iPhone

So, here is the verdict.

Do I like it? Yes.

Why? Er, don't know.

Maybe because I like the Apple OS?

Maybe because I can choose a nice gentle harp sound for the alarm call instead of a horrid shrill BEEP! BEEP!

Maybe because it takes nice pictures (apart from feral cats in the dark).

Maybe because it is intuitively easy to use - well it certainly is if your main computers are also Apple.

The truth is, I didn't need another 'phone. Nor am I into fashionable consumer status symbols.

I don't listen to music - I've never had an ipod, or before that even a CD player. I only bought a walkman type thing so I could listen to Linguaphone cassettes and learn Spanish.

I'm not interested in videos, or scrolling through Youtube looking for funny or interesting vids.

I've certainly no intention of buying a load of applications either.

But simple things please me. I can key in Gibraltar for the weather - on my HP the weather widget doesn't accept Gibraltar, Gibraltar. :(

And I can set all my world clocks up, so I know when friends in America, Canada and Australia are awake/asleep.

Did I pay hundreds of pounds for those small pleasures? No. I paid it for a small computer that I can use on the move, preferably using someone's wifi, but if necessary - at a price - I can use it on roaming. (I don't have wifi at home).

I have yet to plough through the manual and discover what it can do. I have yet to discover what it can do if I jailbreak it. But having paid a fortune for it, I am unlikely to dabble with it.

I should explain that it came factory unlocked. In Spain, Apple is only available with a rip-off Movistar contract. But here in Gib, there are no restrictions, so you can put in whatever sim card you want. Ironically I probably wouldn't have minded a Gibtel contract, as their prices are reasonable. Anything is reasonable compared with Movistar/Telefonica.

And because it is factory unlocked it comes with an Italian manual - Italy being one of the other places in Europe where you can buy them legimately unlocked, rather than cracked.

I could probably work out most of the Italian manual, but I really can't be bothered, so that means I have to peer at the manual on screen or print it off. All 154 pages of it. Perhaps printing off the relevant pages is the way to go.

Oh, it's 3G (8GB) by the way. I'd asked about 16GBs ages ago, but the shop has never got any in. In fact at the time I asked they didn't have any iPhones in stock at all, so I put my name on the 'ring and tell me when you have them' list.

Some three (?) months later, ie last week, I finally got a call. Was I still interested?

Yes, but could I come down and have a look and a play around with it?

Er, no. They were in sealed boxes, they only had a limited number, and they weren't going out on display. Oh, and they would be getting some 3GSs in later if I wanted to wait.

How long?

A couple of weeks.

That seemed highly unlikely to me given that it had taken months to get this latest batch of 3Gs. I should also add that the 3GS is £879 for 16GB, and £999 for 32GB. That seems an excessive amount of money to pay for a 'phone, when I'm not interested in half the features.

Anyway, I was instructed to go and buy it. I'm not sure if it is a belated birthday present or just coincidence that they came into stock a couple of weeks after my birthday. (For what I did get up to on my birthday, read here.) But being a dutiful and obedient sort of partner, I went and bought it. I even bought a case as instructed too. It's quite a nice black one with a clear plastic visor. And there is a sticky thing to go on the screen which I have managed to mess up, hence the somewhat unclear picture of Pippa on the wallpaper through scratched and fuzzy plastic.

More of a review later when I have worked through the manual to see if there is anything else I want to do apart from look at the weather and world clocks.