My First Day with Apple's iPhone

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
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Jul. 1, 2007

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Introduction

I arrive at the mall here in Las Vegas where the Apple store is located around 10:45 AM on Friday. An eight hour wait would lay ahead of me as I waited in line for that once in a lifetime product. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a big water bottle later, it was six o'clock and we were cheering (as well as being cheered on by Apple store employees) as the Apple store reopened and ushered in their first customer for the new phone.

As much as I think calling it a watershed moment in consumer electronics is a bit melodramatic, I think people will look back and think of the iPhone in a way that even the Mac hasn't got - it is a device that made the entire experience simpler and more comfortable. The Mac market share, while growing, is still small - even a big Mac fan like me admits the niche status the platform holds. But much of that is due to business and incompatibility with Windows applications.

The iPhone however doesn't have to take any existing applications and user base into consideration. Consumers don't usually buy their phone for what software or features come with it or how well it functions, they buy it because it looks nice or is cheap (or free) and they really don't need anything more than a device that makes or receives calls. Apple moves beyond the fashion statement (though it is a strong point for this phone) and tries to change the paradigm. Instead of choosing a carrier and then getting to the store and picking from their selection of phones, you chose the phone first, with its feature set, and get the carrier that comes with it.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Out of the Box
Page 3: iPod, the Internet, and More...
Page 4: Bugs and Issues
Page 5: Overall Initial Impression

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by MichaelHarper on July 2, 2007 - 3:00 pm

So I was totally ragging on this device, and on the fanboys, and on the hype... until this morning, when i held one. The EDGE network speed sucks balls, but the browser itself is awesome, and the pan/zoom functionality of the multi-touch screen is very intuitive and functional. The soft keyboard was more functional than my T9 phone, but less than some real QWERTYs I've tried. I need to play with the keyboard some more, but I'm leaning towards buying one.

2 - Posted by Brian on July 2, 2007 - 3:54 pm

The thing with the keyboard, from what I have read from people who have used an iPhone longer than one day, say that it gets easier with time. Within a couple weeks, it becomes rather easy to use. So you can't really judge it entirely on your first experience like many people are. Personally though, as I hate typing on anything smaller than a full-size keyboard...

3 - Posted by handrail on July 3, 2007 - 9:26 am

meh. all tiny keyboards suck anyway. i'm sure the iPhone one will be no different than learning to graffiti on a PDA.

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