My new iPhone

My new iPhone

Since I saw the iPhone on sale about 2 weeks ago at the AT&T website for $250, I couldn't resist (due to my geeky tech savy cravings) purchasing it. It arrived earlier this week and have been playing with it for the past 2 days. The first thing I did of course was to hack it so that I can use my T-Mobile account with it; AT&T's 2 year contract agreement didn't quite sound so appitizing. It took me about five minutes to update the phone with the newest firmware v1.1.4. and about four minutes to unlock(user other mobile providers) and jailbreak(run unsigned applications) the phone.

First thing I thought was that it was a lot heavier than it looks; it's very very thin, yet it weighs like it has tons off technology stuffed in it. That makes me very happy of course. Second was how shiny and sleek it was.... I've been so scared of putting it in my pocket since I'm afraid of scratching the screen. But after reading this article http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133636-pg,1/article.html, I realized that unlike the ipods, this phone has a great scratch resistent glass surface!

All in all compared to my Blackberry Pearl, it's a nice flashy upgrade. BUT!!!! The biggest issue is that it doesn't support push email currently and in my work enviroment I need to be notified the moment an email hits my inbox. I'm still debating whether I will be keeping this device, but since Apple says that they will be releasing software that will enable the push email feature to work with Microsoft Exchange, I might have to hold on to it till June and see.

Should you buy it? Well the price dropped from $499 to $399 recently for the 8GB model. If you don't care about the cost, I'd advise waiting till June when they release the 2nd generation of the iphone that supports the 3G network. If cost is an issue, $399 is not too shabby... I'm lucky and got it for $250.

As for the two year contract.... HA! Just go to an Apple store and say you'd like to buy the iPhone for a friend. They will give you an unactivated iPhone which you can hack and activate to your own cell phone provider (or I can do it for you).

It's been a lot of fun playing with this phone's iTunes, iPod, Maps, Safari, YouTube, Wifi, Bluetooth, NES Emulator, and camera. Hopefully I won't get bored of it soon.

Pros:
Hackable!
Big beautiful screen!
Wifi!
3rd Party Apps!
Great Hacking Community!

Cons:
Earphone jack is recessed which makes a lot of my quality headphones useless... :(
No push email or enterprise features yet... :(
Battery life isn't that great, last maybe a day of intensive use... :(
No bluetooth headset option (A2DP)....