iPhone Impressions

• For me, the device lives up to the hype. I feel it is just the right size, and overall, I can accomplish tasks with amazing ease.
• Using the touch-screen keyboard to type is way easier and faster than I had imagined. I do wish, however, that the keyboard's layout would always change to landscape mode when rotated to better enable typing with both thumbs.
• Maps are exceptionally useful. After pulling up a location, mapping directions to and/or from it, calling its phone number, or visiting its website are just a tap away.
• Using Google Maps on my laptop is a disappointing experience compared to that on the iPhone. I miss the behavior of map pins dropping into place, and I want the ability to pinch the screen to zoom in/zoom out.
• After a road trip across the state, found that reception was comparable to my friends' phones (also on AT&T).
• Some websites chugged along on the EDGE network, while others loaded speedily. Seems to depend on how well a site is built using standards.
• Several times while composing email, I wished I could select specific portions of text to edit.
• Visual voicemail is awesome. Every time I listen to a message, I still expect to hear the save/delete dialog at the end, and am relieved that I do not. The ability to listen to a specific portion of a message is very useful, especially for jotting down phone numbers, etc.
• Without any hint of elitism, I can't help but feel sad looking at other peoples' cell phones by comparison. The current gap that exists is a bit hard to wrap my head around.
• With a good dose of elitism, I do revel in using the default signature, "Sent from my iPhone" when sending email.