Worth the wait? You Betcha!
daily computer user, an Apple user since 1989, a Cingular customer, in a 4 iPod family
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JUL
30
2007
Apple - iPhone (8 GB) Cell Phone —
IntroI started hearing the rumors about the phone last year, once people began to see errant messages about "iPhone" on iTunes. Steve Jobs confirmed the rumors and gave us our first introduction of everything it could do early this fall. Since that moment, I have been watching the calendar and waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Once the big release date came out, I wasn't going to be one of those people in line. Then after I waited a few days, my husband talked me into waiting a month to be sure all the bugs were worked out. He said it was too bad I couldn't see one first to be sure I wanted to buy it. I said they have them to try out at the Apple store, but he looked at me over the top of his glasses, and said I knew that if I walked into that store, I'd be walking out with a new phone in my hand. This entire time, I have been plotting. I have been watching the restocking updates at apple.com every night. Exactly a month after it came out, I saw the restocking, and I knew I had a good chance of getting the 8GB Phone.
Set-Up
Because I have been a customer of Cingular Wireless for years, I knew it wouldn't be too much of a problem to do this upgrade. I was a little worried because of the initial problems people had activating their iPhones, but again the month wait seemed like it was helpful for alleviating this problem as well. I hadn't read anything about activation problems in weeks. Although the minimum AT&T Wireless iPhone package was $59.95, they were also saying that existing customers of AT&T or Cingular could just add a $20 data package to their monthly bill. Being that I had a small monthly bill of $29.95, I was worried they would try and force me into the $59.95 package, but was definitely hoping to get out of it only paying the additional $20. I got home, plugged my phone in, followed the prompts, and within probably ten minutes, had an operational iPhone, and was only out an additional $20 a month.
Usage
Again,the iPhone has done everything it promised. The email and web browser (the familiar Safari to us Mac people) work great, and when I'm not under WiFi and just under AT&T's Edge Network, it's only a tad slower. The camera, again great, but it is a tad jumpy. However, I have nothing to compare it to, having never had a camera phone before. Visual voicemail is a great invention. To check your voicemail, there is no more holding the phone to your ear hitting next, next, next, next to hear all your messages. You see right on your screen who called and when, and can choose to only listen to the messages you want.
The phone itself, being that this is supposedly first and foremost a phone, works great as well, with only one problem so far. No matter what else you are doing on the phone, watching a movie, listening to music, browsing the web or your email, when someone else calls in, you get a message on the screen showing the person that is calling with a choice to accept or decline. Assigning a camera photo to the person in your list of contacts brings you their picture across the whole screen as they call in. The only problem I have found is I can hear my husband's cell phone just fine if he's calling me from inside the house (Okay ... it sounds strange, but we were testing it out), but if he's home and I'm out, or vice versa, it's fuzzy and muddled at best. Obviously there's just something minor to be worked out, as all these people using their iPhones aren't dealing with the reception problem I am. The funny thing? My husband is an AT&T employee.
Conclusion
That being said, I want to put a disclaimer on the fact that despite the fact my husband works for AT&T, I did not receive my iPhone on a discount (apparently Steve Jobs feels free to give one to all his employees, but the head of AT&T doesn't see things the same way), nor any of my services on a discount. And still, I feel this is possibly the best thing I have ever bought myself. Sure, the 8GB model is nearly $600, but with everything it does, it's far worth it to me, to have everything I need in one handy little device.
Apple - iPhone (8 GB) Cell Phone is recommended by LauraBelle
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