IPhone 3G.. a few months on

Ok so have been meaning to write a post about this for a little while now, basically to let those interested know my thoughts on the iPhone a few months after it has entered my life. 

Basically, it has ruined me. For those who don’t know, I love gadgets, always have. I also live in Tokyo, great place to be really for those of us with this affliction. It certainly WAS anyway until this damn thing came along. I can now no longer stroll through electronics stores thinking of ways to justify the various gadgets… ooh GPS…oh that’s right, iPhone has one… Oooh tiny camera…. no iPhone has one…. ooh Tiny Computer….no iPhone is one.

I think for most people who haven’t used the iPhone before it is difficult to understand what this device is. For me, it is numerous things. It is:

• The best MP3 player I have ever had
• The best / only portable Video player I have ever had (battery life is actually very good when in “Flight mode” on flights)
• A great tool for accessing e-mail
• Awesome for surfing the internet on the go.
• A great tool for keeping up with blogs
• A great tool for keeping up with friends (twitter, email, chat etc)
• A great way to keep organised (I use Omni Focus for keeping track of my multiple to do lists)
• Great way to find places / things. Google maps and iPhone are awesome
• Oh yeah its also the best phone I have ever used, visual voicemail, call conferencing, speakerphone, contacts ….BRILLIANT

When I first got it, small things irritated me about it, battery life was ok…. various apps crash and the keyboard isn’t the easiest thing to use in the world. But I’m happy to report none of these things now matter to me, I charge it fairly frequently so haven’t run out of battery with it yet. I have gotten used to using the keyboard and later releases of the iPhone OS have definitely improved stability, although haven’t fixed all the bugs….

A couple of recent things that have REALLY proved useful, Streetview… as a part of google maps, I can now actually look at an area I want to go to beforehand, this allows me to scope out parking and everything, awesome!! 

Wikiammo, a great application that makes surfing wikipedia from the phone simple!

Anyway, to bring this to a close, the iPhone has been the best gadget I have ever bought, by a massive way. And I have quite a few…. It has become such a big part of my day to day life that I think I would have massive withdrawal symptoms if I were to loose it. To me, every other phone I have ever had is just that, a phone where as this thing is so much more its incredible. I remember reading a post before buying it talking about how the iPhone’s success had not been adding features to phones that were new, phones have been able to play MP3’s and surf the internet for a long time.  But what Apple did was to make these functions accessible, easy or even fun to use and that is what sets this device apart. It is simply a joy to use.