I’m an iPhone user now!

Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...

I’ve been a Blackberry user for a long time. I started using them back when the device looked like a pager and only did email (RIM 850) I’ve been very accustomed to doing things the Blackberry way. Over the years, I’ve had all types of Blackberry’s…6200 series, 7200 series, 8700 series, and Curve 8300. The one I had for the longest time was the 8700c and it was a great phone. I was very used to the side track-wheel so when I got the Curve 8300 with the trackball, it took some getting used to. Once I got used to it, it was just another Blackberry. One thing I always hated about Blackberry was the fact that you could not view email in HTML format natively until version 4.5 of the Blackberry OS which was not available for AT&T customers. I’ve been wanting HTML email, a decent mobile web browser, and more apps for quite some time and Blackberry was just not cutting it, so I figured I’d try out the iPhone and see if it really lives up to the hype.

Let me tell you…it definitely lives up to the hype!

The screen is bright, clear, and big compared to the Blackberry. I can now really browse the web from my phone! Websites look just like they do from a computer and the picture quality is excellent. At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d like the email interface but it has definitely grown on me. I’ve got my work and personal email accounts loaded into it and I can actually view messages in HTML! The speed of the device is great as well. 3G is fast! If you don’t have 3G coverage, then you can use available Wifi. Need to remote into your work’s network or your home network? Use the built-in VPN client. There is a lot of functionality with this phone.

Be prepared though…with the 3G iPhone, everything is turned on by default and battery life is really bad. I was playing around with the phone quite a bit and my battery only had 20% left after a couple hours. I charged it all night, started using it a bit the next morning and by noon, there was only 20% battery left. I now have most things turned off by default unless I need them. I disabled 3G, location awareness, Wifi, and push email synchronization. Once I did all this, the phone actually held a charge for a day or two depending on usage. I can live with that.

The best thing on this phone is the app store. There are so many apps available for this thing. Everything from games to social networking clients to productivity apps in one location. This is where Blackberry dropped the ball. There may be lots of apps for Blackberry, but they are not that easy to find from the device itself. The app store gives you access to all the apps from one location and makes it easy to add them to your device. I find myself browsing the app store all the time downloading apps to review later. So far, I’ve got about 10 screens worth of apps…some free, some paid for. The ones paid for are usually very inexpensive. I don’t think I’ve paid more than 4.99 for an app…and most paid ones I have were either 99 cents or 1.99. Where else can you get software for that cheap?

So, what are your favorite apps on the iPhone?

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