PRODUCT REVIEW
The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

My first impression of the iPhone is all about waiting ... waiting for six months, with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) dribbling bits and pieces to the masses in the way that Apple does it, mysteriously and apparently effortlessly stoking up a frenzy of anticipation. Just when you thought there was no more to say about it, Apple goes and throws another log on the fire, offering promises of better battery life and stunningly crisp how-to videos.

For the die-hard Apple fans, waiting in line for an iPhone at an Apple store for days on end is no big deal . However, what about the rest of us? Some of us have children, jobs and vacation time we want to spend using the iPhone, not waste waiting for it.

Tribulations From the Northwest

I live in Moscow, Idaho, a sleepy little college town that's a five-and-a-half hour drive from Seattle. The Seattle area has several Apple stores, but have you noticed the price of gas? The US$599 cost of an iPhone rockets past $700 when you have to drive all day to find one -- and even then you might arrive in Seattle with the chance of not finding one at all.

It was pretty easy to rule out a visit to an Apple store. My next two options were to buy online or go to an AT&T (NYSE: T) store. Pay for shipping? Nah.

I called the local AT&T stores: no iPhones within a 100 mile radius. "There might be a few coming into Spokane (Wash.)," a local AT&T sales guy told me. "But we just don't know."

Ouch. I choose the Apple online store, but at 5 p.m. on the day of the launch, I get a call from some friends with a dinner invitation. "OK," I say, "but it's got to be at a restaurant near the AT&T store -- I need to buy a new phone at six."

At Dinner

I can hardly stand eating, but of course, I know all I'll be doing is ordering the phone from the local AT&T store, not actually seeing one. At 5:50 p.m. I've had enough. I jet out, and my buddy picks up the tab. Wahoo! When I get to the AT&T store, I'm ninth in line. Ahead of me, a father is holding a little girl in his arms. She's asleep. Behind me, a woman is typing away on her BlackJack. I raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it sucks," she says.

Some guy strolls up to the line and asks, "What are all you guys doin'?"

I let the woman with the BlackJack explain. Instead, I ask an AT&T sales guy how long will it take to get through the line? "About ten minutes per customer," he says.

Ten Minutes!

Turns out that ten minutes is an optimistic number. From what I'm seeing, all the customers ahead of me are waiting as AT&T's system -- presumably overloaded with orders -- runs like a snail. Minutes pass between keystrokes, with the AT&T sales reps trying to make idle chitchat.

"The iPhone is so cool. It's the best phone ever," one young sales rep keeps saying. "You're going to love it."

I resist the urge to ask her if she's ever seen one in person.

When 6:45 hits, I'm just about ready to bail and try to order an iPhone at home from Apple's Web site. Seems like everyone ahead of me is a brand new AT&T customer who has to pick out a plan and another phone or two for their family members. At that moment, a new guy comes rushing up to the end of the line.

"Whew," he says. "I got onto the online Apple Store right at 6 p.m. and it says shipping will take two to four weeks! I got over here as fast as I could."

I keep my place in line. It's time to place an order.

Back at Home

Soon after placing an order, I get an e-mail from AT&T saying they received my order, and if I want to check the status, log onto this other Web site. So I do, and I get a screen saying an iPhone bag -- whatever that is -- and handset are on order, but they have not yet shipped. Here's the kicker: The handset is on backorder. Backorder? What's that mean?

I wait a day, then call AT&T and get a customer service rep on the line. She tells me, politely, that they don't know how long it might be before they ship me an iPhone. They don't know if they have any in a warehouse, if they are on a plane, train or boat. They don't even have a rough idea of when they might get some.

I'm seriously thinking about driving to Seattle. A couple of Apple stores have 4 GB models in stock. Apple's Web site told me so.

I decide to wait. Apple only sold 500,000 on opening weekend. Surely Apple's CEO Steve Jobs planned for more than that!

The Day Arrives

About a week later, I check my e-mail -- it's shipped! I stay focused and get some work done, but man alive, the wait is killing me. I decide to take out the garbage. Maybe I'll see the FedEx truck.

So talk about serendipity -- the FedEx truck is just up the street. I wave. The driver doesn't wave back. Instead, he backs up the street. No worries, he's got another package to deliver. I go back inside and pretend to be cool. I get a drink of water. The doorbell does not ring. I go back outside. I see the FedEx truck drive away.

I resist the urge to chase after it. My neighbors might suspect I think it's an ice cream truck. Besides, maybe that was a FedEx Ground truck and not the ones that deliver overnight packages. I go back inside and on a whim, track my package online.

Ahhh!

The FedEx tracking application says there is an address exception. They have the wrong address. I swear and the family dog jumps out of her skin. I call FedEx immediately, confirm that they had the correct address all along, and ask them to turn the truck around. No dice. They can deliver the package tomorrow instead, they say. I try not to freak out on the guy on the phone, but I'm sure he heard my sarcasm. Some question wondering if I need to put a big red flag out in the driveway tomorrow.

Still Fuming, Two Hours Later

The phone rings. It's FedEx! They'll send the truck back this afternoon to deliver the package. When it comes, I act all cool with the FedEx guy, who's totally apologetic. "No worries," I say. "These things happen."

When it get the package inside, I resist opening it. I'm on deadline. I get my work done first, and yes, I'm very proud of myself.

The Packaging Is Stunning

Apple enthusiasts already know this, but the rest of the world doesn't. When Apple creates a package, it's a finely engineered box where everything fits in elegantly. It forces the customer to open the box in such a way that the object inside is beautifully revealed. You get an immediate sense of understated quality. I mean, people post step-by-step photos of the unpacking experience online. I think Apple packaging designers take their jobs very seriously, and I would never joke about putting a sticker on one of their boxes.

When I get the iPhone out, it is both surprisingly small and large at the same time. The screen is huge, it's kind of wide, but it's thin, too. I hold it up to my ear. It feels good.

Then I drop it. It falls less than an inch, touches the edge of my MacBook laptop, and starts to boot up. Uh, oh. I'm not following the install procedure, so I push the button on the top and the screen goes blank. I think I it's turned off.

Once connected with the USB cord, I follow the startup procedure. The iPhone automatically launches iTunes, and I go through the activation process. It's fast and easy. Next, I sync the iPhone with my calendar (Apple's iCal), contacts (Apple's Address Book), e-mail (Apple's Mail) and iTunes. Again, it's fast and intuitive. With Mail, I was certain there would be some sort of password or configuration problem to troubleshoot, but there's not. It's done so quickly -- and apparently some of the Mail even arrives via AT&T's EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Revolution) network -- that I'm briefly concerned that it's not working correctly.

I check my mail, and wow, I've got the day's messages from multiple accounts. The format is astonishingly clear and easy to read. You get the name of each message sender, the subject line, and two lines of text.

The only obvious problem is that my spam filtering rules don't seem to translate over, so all my spam is right there for me to read on my iPhone. I do the little left-to-right finger slash move that I saw online and delete them all.

That's My Wife Talking in the Background

My wife strolls into my office, but I don't really hear what she's saying. I'm wondering, Why is she talking to me now? Can't she see that I've got an iPhone here?

My wife, who's suddenly at my side, snatches up the iPhone, turns it this way and that, and at any moment I fear it's going to slip from her hands and shatter in front of me. "This is a phone?" she asks. "It's huge! Why doesn't it fold?"

I give her a blank stare and gently remove my iPhone from her hands. "Careful," I say. "Hold it like it's a baby. I don't know how strong it is yet --and it's way smaller than most every other smartphone."

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, well, I just hope this thing is worth six hundred bucks," she says.

I give her a blank stare, then turn back to my iPhone. I use it to send myself a quick e-mail message. I make a couple of mistypes on the touch screen keyboard, but overall, it's not bad. I'm surprised. I tap "Send." I hear the "whoosh" sound of the message leaving my iPhone.

A moment later, I hear the chime and feel the brief vibration of the e-mail arriving on my iPhone. I open it up, and when I look up to show my wife the message, she's gone. It reads:

"Remember, you love her uncoditionaly."

Unconditional Love

As for the iPhone, I want to love it 100 percent, unconditionally, but there is the wait factor. If I hadn't had to wait so freaking long, I might be able to overlook some minor issues, which I'll cover in depth in future reviews.

First, let's stick with impressions and actions. I started working via the AT&T EDGE connection, but before I could let the speed irritate me, I signed onto my home WiFi network. Again, cake and pie. When you're connected to the EDGE network, you get an "E" in the upper left corner, and when you're on a wireless connection, you get the signal "fan" icon, complete with the signal strength indicated.

First, I went to MacNewsWorld.com, and yup, the page loaded perfectly, a tiny version of it. I could zoom in using the finger expand move, shrink it back using the pinch, and scroll and whip the page around in any direction just by dragging my finger. Wow -- it's sharp, fast and wicked cool.

Next, I checked out the weather. Ninety-nine degrees outside in Moscow. Didn't need an iPhone to tell me that, but still, it's cool. Works just like the Mac OS Dashboard Weather Widget.

Map App

On the iPhone, the Maps application is powered by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). I started to type my own address in for a search, but realized Apple must have already thought of this. I pushed the Home button, tapped the Phone icon, tapped Contacts, scrolled to my own entry, and then tapped on my own home address. Boom, the iPhone automatically took me to a street map with my address pinned. I tapped on Satellite and near-instantly got the satellite view. This whole process is so easy and so cool, you'll be taking it for granted in six months.

In fact, I suspect this is the problem with the iPhone. The overall interface is so sharp, the navigation so intuitive, the applications so handy ... that I'm already taking them for granted. I could gush about all these things, and many other reviewers already have, but it's also scary how fast you learn to get around.

Did I mention that the Trash icon in Mail program opens up and sucks a deleted message into it? Somebody at Apple is proud of the code it took to create that, and rightly so. There are tons of little touches like that, and they're all fantastic.

I Call My Wife

The call clarity is excellent, and the phone feels great against my ear. Did I mention that I didn't dial her number? I just tapped the right number in my Contacts list. The only problem I see here is that I'll forget phone numbers altogether. If my iPhone battery dies, I'll borrow someone's phone but I won't remember anyone's phone number. Such is life.

"Are you going to eat dinner?" my wife asks.

YouTube in Bed

So I'm browsing YouTube in bed -- my wife is sleeping beside me -- and I start laughing at the "Ask a Ninja" guy. Sure, I'm wearing the headphones so she can't hear the Ninja dude, but it turns out that using your iPhone in bed isn't a good idea.

YouTube was a bit confusing ... some videos loaded fast and others loaded more slowly, sometimes stopping play in the middle while the remainder continued to load. I'm not sure why yet, but I'll follow up on that. While the interface is clean and intuitive, I can see where bookmarking can save a lot of time. Here's the crazy part: Videos on my iPhone were much clearer than those on my MacBook.

Last up, I played some iTunes. Sound quality was excellent, and while I enjoyed flipping through my album covers, doing so on purpose to find a song is about the dumbest way to navigate. My navigation finger was starting to hurt. I yawned.

As I was falling asleep, I was thinking, This is just the coolest thing ... and yeah, I wish it could fold, too.