere I couldn't get WiFi.
   


3. For me, this may primarily be "just the coolest toy EVER" to tide me over until there is a stand alone iPhone version. The $600 for the gadget is justifiable because it's better just as an iPod/hand held web browser than anything I've ever seen.
   


4. I find the pages load a little slower on Safari than they do on my desktop, but on the other hand, my desktop cost twice as much (without a monitor, and the monitor I have cost more than the iPhone and its display while 25x the size of the iPhone's roughly – a 24" widescreen – isn't as crisp as the iPhone's display.