Seven hours and still no sign of activation. Very frustrating.
I thought I'd give you a glimpse into why I decided to buy the iPhone. It wasn't just technolust. The release of the phone made me re-think what I used a phone for. Here's how it went:
What I don't do:
Games - very seldom
Typing - not a lot. Email and SMS are important to me, but most of my email consists of only two or three sentences
Documents - I have no need to read Excel or Word documents on the phone
What I do do:
Email and SMS - but short messages only
Ebook reading - very important. I read several books a week
Internet browsing - very important. I keep in touch with my RSS feeds constantly
Listen to music
I looked at my other phones:
I have several Windows Mobile phones and have used Windows Mobile a lot in the past. I have really come to dislike that operating system intensely. I have several Windows Smartphones (no touch screen) and don't like those either. I doubt I'll ever buy another Windows Mobile phone.
I have a Treo 650 and 680. The 650 is obsolete and the 680's battery life is too short. Further, since Internet browsing is important to me, the poor Palm browser and tiny screen are real drawbacks. Despite the availability of third-party MP3 players, music on the 680 is still kludgey. I have continual problems syncing the 680 to my MacBook.
Nokia phones: I have an e62 and and e61i. The e62 has been gutted by Cingular but the new e61i is a really super phone. Good keypad, large screen, WiFi and excellent browser. However, its big and I don't use 90% of the programs on the phone. I found that I was just using the browser, contacts, calendar and Mobipocket. It does music very poorly as well. Syncs to the MacBook very well. Symbian is a better OS than Windows Mobile, in my opinion, but I am really getting tired of trying to figure out where everything is and trying to remember all the odd settings and preferences that need to be changed now and then.
Given the above, it seemed that the iPhone was a good choice. It combined an excellent browser (I know because the e61i also uses a Safari browser) with a large screen which makes browsing much more pleasant. WiFi is really a blessing, as I found out from my Nokia phone and N800 Internet Tablet. It will do email and the touch screen isn't a drawback for typing because I don't type that much. Of course it does music really well. Given Apple's expertise with user interfaces, I expect that the phone will cut out all the poking around I'm forced to do on all the other phones to set a preference or change something. The one thing I will miss is ebook reading with Mobipocket. However, I'll just carry along my trusty Palm TX, so I still have a foot in the Palm world.
Now, I just wonder when I'll be able to use it.