Okay I bought my first iPod spring '07, so I am not a huge adopter of Apple's toys (6 months later the 8gb video iPod came out!!!). But I am really loving some of the features of Apple's new iPhone. The email looks great with inline images viewable, the browser is Safari and auto sync to your desktop browser sounds great!

Why I Use a Blackberry but Will Buy My Wife an iPhone

Yes after looking at all of the options I will keep using a Blackberry. I started on a 8100 Blackberry Pearl then an 8300 Curve and now I just got my 8900 Bold. That said I would buy my wife an iPhone.

The iPhone looks great but as described below the iPhone won't capture my Corporate email and there are still many features lacking on an iPhone that I use everyday on my Blackberry. It is a little bigger than most Blackberrys. Here are a few of those features that are important to me:

• I don't like that the iPhone does not let you search the address book my alphabet (you have to scroll).
• No copy and paste - really? This is supposed to be a smartphone and it can't copy & paste?
• You can't click to call from a calendar entry. iPhone saves events as images.
• SMS Text messages cannot be forwarded
• No centralized file system. Programs create their own directories and only access those files.
• Emails cannot be searched and you cannot combine multiple email accounts into one inbox
• No removable battery so i cannot carry a spare while traveling

Some of this may get worked out with some of the new APIs that they are working on.

Corporate Push Email

But how can I use it for my corporate email accounts? It does not get 'pushed' around by Blackberry's servers (BES), so no BES service on an iPhone. Jobs even uses BES as an example of their competition. So while I can get "push IMAP" e-mail from Yahoo! (yawn... I use gmail) it leaves me dry for now as a corporate email device. On the comeback side, Blackberry has their new Pearl (my newest device is a Blackberry Pearl) and the 8800 smart phones allowing users to open MS Office attachments and play media files.

So if you want push email on your new Apple iPhone your option is Yahoo! Mail. If you want corporate direct push email you need a Blackberry device or you have to talk your IT Dept into allowing access to IMAP from their email server. But most IT Dept won't do it because it means they must open a new port to access IMAP 'outside' of their firewalls, where usually they require a VPN connection. IBM has ported their Lotus Notes email system from the iPhone, but it appears that to function it requires the company to activate webmail on their Notes server.

However, if I wanted to get Corporate email on the iPhone 'without' company tech support then I would have to setup forwarding on my desktop client (Lotus Notes) and then be able to 'reply' in a ghosted email from the device (so they don't auto-reply to user @ cingular-the-new-att.com. Not as slick as I would hope for and making it un-accessible to many corporate users. Either way this is not a direct push system, but even your desktop email usually only syncs every 1-5 minutes anyway. The biggest complaint is mail-forwarding, and even direct push IMAP, does not provide access to Calendars, Address Books or sync'd folders like BES on an iPhone would.

Speaking of Calendars

According to the Apple Site; "iPhone uses iTunes to sync with the calendar application you already use on your computer — iCal or Entourage on the Mac, or Outlook on a PC". So this is currently the only calendar sync option even though Google Calendars offers iCal subscriptions and Apple is a partner in the CalDav standard, it doesn't appear that this is an option. Word is that you may have to wait for the Leopard release to provide over-air sync of calendars for iPhone and Apple Servers.

Features of the iPhone

Here is a list of some of the Features on the new iPhone (note that there is no Video Camera and no Instant Messaging):

• iPhone runs OS X
• 8gb of storage built in (no more 4gb)
• WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0
• 2mb digital camera

Patented "Multi-tuch

• Steve Jobs, "It works like magic, you don't need a stylus, far more accurate than any interface ever shipped, it ignores touches, mutli-finger gestures, and BOY have we patented it!"
• Unlocks the phone by sliding finger across the screen
• You scroll through the list of artists by sliding you finger across the screen
• Photos bigger or smaller by moving your fingers together and further apart

The Phone

• It's got a proximity sensor, bring the iPhone to your ear and your display shuts off and touchscreen shuts down
• Accelerometer - so it can tell whether you're in landscape and portrait mode
• At 11.6mm its thinner than all of the smartphones, even the Q and the BlackJack.
• Highest resolution screen of any iPod - 160ppi screen
• Boo - its locked to Cingular so you are forced into contract
• SMS conversations look like Instant Messages with back to back comments
• No MMS and No copy paste from the browser to email

Visual Voicemail

• Just like email you can go directly to the voicemails that interest you.
• Result of exclusive partnership with Cingular.
• Allows visual random-access voicemail

Email

• IMAP or POP3 email service. Sorry no BES on iPhone.
• Yahoo Mail, MS Exchange, Mac Mail
• POP3: Gmail, AOL mail, and most ISPs
• Yahoo will offer free push-IMAP email to iPhone customers
• Inline photos, rich-text email
• Split view email
• iPod Music
• 16 hours of audio playback from a Bluetooth headset!

Thanks to BGR for a great post regarding how iPhone could improve their device.