Using the  3G network to check email and browse the web is not as fast as I would like, but it is definitely useable.  It was a fantastic companion when I flew to Las Vegas last month allowing me to alternately read some great fiction by Cory Doctorow,  listen to some of my favorite classical music and get caught up on some old episodes of Doctor Who.  Battery life has been great; I don’t think I’ve seen the meter drop below 50% once in the past month.

The phone portion works great for me.  I’ve been primarily on the 3G network when using the phone (usually with the included earbuds) and I’ve been quite pleased with the sound quality.  To me the call-quality is every bit as good as the Motorola RAZR that it replaced.

The one feature (if you could call it that) that I loved about my palm pilot was the abundance of third-party apps.  The iPhone’s 2.0 firmware and the App Store bring an abundance of third party applications for my downloading pleasure!  I can even browse and download new applications directly from the iPhone.   I wish it was that simple with my old palm pilot!  I’ve downloaded, used then deleted several dozen applications and there are now just a handful (five to be exact) that I use the most.

My top five favorite apps so far:

1. Pandora (free)
   Streaming internet audio while I drive to work! I plug my iPhone into a cassette adapter, fire up Pandora, choose one of my stations and I get to enjoy and discover new music! Because of this app I no longer feel the need to sync more than a handful of songs via iTunes. With Pandora, I always have a great selection of music available anytime.
2. MobileFinder($2.99)
   Once a loooong time ago, I made the switch from using the Palm Memo application to using plain text files to maintain all of my notes and memos. Boy, has that decision ever paid off! This app not only provides an ftp server on my iPhone to transfer files back and forth, it also allows me to edit and create text-based files!  How could this be better?  How about adding scp file transfers instead of or in addition to the ftp server.   Maybe add the ability to assign a username/password to the ftp connection?  At least the server is only on for a very short time while I actually transfer the files from my desktop, but I’d feel so much better if the connection was encrypted.
3. Stanza (free)
   With all the talk about no one reading anymore, I was really concerned that I was not going to be able to find a suitable replacement for Mobipocket. Stanza is turning out to be quite a fine e-book reader! It handles the simple comforts like being able to change font and background colors to providing an online catalog that you can access from the application to download free books from Feedbooks, The BBC, Wired Magazine and others.
4. Twittelator (free)
   This is one of several twitter clients available, and so far it’s my favorite; narrowly beating out Twitterific. I like the fact that it can post my current location via Twitter (although I almost never use this feature)
5. WeatherBug (free)
   The built-in weather app is nice, but I like looking at the radar maps and this app has them!  (you have to pinch-out and center the world-map on your location; not sure why this isn’t automatic, but maybe in a future release it will be)

I haven’t added an ssh client yet.  There are now at least three apps available purporting to be good ssh clients, but each one seems to have its drawbacks of one kind or another.  Since I haven’t had the need to connect to a command line lately, I’m waiting for these apps to go through a round of updates to see how (or if) they mature before making a purchase there.

So there is a certain logic in yearning for a convergent device that rolls all of the  necessary functionality into just one, shiny little object.  I wouldn’t need to lug around three different devices (all with separate charging needs, no less) and lighten my load, so to speak.   I’ve kept a close eye on the iPhone developments over the past year (including the whole ‘jailbreak’ thing) but after seeing how quickly the new 3G version sold out, I realized it would probably be a few months before I finally got my hands on one.

I would regularly check the stock levels for our local Apple stores (of which we have two!) after 9:00pm each evening and as could be expected, they’ve been regularly sold out day after day.  Friday night I checked again and to my surprise both local stores showed that they would have stock of all models for Saturday.   Not getting my hopes up, but thinking I would just go by one of the stores a bit early in the morning to scope things out, I arrived at the larger of the two stores around 9:00am.   The mall doesn’t open until 10:00am, so really this was kind of silly.  I left my ipod in the car because I was just going to walk around the mall once, scope out the Apple store and probably just head back home.  (this turned out to be a mistake, it would’ve been quite handy later)

I entered the mall and was shocked (why I didn’t actually expect this, I don’t know) to see at least a hundred people already in line!  I walked the length of the line, noting that people seemed to have been there for quite some time already.  I found out later that people had started lining up before 7:00am!  I found the end of the line and out of curiosity more than the expectation of a new phone, I took my place at the end of the line.  Before too long (mere minutes in fact) the line had already grown to half a dozen people past me.

An Apple employee was quickly moving down the line handing out a pamphlet of some sort (maybe they would be vouchers!) so I waited to see what they were.  They turned out to be just some informational pamphlets regarding rate plans, but then I noticed that a couple more Apple employees were moving down the line (albeit at a much slower pace) and pulling people out of line, walking them into the store, then escorting them back to their place in line a few minutes later.  I also realized that the store was actually open, and those in the very front of the line were making their iPhone purchases and leaving!  The line was moving at a pace that would make a snail zoom past us, but it was moving!

I figured, what the heck!  I drove all the way down here, I’m already in line… the people at the very front of the line were actually making their purchases, I might as well stick it out for what, maybe an hour?  Well, after an hour and a half or so, the Apple folks that were escorting people in and out of the line finally made it back to me.  They brought me so that they could ‘pre-qualify’ my purchase.  They wanted to make sure I was already an AT&T customer, that I was eligible for the upgrade, and that I wasn’t trying to use any corporate rate to get my iPhone.   Once I was escorted back to my place in line, I was actually given a voucher for the iPhone of my choice!  (black, 16gb btw)

A couple of hours later and there were a group of about four or five of us that were getting along like old friends.  Chatting about our children, our phones, how silly we felt waiting in line.  This lasted for the first couple of hours after which point we were commiserating about our aching feet, our full bladders, our empty stomachs and our parched throats.   We kindly watched one another’s places in line for the inevitable bathroom breaks, but alas Starbucks was not pushing a cart up and down the line so our thirst went unquenched.

About noon (yes, three hours later) there were only three people ahead of me in line.  And that’s when the Apple employees must’ve gone to lunch.  The line didn’t move at all for forty-five minutes!!!  But at this point, there was no way any of us were going to give up!  We were too close!  We had waited for too long to just give up!

Finally around 12:45p I was allowed into the Apple store to make my purchase!  I was only in the store for maybe ten minutes while my new iPhone was activated and the Apple employee gave me a quick tour of all the features.  Then I was free!  After four long hours in queue I left with my new iPhone.

Next up:  What do you mean ‘There’s no native ssh client’?  Are you kidding me?