Jon Holato

Before I write anything about the iPhone I must express my extreme gratitude and appreciation for my girlfriend Carin, who is the best girlfriend a guy could ever ask for and that I love very much, because if not for her I would not have an iPhone right now nor would I be writing this post. You see, she had the day off from work yesterday, and she voluntarily waited in line at the Apple store all day to get me an iPhone while I was at work. You can read about her experience throughout the day on her blog in an entry called Waiting in line for the iPhone.

I have a ton of iPhone pictures and some video from yesterday’s events, so for organizational purposes I’m going to give a brief rundown of the day, then post the pictures with some information to describe them, and then I’ll insert some videos at the end of this entry.

Upon getting home from work yesterday a little after 6 P.M., I received a call from Carin saying that she had the iPhone and was heading to my apartment. About 10 minutes later she arrived with the amazing and beautiful and wonderful iPhone, and I began the incredibly exciting unpacking process.

Earlier in the day Carin and her brother had stopped by my apartment to grab my Macbook so that they had something to do while waiting in line, but unfortunately they had left the power cord at her house, and the battery was low. Thus, I unpacked the iPhone at my place then had to go to Carin’s house to install the new iTunes 7.3 and perform the activation process (there’s no way I was plugging this thing into a Windows machine).

When we got to Carin’s house we fired up the Macbook, installed iTunes 7.3 (needed for iPhone support), and plugged the iPhone into the dock that came with it. Then I had to go through a series of menus asking for what plan I wanted, did I want to transfer my number, my personal information, etc. If you’re interested in a step-by-step tutorial of activation, Apple has posted an iPhone activation video on their Web site. The whole process took about 5 minutes, with the majority of time spent waiting for the AT&T activation to go through.

Once it was activated (which is required — the iPhone functions are locked until the device is activated) the fun began, as I got to play with all of the amazing features that Borchers, Yasemin and I have been drooling over for quite some time (and David sometimes amidst the criticism). Without going into too much detail about the features for fear of making this post a novel, I want to say that the device is extremely simple to use. The menus perform exactly how you would anticipate, and the screen is very responsive to your touch gestures. Obviously the eye candy is stunning, as is the case with most Apple products.

Favorites features so far are probably the Photos application, the YouTube application, the Google Maps application, Safari, the iPod and how the phone system is set up with your contacts and visual voicemail. Speaking of visual voicemail, what a breeze to set up. Enter your password, select what type of greeting you want, and voila! It’s still very early though so there is some stuff I haven’t gotten around to using yet.

In response to reports from the New York Times’ Pogue and the Wall Street Journal’s Mossberg stating that the keyboard was difficult to use, I find those claims mostly unfounded. Sure, I am misspelling words more than on my T-Mobile Dash, but the learning curve for the iPhone keyboard is much lower than they are reporting. They claim that in 5 days you can get used to it and type with two hands, but I’m already typing with two hands on this my second day. Their complaints about the AT&T EDGE network are spot on, however, as I have seen slugs download Web pages faster. However with WiFi using Internet-powered applications is a breeze.

That’s about it for my first day iPhone summary, now onto some pictures. I apologize in advance for the quality of some of these pictures, as they were taken from a horrible cell phone camera. But you can still get the gist of what’s going on in each image.

1) Tickets to ensure position in line at Apple store for the iPhone.

2) Waiting in line outside the Apple store.

3) iPhone display in Apple store

4) Apple store employees lined up to cheer on people coming to purchase the iPhone.

5) The line outside of the Apple store.

6) Apple employee ringing up the iPhone.

7) Carin showing off the iPhone after getting cheered for being the first one out of the store.

8 ) The iPhone bag finally in my apartment.

9) The iPhone in its packaging.

10) iPhone box just opened.

11) iPhone in plastic wrapping.

12) iPhone and included accessories.

13) First time turning on the iPhone.

14) iPhone waiting to be activated.

15) Beginning of iPhone activation process through iTunes.

16) Select new or existing AT&T customer.

17) Screen to transfer mobile number.

18) Select your desired iPhone service plan.

19) Enter your Apple ID.

20) Authenticating your Apple ID.

21) Customer information for AT&T screen.

22) AT&T verifies your address.

23) Accept Apple iPhone Terms & Conditions.

24) Accept AT&T Service Agreement.

25) Wait for AT&T to process your activation.

26) iPhone waiting for AT&T activation.

27) iTunes screen with iPhone connected.

28) iPhone is activated.

29) iPhone home screen after activation finishes.

OK that does it for the pictures. Now here are a few videos that Carin captured from her phone throughout the day. Again, I apologize for the lackluster quality, but if anyone wants to buy me a video camera they will be better next time!

1) Apple employees closing down the store at 2 P.M.

2) Apple employees setting up black curtains in the front of the store to prepare for the 6 P.M. iPhone launch.

3) iPhone display in Apple store window counting down the time until launch.

4) Apple employees moving through the line giving high 5’s just before the 6 P.M. iPhone launch.

5) The final countdown before the 6 P.M. iPhone launch, and walking into the Apple store to purchase the iPhone.

That about does it for my initial iPhone review. I wouldn’t consider it a far stretch to assume there will likely be many iPhone-related posts from me in the coming weeks as I get more accustomed to this wonderful device. So two gigantic thumbs up to Apple for creating the iPhone, this is easily one of the best electronic devices I’ve ever used.