Anyone own an iPhone?

I appreciate the feedback. This forum has a lot of wisdom to offer, and it's not limited to cars. That's cool.

At this point I'm either getting an iPhone 3GS or I'm going to wait for the Android 2.0 phones to come out on AT&T. There's a new phone coming out with Android 1.5 called the Backflip. It seems pretty nice, but it doesn't have quite what I'm looking for.

I was strongly considering a Blackberry but from reading a bunch of reviews, it seems like they're lagging behind in terms of usability.

Wait until spring, there will be more choices for android based phones(compatible with at&t 3g). I have a window mobile device. Htc fuze. I like it well enough. I run maxqdata on it as well. Has a built in real gps, but the bluetooth and wifi get a lot of use for me. It has a slide out keyboard which I like far better than using the touchscreen. It doesn't have a million apps like an iphone, but it has plenty of support for twitter, facebook and the other popular spots on the web. Certainly not perfect. I would like to try an android phone in the future. Iphones are neat, but some of their basic missing features kind of put me off.

My main problem with iPhones (Besides the touchscreen keyboard) is Apple's policy towards apps and stuff. It rubs me the wrong way. I like the fact that Android is open-source.

I am posting this from an iPhone right now!

Seriously, wait until June. There are rumours of the iPhone 4G coming out as well as new android phones on all carriers as well. If I had to do it again I would have went with the droid, bit that wasn't out when my contract was up.

Oh and the large numbers of apps for the iPhone is like cable tv.... 57 channels and nothing on.

3Door4G wrote: So my phone's about to die, and it's becoming clear to me that I need to bite the bullet and get a smart phone. I'm going to be at several car shows and events over spring time, and I really need a way to update/edit my blog, post live tweets, post pictures etc. I need to do this while I'm out. I've looked around at reviews for several phones, and although an iPhone was not my first choice, it seems like it has the best multimedia and browser applications. Does anyone own one? What do they think? What about other phones that compare?

We bought them just before New Year. In my case it replaced a Palm Treo and for my wife it replaced a Palm and separate mobile. We eventually took the plunge because we are Mac desktop users, and Palm has long ago abandoned Macintosh users. If you are a Windows user you are going to have to download and use the Win version of iTunes in order to sync and manage your phone, which can be annoying. You can Jailbreak it to get away from this but that involves its own set of issues.

If you get one, spring for the 3GS with maximum available RAM (32gb as of writing). The purchase cost of the phone is a minimal part of the actual cost of ownership and you will regret not spending the extra hundred or two up front. As of this writing I believe only the 3GS has GPS which is one of the great joys of the phone.

Overall it's a great piece of kit, though I have to say, it has some flaws and weaknesses. The included To Do list is virtually useless - frankly I'm appalled at how bad it truly is. I can't even begin to imagine why Apple released it this way in this day and age. Luckily there are a large variety of 3rd party apps to cover that, most of which cost $5 or less. The Calendar is hugely better than the To Do list but still not as good as it could easily be. A number of the major information sources like Wikipedia have iPhone-specific front end apps that adapt to the small screen very well.

The integration of the whole thing is quite good and it works flawlessly for picking up email and webbing. The onscreen keyboard works well and has a fantastic autocorrect routine that not only corrects most fumbles but can be used seamlessly to increase typing speed by completing words for you.

It takes good pictures, too, though the camera settings are very basic. And I've got free or cheap apps that will do everything from keeping and organizing my shopping lists to ordering a pizza from the closest pizza parlor to providing realtime speedtrap locations based on user input. I even have the X-plane flight simulator on it.

There's some mis-information in this thread regarding capabilities.

3G and up have "real" GPS. You don't get turn-by-turn directions unless you pay for the app, but the included Google Maps has always been good enough for me.

You can move pictures on and off the phone by plugging it into your PC. Windows will treat it like a digital camera. No itunes needed. There are several apps for moving pictures to the web, I prefer the photobucket one.

You do need to use iTunes for updates, to load music, and for backup. What's really cool about the included backup is that if for some reason you needed to get a new phone, you just plug it into iTunes and restore it and it's like nothing ever happened. Everything is there.

Those of you that have never plugged your iPhone into a PC really need to do so. There's been a lot of updates and it's always handy to have a backup.

As skruffy mentioned, 3G on have GPS built in but only the 3GS has a compass built in.

Ah, my mistake on the GPS. Sorry.

You can always jailbreak the iPhone and get around the iTunes nonsense. Had a couple of people do that and it works just fine and he was able to switch back and forth with relative impunity.

So I ignored everyone's advice and just bought the Motorola Backflip, which I'm using to post this.

My girl dumped me this morning and I needed an impulse buy to take my mind off things. So far I'm quite pleased. It has a mutilated version of Android 1.5, and while I don't like that, I must admit that this phone is quite easy to use and does everything I need it to and then some. Plus it only cost me $50 (after I mail in the rebate).