Andy Wood

The much anticipated iPhone has arrived in my hands. If you are thinking about getting one, then you had best have service with Cingular/AT&T, the iphone is proving to be extremely popular and has left a lot of people on other networks disappointed.

After revolutionising how we listen to music, Apple have taken it one step further and have created a phone of the future. The iPhone combines quad band mobile phone technology, widescreen ipod with touch screen controls and a “breakthrough” internet communications device.

Measuring 115 x 61 x11.6mm, the phone is slim, sleek and bursting with technology! Connection is real easy with this phone. For me, Bluetooth is essential so I can send my pictures to my laptop easily and quickly. It also comes with wi-fi and EDGE , so there are plenty of choices to choose from. The iPhone also boasts a desktop class e-mail, allowing you to keep in touch on the move, along with a web browser for quality mobile internet and you’ll never get lost with Google maps which is almost a must on most phones in today’s market.

I have found that the iPhone is the ideal phone for keeping in touch and staying connected.

Aren’t sold yet? If that wasn’t enough for you, the widescreen iPod might attract you. With touch screen controls and a choice of 4 or 8 gig of store, you can carry your entire music collection in your phone , in your pocket. I don’t know about anyone else out there, but I can’t listen to 4 gig of songs in one sitting. The iPhone is also compatible with iPod accessories such as car docking stations and speakers, which means no need to rush out and upgrade your current iPod accessories.

Other features include a 2 mega-pixel camera, a minimum requirement in my opinion. Phone photography has come along way in the past year or two and anything less would be a major disappointment. The Multi touch display with qwerty keyboard is an interesting choice – those that have extremly large digits might not like this usability, but being the first of it’s kind, I’m sure there will be issues and some changes in future firmware revisions. Touch screens seem to be the way of the future and I am sure other companies will follow suit. Time to start practising the tapping. The iPhone also comes with an optimized MAC OS X operating system, pdf viewer and widgets (mini applications).

Sounds great right? So, with all of this technology, is there any drawbacks? As I mentioned before, the iPhone is only available on the Cingular/AT&Tnetwork and this will be the case for the next two years. Bad news for the games also, currently, the iPhone doesn’t come with any games. However; expect this to change fairly quickly though as the current iPods come with standard games. Are you one of those people who likes to catch embarrassing moments on video? You will have to to wait for a while. The iPhone only takes still pictures at the moment. Again, I don’t think it will be long before they upgrade the camera to include the video feature, as most standard camera phones do this already. There is also no 3G technology at the moment either.

Overall, the iPhone seems to be a big hit. I certainly am enjoying mine at the moment. Priced at about the $500 -$600 mark (depending on how much store you choose), they aren’t cheap, but you will certainly be the envy of all your friends.