Tikkabik

Thanks to a very generous reimbursement policy from my employer paired with another phone that was clearly on its way out, I stopped by the mall last night and bought an iPhone from the local AT&T store (the closest Apple retail store is almost an hour away, and Apple still hasn't seen fit to let authorized independent resellers sell them).

I got it home, plugged in to the Mac and about three minutes later activated the phone and synced all of my contact and calendar data to the device. Totally impressive. I set up a few music playlists, and before too long, the iPhone was equipped with about 3GB of music that I like to listen to when I'm out and about. I have to admit, I couldn't have asked for an easier transition to a new device.

So far, using the iPhone has been pretty easy. I'm slowly adapting to the keyboard, though I'm immediately missing the tactile feel of the keyboard on the BlackBerry I used to have. Using the iPhone keyboard is more dependent on hunt-and-peck using the index finger of my right (dominant) hand to accurately select the right letter; with the BlackBerry, I'd grown accustomed to letting my thumbs do the talking.

Safari renders Web pages pretty clearly, and the mail client works quite nicely too. For some reason, it wasn't totally intuitive to me that the "Sounds" general preference was where I'd be setting the iPhone's ringtone, so it took me a bit to figure out how to change that.

Ambrosia Software's WireTap Studio makes installing custom rings a home run. So far I've put on three -- the old Monday Night Football theme for my friend Paul, the opening riff of "Fire it Up" by Black Label Society for Jim, and the opening 13 seconds of "Freddie Freeloader" by Miles Davis for my mom. I'll probably try a custom ringtone through iTunes just to compare the process before the weekend is out.

So far, I'm impressed -- more than I thought I would be. Now if I could just find my Bluetooth headset, I'd be happy.