Got the iPhone today. Just fiddling with all the tools and getting to know my way around. So far, so good. No comment on the battery yet.
What has impressed me the most thus far is the signup and transfer process, which was the most seamless I've ever experienced. Here's a play by play:
4:30 pm: Opened the box and plugged iPhone into my Macbook.
4:45 pm: Dead Time — joined a 30 minute conference call and tried to ignore the new gadget on my desk.
5:15 pm: Began signup process, which was completely online through the iTunes interface. This was very slick but more importantly, very simple. Like most Apple products, it just WORKS.
5:20pm: Called AT&T thinking surely I must speak to a person to activate this phone. The polite rep directed me back to the site to complete the process on my own time. All the options were clearly laid out and very simple. There weren't too many overlapping plans to choose from — they each differed by about $20 in price, which was fine with me. Anything in the $5 to $10 difference range would have been too confusing. Don't underestimate this point: when was the last time you bought a toothbrush in a grocery store? Too many choices leave me totally overwhelmed, pissed off, and impatient — that never happened here.
5:21pm: Re-started signup process. There were about 5 steps and most of the data was pre-populated since I was logged in as an iTunes user. Again, easy easy easy. The most complicated part was finding and entering my account number and password from Sprint.
5:35 pm: Mas or Menos, signup is finished. I get a welcome email saying the phone would work for outgoing calls immediately and could receive inbound calls later.
5:36 pm: Placed first outbound call successfully
6:15 pm: At grocery store (not shopping for toothbrushes) I received a call from AT&T that I had entered either the Sprint account number or password incorrectly. She conferenced me in with my assistant at work who looked up the correct number and supplied it to her.
This is the crazy part...
6:28 pm: Ended call with AT&T where the rep told me my phone would be working in 2 MINUTES. I was very impressed by this. My realistic expectations, since i was dealing with a huge telco, was the next morning. Bear in mind that at this point, it's all AT&T, not Apple.
6:35 pm: I leave the grocery store and get back in my car where my new iPhone has two voicemails waiting for me. Very impressive.
Now it's several hours later and I'm looking for stuff I can't find, such as the setting where you switch the phone on its side and the keyboard stretches out. I'm sure this will all come in good time but for now, I can't find it.