iHeart my iPhone / So yeah, I succumbed to the ad pressure and snagged an iPhone. Actually I rationalized myself into it; with as much of our business being on-the-go, it makes good sense to have a fully-functioning internet portal strapped to my hip wherever I go. Plus the big screen and on-board storage make it a spectacular in-situ photo viewer.

I'll admit, I had some serious buyer's remorse, and almost packed the thing up the day after I got it. iTunes is a nightmare to sync correctly with Outlook, if for no other reason that it's got Apple's typical so-simple-it's-almost-too-simple interface. Come on, give me something to check when the thing doesn't work. Don't just pop up an error dialog and tell me it couldn't complete the operation. Give me an error number, a log file, a script line error, a debug option...something. The fact that I'd already loaded it with photos and music made me keep it another couple days, even with no contacts and calendar sync (which was another BIG reason why I'd gotten it in the first place--the ability to keep connected to my main Outlook-based calendar on the road). Finally, after much searching on the web and numerous attempts at reinstalling iTunes and repairing Outlook, I found that the problem was related to some Plaxo contact-management software I'd given a trial run on several months ago. When the software converted my calendar, it basically corrupted it to a version that Outlook could read, but nothing else could. So I created a new profile in Outlook, imported my recent emails and my old calendar information from the database, and voila, iTunes synced up on the first try.

So long story short, my iPhone experience is one of growing love. Did I freak out and think this was the second coming of the technological Jesus? Nahhh, not really. It's most definitely a first-generation device (no on-board games, no installation of new ringtones?? Come on, apple!), but it has grown on me to the point where I don't really miss my Razr anymore. Lost an address on the way to a dinner party? No sweat, open up the browser and hit up whitepages.com. <bing> Oh there's a new email from that wedding photography contact we had last week. What's that, you want to see some wedding photos. No problem, I've got our 'top-50' right here, let me run the slideshow for you.

Yeah, it's definitely growing me...