iphone
First gen, 3G, 3GS, wait what?
Oh god, why did I fall into temptation? My dad simply had to have the best of the best, so he went with AT&T and got a new iPhone 3GS. Since the whole family sticks together on cellular service, I figured I'd just get one too. Why couldn't I have gotten a Palm Pre or one of those shiny Android based phones? Oh well, you get what you get. Let's take a look at it.
Advantages
If anyone hasn't heard of the Apple iPhone yet, I have to ask you: Are you living under a rock? You heard Steve Jobs! It's a phone! It's an iPod! It can surf the web! Take pictures! Organize your life! Check your email! See which direction is north! Tell you your current location! Anyways, you know the drill.
One major advantage that I think Apple isn't advertising enough is the insane amount of applications that can be downloaded onto the iPhone. The third party offerings for the Android marketplace and the Palm Pre don't even compare (not yet, anyways). Until open source developers start to jump onto other platforms, the iPhone definitely has the advantage in the sheer number of applications available.
Disadvantages
Well, first on my mind is the fact that it gets hot. I agree with others: burning hot. Ouch. Also, even if the "S" in "3GS" stands for speed, I can still see instances where my phone gets pretty slow. Waking it from sleep mode can take up to 3-5 seconds, especially if the phone's been on nonstop for weeks. Hmm.... memory leaks, anyone? The compass ain't exactly the most accurate thing on Earth, and the GPS is sometimes off a little bit regarding my location. I would totally ask for multitasking if I weren't worried that the device would get even hotter; lots of apps have still not implemented push notifications, which aren't even perfect themselves.
Even though I've said that the App Store is a major selling point on the Apple iPhone, I still have a very large concern about it: the developer fee. $99 dollars a year isn't much, but it makes a huge entry barrier to small developers (hint hint: I'm sixteen, remember?). With this in place, the more open platforms (I'm looking at you, Android) should be able to surpass the App Store sooner or later. Long live F/OSS, eh?
Further Thoughts
Well, I guess that's that for my little blurb on the iPhone. Hope it enlightened you a bit on my take on this ridiculously popular phone/iPod/whatever.