As originally seen on BccList.com here, I did a quick review of the iPhone a few months ago.   Many of my few “criticisms” still exist, but, I guess there’s a way you can now do some sort of copying and pasting though I haven’t tried it out yet – so, that’s cool.

Regardless, a buddy of mine recently won his fantasy football league and asked what I thought of the iPhone before he goes out and buys one.   Here’s my response…

“Nice win!  The iPhone is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever owned.

Wave 1: You open the box before leaving the store, start surfing the internet on the way home as [his wife] drives, and immediately put all your music on it once you get home so you don’t have to carry around a cellphone and iPod.  You haven’t spoken to [his wife] since before entering the store and it’s nearing 2 am.

Wave 2: For the next few weeks, you dig deeper into the phone and start downloading free or even cheaply priced iPhone applications.  If you’re not familiar with the term “iPhone application,” downloading them isn’t as complicated as I may have just made it seem.  I’ll send you a list of my favorites so you don’t have to waste time with boring/useless/outdated ones.  For approximately a week after getting the phone, you will rarely talk to anyone – including [his wife] – outside of work.  This is where [his wife] gets visibly annoyed.

Wave 3: Approximately a month or two after having the phone, you still love it but notice your communication level outside of work has strangely picked up.  You’re talking to people again rather than just staring/typing on your phone all day and night.  [His wife] starts to think, “Hey, maybe this relationship will work out.”

Wave 4: At about the 3 month mark, you surf the internet for iPhone application reviews and/or your buddies send you all the iPhone applications they use on a regular basis that you wouldn’t have downloaded on your own.  For example, I’ve downloaded the constitution for free recently.  Yes, the mother fcking constitution.  [His wife] threatens to leave you because you’re back to your old habit of constantly messing around with your goddamn phone.

Wave 5: ?  I’m not there yet but I’m still married.  I got called out last week for grabbing my phone immediately after waking up rather than saying “Good morning” to [my wife].

Regardless, the iPhone is the dopest shi!t ever.  I have the 8 gb.  I don’t have the most extensive music collection and only one movie stored on the phone.  I think I’m using like 4 gb of space and can’t imagine using much more than that.  If you have a ton of music like [friend] or plan on storing a lot of movies/television shows on your phone, I would recommend going with the 16 gb white version because the white backing looks cool.

When you go to buy the phone, don’t buy the 2 year insurance plan that they may try to pitch you.  The phone comes with a one year warranty and you can add a second year of insurance – to get you through the life of your AT&T contract – anytime during that first year for like $70.  They will probably try to pitch you Apple’s MobileMe.  Don’t buy (or even use a trial version that rolls into a paid version after the trial ends) of MobileMe because it’s worthless.

Moreover, don’t buy a screen protector (like I did) because the screen is scratch resistant.  I bought a pretty cool leather case to protect the back of the phone when I drop it.  Sort of worthwhile and not as dorky as “a pretty cool leather case” sounds.  Completely optional – I’ve only dropped the phone a few times.  The case will leave the face of the phone open so that you can still use it.  Don’t buy a rubber or clear plastic case because the clear one will make you look weird and the rubber case makes pulling the phone out of your pocket unnecessarily cumbersome.

A case like this will work…

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TS605LL/A?n=iphone2&fnode=MTY1NDA0NA&mco=Mjg1MjI1Nw

It comes with earbuds which include a microphone so that you can take a call if someone phones while you’re listening to music.  The included earbuds are decent enough.  Since you’re not stuck on a train for 2 hours a day, they will probably be all you need.  If you want to upgrade – completely optional like the case – I recommend something like…

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TU020LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA1MA&mco=Mjg3MjIyNA

Crick”