I am such a weak person - I bought an iPhone
I got home, plugged the iPhone into my already updated MacBook (the latest system update to 10.4.10 and iTunes 7.3 are required to activate and sync the iPhone) and, with trembling fingers (based on some of the activation horror stories I'd been following on Twitter, Jaiku, and via RSS), began the activation process. Guess what? No problema. Picked my plan (the 450 minute bucket with unlimited data), added more SMS (1500/month) for an additional $10 and clicked the Submit button. And then, less than two minutes later (yes, I timed this too), I had a new AT&T mobile number and a fully functional iPhone. While I understand that many, many people have a had a less-than-stellar activation experience, mine was as painless as can be.
It's an amazing device. Typical Apple OMG experience. The display is gorgeous. The performance over WiFi is every bit as good as what I get with my Nokia N95. The EDGE performance is a little slower than the 2.5G I get from T-Mobile with the N95 and a lot slower than the EVDO I had been getting with my Treo 700p (which I'm returning to my now-former employer). That's OK. I've been tethering both the MacBook and Lenovo X61t to the N95 and find the performance adequate for checking mail and light surfing. With the iPhone's widescreen display, I have less reason to need to do that for a quick info fix.
Syncing up my contacts, calendar, photos, and a bit of my iTunes library (it's only got 8GB and I have a 30GB iPod) went smoothly. Not sure if I'll keep the iPod. One of my kids may be getting a great hand-me-down shortly. I can probably live with shuffling video and podcasts on and off the iPhone.
Text input is easier than my T9 fumbling on the N95 (I suck at T9 even though I've tried hard to get used to it). The predictive text is already learning my favorite words and I'm getting the hang of sliding my relatively big fingers when I initially touch the wrong letter to hit the one I was aiming for. The rotational function for iPod and Safari usage is fantastic – I wish it was available for all apps as it's a lot easier to enter text on the wide onscreen keyboard.
I'm weak. I have no impulse control. My wife and my son are looking at me like I've taken complete leave of my senses. And I have yet to face the scorn of my daughter who will most likely roll her eyes and scathingly dismiss me as a complete geek. That's OK. Their scorn will pass. I'm grinning like an idiot and having a blast with my new shiny bauble.
I'm off to San Jose for a quick overnight trip. I'll post about the on-the-go experience with the iPhone in the next couple of days.