My New Computer

I know what you're thinking. But despite the fact that it's called an "iPhone 3G," the telephone is the least useful part of this device for me.

Consider: In the five days I've had this thing, I've spent all of 16 minutes on phone calls, but sent and received almost 25MB of data over the cellular network. That doesn't even include all the surfing I've done over WiFi, both at home and in various cafes and restaurants. If you figure the voice calls at 28.8kbps, 16 minutes would amount to barely 3.4MB, or less than 12% of my cell net bandwidth usage.

I've retired my Sony CLIE, the last PalmPilot I'll ever own, because the iPhone does everything it should have done--especially syncing over the air with my calendar and address book, and running a real, full-featured web browser, not some lobotomized "mobile" version. I've upgraded to the iPhone version of Secret!, the single most useful application I've ever had, and already downloaded a whole slew of free apps, including Twitterrific, Shazam, and Lightsaber. You know, the essentials.

I'll be even happier after this summer's 3.0 update, which promises to add a voice recorder, proper Bluetooth support, and (gasp!) cut and paste. The iPhone's not perfect--the $18 "upgrade fee" for current customers was a bit of an insult, as is the fact that AT&T will still gouge charge me for individual text messages*--but it's pretty damn good for an early-21st-century handheld computer. Now where's my flying car?

~CKL

* Easily avoided using any number of free SMS apps, but still, WTF?