Yes - it's true - I've joined the ranks of those who have an iPhone. So let me start by saying for me, it's not just a clever phone - it's a new iPod and a new PDA. It was time to replace the Sony Clie (PalmOS based). The new iPhone has the AppStore and that means more than just the bundled apps. Yes I could have got an original and jailbroke it. But too many stories of things going wrong. And also insufficient decent apps - that is coming true for the new AppStore - though it is earl;y days and I'd say that in the main - many of the apps look good and don't do a lot or look naff and still don't do enough. The second set will those from other platforms merely recoded for the iPhone. When you see it as a replacement for a iPod and a PDA and you get a phone and a GPS as well then the cost in my terms is great.

I did take the tariff with O2 that was the lowest and I paid up front for the phone. It turns out that this is the least expensive over the time. The free WiFi at the Cloud and BTopenzone are very welcome.

So what's it been like?
Initial acquisition - not good. I find it incredible that for a) a mobile phone company and b) selling a mobile internet device like the iPhone that I was astounded to be filling out paperwork. It's like going to buy a new car and being fitted for new walking shoes. As for Apple - I expected that they'd learned the lessons of last year's hypo-hype of the launch and scaled the systems to cope. They hadn't, they didn't. It took me most of the rest of the day to activate the new iPhone. I had iTunes 7.7 ready. What made matters worse was the obscure, unhelpful dialogue boxes with error messages that didn't tell you a) what was wrong and b) what to do.

Usage - good - as I live in a rural area - it was only when I went to local city that I even saw 2.5G (aka EDGE) I have still not seen 3G. At home it's GPRS. Fortunately the wireless (WiFi) connect is great both at home and in various places (Caffe Nero).

AppStore - good but needs to improve - both in terms of the apps on offer, and better ways of navigating the categories and getting the number of downloads accurate - how can an app have 15 reviews and zero downloads? I guess that reviews are global but downloads are local (ie UK only). I have 4 apps installed and in use: Evernote (already been updated once); Twitterific, Remote and GuitarTooklit (this being the only non-free app). I've been intrigued to see that there is a PalmOS app under development - so maybe some of those apps I liked can be redeemed. Also I've noticed that developers selling in the AppStore already feel constrained - I have asked whether users of a desktop or previous version of an app can get the iPhone version at discount - they have used the excuse or it's a proper reason to say "We cannot give discount in the AppStore because it is not constructed to let us do that."

Push Email - yes that's working and it's good along with Contacts, Calendars. I do wish that notes and todo would make it. But I'm looking at my GTD app (OmniFocus) which has a proper iPhone app that syncs. Evernote is OK - but the notes are in the cloud rather than on the iPhone.

MobileMe - as a .Mac subscriber since I was an iTools user (also all the way back to eWorld!) - MobileMe is still getting there. I'm very disappointed that iCards are going (there is a petition) - what is the point of that - it clearly cannot be highly complicated, expensive to maintain. Or is this something that will be replaced with something from Google? My judgement is still out on MobileMe.