iPhone

Well, Apple finally pulled the trigger and released their iPhone. It's one hell of a cool device.

• It's a Wide Screen Video iPod running the latest iTunes, so you get the cool 'Cover Flow' browser and video playback.
• It's a phone with everything you've come to expect from a modern mobile phone. One thing it does better is the 'Add Call' feature that allows for quick and easy three way calling.
• It's a portable browser. It runs Safari with a neat zoom feature that seems to get around the problem of looking at web sites on a smaller screen.
• The nicest thing is the whole interface is built around a touch screen. They have essentially added the benefits of a mouse to your little phone.

All of these things are very nice, and I'm sure Apple will sell millions of them. However, there are a few things that really distract me.

• It's huge. The wide screen is nice, but you're phone is now 5.5 inches long. Add a protective case to that and it's a solid half foot in your pocket.
• Speaking of protective cases, every phone I've ever owned has been scratched up after a year of use. Now I don't use a protective cover, so that will probably help. I just hope the cover they provide doesn't mess up the touch screen.
• And finally the price. The 4 gig model is 500 bucks and the 8 gig is 600. You had better use every feature of that thing everyday in order to make it worth that kind of cash.