iPhone review of an antagonist

Everyone who knows that I'm in the wireless industry asks me, "So, are you going to get an iPhone?" To which I respond resoundingly, "Hell, NO!!!"

My reasons are basic. First, I don't like Cingular's (excuse me, the new AT&T)network. I travel to NY, LA and Las Vegas too much and they drop tons of calls in those markets. Plus, if you're there for a technology show it can be hard to get a connection. But, more importantly, I've learned not to buy version 1.0 of ANYTHING! This phone was a month from launch and all I heard was what was going to be in the first software upgrade. And lastly, I've had a touch screen phone before. They're very challenging to use, you can't use them if you're driving and if you stuff your phone in your pocket (like me) there's all kinds of things that go on.

But, my engineer got one and I had a chance to play with it. It's got some pretty cool features and it's smaller than I thought it would be, although it's pretty heavy and the battery runs hot. It's a great novelty, but I wouldn't want it for my every day phone. However, I'll mute some of my criticism of the phone. It's extremely versatile and some of the things I hate about touch screens were addressed in the user interface design.

If you want a feature list of all of the things it does, I'll let you look at the other million reviews on the net. But, I will say this: every device does something really well. The ones that try to do everything do nothing really well. This phone brings Apple ingenuity to your palm. That means a huge "wow" factor. However, much of what this phone does will drive you nuts in time. But, if you have a tolerance for cerain limitations in order to get something cool and versatile, this phone will make you happy.

I give Apple and A- for the phone. If this were version two, it would be a B, but for a rev 1.0 device, this is a solid A-!