The phone arrived to the ATT store on July 25th, but I was on a plane to Texas when it was delivered. So I had to wait until Tuesday the 29th in the evening to pick it up. First impressions (like so many others)…. WOW, Apple does a great job with first impressions of the device (from opening the box to the installed apps/etc, web access, emails, etc).

I have been using the iPhone 3G now for about two weeks, and it (and it’s data plan) have changed the way I use my cell phone. I definitely appreciate having internet and gps just about anywhere… especially when I have that 15-30mins of downtime while the boys are at an activity or wrapping up something. I enjoy being able to tweet, read blogs with Google Reader, and get a quick update of my emails while out and about. I imagine (tho haven’t needed yet) the GPS could be handy especially with google maps to find where I am in a different city (and locations for food/products).

List of apps that I have installed so far:

• Pandora (streaming music)
• SHIFD (shifting notes/links/locations between devices)
• AIM (instant messaging client, haven’t really used/needed)
• Twittelator (twitter client)
• JawBreaker (game)

I also have a link on the apps page(s) to take me to the Yahoo! Olympics pages to the Medal count and latest news from the 2008 Beijing Games. So that I can keep up with the Olympics.

Nit-piks

• Installed Apps are stopped when you switch to “home” or other app (Makes Pandora use a little less than ideal…. the iPod app, allows you to keep the music going)
• Safari can only really have 8 windows open at once (this is probably a good thing, and forces me to bookmark or email off pages that I am reading and want to keep open longer). Just not an obvious limitation until you run into it… and you can’t open any more links because you hit the max “window” count of Safari.
• Camera app, button location for taking the picture is centered right above the “home” button…. and I invariably hit “home” instead of take a picture. So then I have to wait for the camera app to start up again before I can take the picture I wanted (this time being careful to press the button on the screen and not the “home” button). This is probably just a “getting used” to the device quirk, I hope.
• switching between landscape and portrait mode isn’t flawless…. either it doesn’t switch or it takes longer than I think it should to realize I wanted it to switch to landscape mode.
• Can’t get ipod/pandora music out via bluetooth to my Motorola S9 headset. Apple seems to have decided that the only time you need bluetooth audio is while on a phone call. So there is no A2DP or AVRCP functionality in the bluetooth stack on the iPhone 3G.
• The vibrate feature doesn’t seem to be “enough” to realize there is an incoming call. I am not sure if it is me, or something with the phone, but I have missed more calls with this phone in two weeks than I ever did with my HTC 8125. And I have always left my phone in vibrate… so I thought I was “trained” to respond to the vibration. Possibility is the issue isn’t the phone but more likely the case. Another possibility is that it is actually the reception with 3G and this phone…. and I am not getting the call through… but later getting the notification I missed the call (and new voicemail). I am going to be watching this one more closely, and may need to turn on the ringer for a while to see if I can pinpoint the cause.

So all in all, it is a great device and offers me a number of features/functionality that make me more productive in those “in-between” moments and also a little more connected. The reception/missed calls issue is really the only significant issue and I am hopeful that it can be resolved with placement of the case, or very low ringer. I am hopeful that Apple will consider implementing more bluetooth functionality, as well as the ability to have *some* apps at least run in the background so that you can multitask more on the device. Otherwise, I am very happy with my new iPhone.