Bacon: Take thrice daily.

First thing:I’m posting this from my iPhone! Solid.

I’ve found something annoying. If your phone is set to vibrate and while you are talking on the phone you get a text message… Buzz! Holy shit it scares the crap out of you!

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Allow me to start with a brief description of how I use my phone.  Outside of phone calls (duh) I check both my personal gmail and my work email (imap), send a ton to text messages (even more when drinking), and surfing the net to resolve bar room disputes (usually imdb.com), and the occasional photos.  I keep my phone in my front left pocket, I don’t do any of those belt holders or anything.

So I moved from a BlackBerry Pearl that I had had for about two years on T-mobile to an iPhone 3G on AT&T.

First impressions:

• The iPhone is noticeably heavier than the pearl bit its not uncomfortably heavy.
• The iPhone is taller and wider then the Pearl but significantly thinner.
• The touch screen keyboard is taking some getting used to but it hasn’t frusterated me too much yet.
• I haven’t got the coordination of texting with one hand down yet but I’m sure with practice that will come.
• I took less than an hour for my number to be moved from T-Mobile…that’s pretty impressive!  Last time I moved my number from Sprint to T-Mobile it took about a day and a half where I had to carry both phones around as one got all my incoming calls and had to make the outgoing ones on the other.

Unboxing/Setup:

The first thing I had to do before I could even consider leaving the house was move my contacts from my BlackBerry to the iPhone.  This was easier than I thought it would be!  I installed the PocketMac Sync Manager from BlackBerry’s site and that loaded all my contacts into my mac’s address book.  Then it was just a matter of checking off the “Sync Contacts” in iTunes and voila!

Next, setting up gmail…also very easy!  I just clicked the “mail” icon at the bottom and selected “gmail”  couldn’t be any easier.  The setup for my work email was essentially the same except selecting “other” and plugging in my imap/smtp server addresses.

The only thing I couldn’t figure out on my own was how to set it to vibrate.  As it turns out there’s a little switch on the left top.  Very cool.

Ok, now it was time for the fun stuff!  I click the “App Store” icon… I installed the following free Apps:

FaceBook
AIM
Google Search
iPint
More Cowbell
PhoneSaber
BubbleWrap
Shazam
SportsTap
WordPress

I had the FaceBook, AIM, and Google apps for the BlackBerry so I can directly compare them.

FaceBook App:
No comparison, the iPhone version is really, really cool!  The BlackBerry version used to wipe out my status whenever I logged into to…suboptimal.

AIM:
I try to avoid being on IM on my phone anyways but the iPhone app has a much cleaner UI.

Google:
iPhone version = really cool!  I installed it thinking “Why the hell do I need this? Can’t I just to go google in safari?”.  Well everyone needs this app!  It drops down a list of popular searches as you type very handy.

More Cowbell:
Ok, this is just dumb…it pops up a picture of a cowbell and Christopher Walken says “I’ve gotta have more cowbell” then you tap the cowbell and it makes a gratifying clank noise.  Hey its free.

Shazam:
Another “mostly useless but good for impressing your friends who don’t have an iPhone” app.  What you do is hold the phone up to a speaker and it identifies whatever song in playing.  Really.  It actually works!

Ok, now the bad stuff:

• I like the blinking red light on the BlackBerry so I could quickly glance to see if I had messages without touching the phone.
• I can see the “Slide to unlock” feature getting real old real fast.
• It’s only been a day but the battery life doesn’t impress me.
• I don’t get 3G at my house, but it really doesn’t matter cause its connected to my WiFi.
• There’s one number to tell me how much email I have from both my accounts combined.  I’d rather see separate numbers for each account.
• I think I prefer the gmail app on the BlackBerry over the mail interface on the iPhone but I’ll give myself a little time before final judgment on that one.

Ok, that’s all for now.  More updates soon.

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Ok, I’m not British (at least that I know of) but I feel things would be way more fun if we (Americans, or even just Bostonians) had a little more Brit about us.  We tend to ruin everything British (Who’s line is it anyways, The Office, soon to be Top Gear, etc)…lets start giving back.

Lesson one:

“I think we can fit that in with the rest of them”
“That’s what she said!”

Funny?  Yes.  Over used? Definitely.

Let’s Brit this conversation up a little bit:

“I think we can fit that in with the rest of them”
“Said the actress to the bishop…”

Enjoy and be sure to impress people with your new found Britishness.

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