Having been a lifelong Treo user, moving to the iPhone was quite a change. Part of what powered that decision is the lack of updates and roadmap to the future for the Treo (addressed here in Engadget’s open letter to Palm )

First the highlights- the iPhone has the best webbrowser I’ve ever seen – the wi-fi is blazingly fast, it’s the sexiest IPOD interface I’ve ever used, and the large screen makes so many tasks not only viable, but enjoyable.

Synching with Outlook is pretty easy (DO NOT WHATEVER YOU DO INSTALL OUTLOOK ADD-INS as they will cause large problems with your iPhone sync) and the transition to Outlook from Palm was easier than I thought it would be (I still detest the fact that Outlook lumps all of my information, emails and attachments into one large file).

As my 4 year old daughter, Isabella, proved the first time she picked up the phone, the main menu is easy to navigate with options for txt messages, calendar (shows the current date), photos, camera, youtube videos, stocks, (google)maps, weather, clock, calculator, notes, settings and a recently added itunes option (to download music directly) The bottom row has a phone button (showing in the superscript how many voice mails you have), mail button (showing how many unread message you have), a safari (surf the internet) button and the Ipod button.

Having been a 15+ year user of t-mobile I wasn’t excited to make the switch over so I ran two phones side by side until I knew the change is what I wanted. I’ve not looked back since then.

I do miss the hardware buttons the treo had that took me to phone, txt, email, notes and calendar – the extra clicks on the iPhone are mildly annoying.

I’ve heard of poor battery life and while the phone is good for one day’s use, the plethora of IPOD connectors I have at home, at the office, in the car and my briefcase make a quick charge easy.

Hints
One short cut I’ve discovered - double click on the home button to go to phone or straight to IPOD if music is running and it will take you straight there.

Wants/Solutions

Phone
Getting to my major contacts should be easier and faster. The keys on the dialpad should be square, and more attentions should be paid to the location of extra buttons as I often end up dialing 3rd parties, or placing calls I didn’t mean to as the interface is not as intuitive as I would expect from Apple.

Notes
Although the iPhone lets you create notes, there is no option to sync those notes to Outlook’s Notepad - I have hundred’s of notes from my Treo – from meetings, codes, and other important personal information – one work around is to send those notes to your IMAP email service

Files
My treo held a secure digital storage card that allowed me to transport my most important files – even the IPOD has a drive mode that lets you move your own files, but not the iPhone. There are a couple of programs available to remedy that issue:
iPhone drive - (a Mac only piece of software)
iPhone Touchcopy
Accessing music without iTunes/sync – try ORB - http://corp.orb.com/en/how_does_orb_work

But the best solution I have found is to email my IMAP email account my files –thanks to the tech guys at SWCP (my ISP) for setting this up for me.

3rd party Applications
Other’s suggestions

It’s either Apple’s way or the highway
Yes its true you can’t customize the phone one bit, except for changing the wallpaper, you can’t hide buttons, change menus, modify email views, or anything else – just like it the Apple way or move back to another phone.

At the end of the day, I am proud to own the iPhone and my biggest disappointment is how popular it is and how often the kids nab it for their own use. That said, my wife, a fellow Treo user, found the loss of utility not worth the gain in entertainment features.

During the first month of ownership, one of my iPhones “popped” out of my cargo shorts pockets as I was dragging our trash dumpster from across the street back to our office. Unfortunately this was the result:



A number of companies have thrown their hat into the ring making cases, and I can tell you my favorite comes from vajacases. This ½ coverage case coupled with a screen protector has served me well.

For the long road trips, when my iPhone is tossed into my backpack, I prefer one of the cases that covers the entire phone and has a place to wrap your headphones around.



Something I’ve not tried but I do have an interest in is the shieldzone cover.

During the last 6 months I've collected the following links and resources that might assist you in your iPhone travels...

Apple’s iPhone
iPhone picture gallery
Apple’s user manual
Apple’s discussion board
Wikipedia’s iPhone info
An iPhone dissected
iPhone unofficial blog
17 clever applets for iPhone
iPhone update’s
iPhone applications open development community
Hacking your iPhone #1
Hacking your iPhone #2
Hacking your iPhone #3
Unlocking phones
Freeing ringtones from Itunes

A bout 3 months after the release of Apple reduced the price of the iPhone’s by $200 causing a bit of an uproar in the media about the cost per day for those early adopters, who like me, stood in line to get their iPhone. Like many early adopters, I expected Apple to reduce the price of the iPhone and it didn’t cause me any grief – that is the cost of being the early adopter – you have the power to see if this new tool can give you a competitive advantage, or not in that time.

Much to my surprise, Apple announced to all iPhone users a $100 gift card for each iPhone.

What a major coup – I used mine to purchase the iPod http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/ new=true]iPod Classic[/url].

To all iPhone customers:
I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone 'tent'. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.

Steve Jobs
Apple CEO

Unfortunately for Apple, the hype created over the iPhone, the carefully crafted event at the Apple stores, was all undermined by the ridiculous hang-ups with the activation process.

Imagine this – you’ve just spent $600+ on a new “gadget” you get it home and you can’t play with it until you download and install the newest version of iTunes (no it was included on a CD in the box) then hook the phone and iTunes together through your computer, answer a series of questions, and then…

WAIT

And

WAIT

And

WAIT

For AT&T to get its act together, activate your account and turn on your gadget.

My wait time?

21 hours including over an hour spent on the phone with the AT&T folks (3 different calls) – none of which yielded results, all of which left me with the impression that AT&T wasn’t geared up for this at all.

Other blogs covered reported similar incidents:
Problems with AT&T vs. Apple store sales -
Problems with AT&T vs. Apple store sales
Gizmodo’s coverage of activation woe’s
PCWorld covers disasters in activation here