On November 9th 2007 came the official release in the UK of the Apple iPhone. Here in Birmingham the place most people would be heading was the Apple shop in The Bullring.

Due to working till 5pm on the day, and the launch of the iPhone at 6pm I had no time to get into Birmingham City Centre to get towards the front of the queues, so I amde the decision to stay in Sutton Coldfield and visit my more local O2 shop. After a brief visit to a bar to pass some time I headed for the shop ready for the 6pm open time. To my amazement there was as little as 5 people hanging around the front of the shop. This meant I sure of getting the device in my hands with minutes of 6pm.

The doors opened and everyone squeezed inside bypassing the demo stand of the phone, going straight for the tills to pay. All other staff were left with nothing to do other than play with the phone as all customers just wanted to get in and out so they could get home with their new toy!

So with it now being May 2008, how have I found my first 6 months with the iPhone. Well, in short, I love it. The interface is perfect, and the screen responds really well. I don't think I could ever go back to a 'normal' phone handset after owning such a revolutionary device. The camera, even though it is only 2 megapixels, is great in most conditions, although it does start to struggle in low light conditions. The screen is clear and bright, and even with weeks of fingersprints and dirt it is still very easy to read texts and emails. Web and email access is superb, allowing me to be constantly in touch with everything I need. I have a way of managing webservers when on the move, and has also been useful for finding local attractions through Google search when away on vacation. Google maps is extremely useful for many reasons. Its a great tool for using for directions when in the car, and also for helping showing locations of attractions or landmarks to people without having to be by on a computer, or have a map to hand.

So far, I am very pleased with my purchase, and can't wait for the next revision, which should be 3G in summer 2008.