I've had pretty bad luck with first-generation Apple devices; my iPod mini had the feedback from the location of the headphone jack, and my MacBook Pro had a high-pitched whine that took several tries to fix. So when the iPhone was released, I resolved to stay my ground and not purchase one. Problems with Apple devices are usually discovered fairly quickly, within the first couple days of release.
After seeing how quickly kwc could surf the web at SDCC this year, I decided that although EDGE was slow, and 3G would be much faster, EDGE seemed to work just fine for pulling up Google and the like. Faster internet, while nice, wasn't necessary.
When Apple dropped the price of the iPhone by $200, I decided that I should snatch up one of the discontinued 4gb iPhones. At $299, it feels like a steal to me, since it's the same price as the 8GB iPod Touch, and includes the phone, camera and bluetooth capabilities, which aren't present on the iPod Touch, for the cost of an additonal 4gb of storage space, which according to Apple is worth $100 more.
Will there be a bigger and faster iPhone? Definitely. The existence of the 16GB iPod Touch means that a 16GB iPhone is on the way, and with phone networks more sophisticated in Europe and Japan, it is also very likely that the next iPhone will also include 3G for faster web surfing. However, the problem with the iPhone in the U.S. is not the iPhone, but the phone network that it runs on: AT&T's EDGE network.
The screen on the iPhone is wonderful. YouTube videos and movies look very nice on it. The screen however, triggers all my OCD tendencies, as I am constantly wiping it down fingerprints and smudges. The iPhone is very thin, a little thinner than my previous phone, but just as tall. I haven't had any trouble connecting to WiFi networks other than trying to type in passwords correctly, but my fingers appear to be the almost perfect size for typing on the keyboard.
When I was testing out the iPhone after activation, I noticed some defects in the screen, so I returned to the Apple Store this morning and exchanged it for a new iPhone. While I was there, the clerk asked me if I wanted to change up to a 8GB iPhone. Didn't really feel like it, as I'm sure that when this iPhone expires, there will likely be a new and better iPhone available, and 4GB is plenty for me, when I'm mostly just using it as a portable web browser.
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