**Long post ahead, be warned.**

Singtel threw a party at midnight of 22nd August to launch the iPhone but I was terribly unimpressed, so I’m not going to talk about that. My buddy Jimmy was there with me and he has some coverage of the event on his blog as well as some videos. See if you can spot me.

I went back the next day to buy my iphone and about two hours in line later, I came home with my brand new white iPhone 3G. I mucked around, got everything in sync, fiddled with the settings and even took it out to town. 24 hours later, I’m here to share whether I think the iPhone lived up to its hype.

Let me start by saying what it cannot do. Out of the box, the iPhone:

• Can’t send MMS.
• Can’t do video calls (despite being 3G).
• Can’t create group contacts.
• Can’t send contacts.
• Can’t let you replace battery.
• Can’t set custom ringtones (unless you buy it off the iTunes store)
• Can’t shoot Video.
• Can’t cut/copy and paste anything.
• Can’t voice dial.
• Can’t edit Microsoft office documents.
• Can’t perform turn-by-turn GPS navigation.

Unimpressed?  You should be.  I used a Dopod running Windows Mobile before, and I know these functions exist in smart phones. Why didn’t Apple include them right from the start? Do the lack of these functionality then, make the iPhone a failure? Maybe not.

I hated my Dopod running Windows Mobile. I’m so relieved my dog chewed it up to a million pieces when I left it on the couch one evening. The phone was big and bulky, had a slide out keyboard with keys that are too small and an irritating stylus that I’ll always fumble when trying to tap something on the train during peak hours. I’m not even going to start on the Windows Mobile OS. From how much I had to adapt and learn to live with that, I wonder why they’re called smart phones.

The iPhone just doesn’t feel like smart phone. In fact, I’m quite certain it’s not. So if you’re looking for a smart phone and you absolutely cannot live with any of the iPhone’s missing features above, then you can navigate away. The iPhone is NOT FOR YOU. I repeat, the iPhone IS NOT FOR YOU.

The iPhone is what a phone should be – everything is gorgeous, everything is working seamlessly. It can’t get simpler than plugging in to your computer and have iTunes sync every email account, contact and calender to your phone. Within minutes, your iPhone is ready to go.

Right out of the box, the iPhone should be enough for most of your needs. Good voice quality over calls, SMSes are a breeze with the iPhone’s predictive/learning keyboard that will auto-correct your mistypes for you. Surfing the web with Safari is great. On the move, I checked the number of a restaurant and made a reservation for dinner, saving the number on my contacts and when I got home and did a sync, the number was added to my Mac address book. Call me an ignoramus, but I don’t believe this was possible without installing extra software or buying an expensive dongle.

If you have an iPod like I do, you’ll be happy to note that with the iPhone, you can retire or giveaway your music player (like I did). The iPhone does a great job with playing music. Navigation is a breeze with the touch interface, and to me the best part of the experience is how the earphones makes what’s good even better. Along the wire of the right earphones is a little plastic piece about halfway between the Y-junction and the earphone, that you would speak into if a call comes in. When a call does come in, it fades out the music, you click the plastic piece and you’re connected. Click again to end the call and the song fades back in where you left off. While listening to your songs, a single click pauses or unpause your song, and a double click forwards to the next track. So, if you’re commuting, you probably never need to take off your earphones once you step out of the house.

I could go on but from the first 24 hours, the iPhone is certainly changing how I’m using a mobile phone. Very much like how my first iPod 6 years ago changed the way I consumed music. I think there’s a little too much hype surrounding the iPhone. The truth is, it’s not a phone for everyone. For me, I’m happy that my phone has no ability to make me work on my office documents. I don’t need a phone to make video calls because even when I had a phone that could, I never used it.

So if you’re thinking of whether you want to make the leap and buy one? Look at my list above and think about it yourself. If you want a business phone, then look elsewhere. There are smart phones out there trying to slap on a candy-coated GUI. Palm and RIM makes great working phones that can do a lot more than what you need. For me, I’m going to keep going with the iPhone. Apple has a pretty good track record in the recent years and I believe its only going to get better as the months pass. If like me, you’re looking for a phone that can extend your digital life then the iPhone could just be the right fit.

Now, I’m going to look at the iPhone and see if there’s something else I don’t know.

 It is confirmed! Got a mailer from Singtel and 22nd August 2008 is the big day the 3G iPhone lands in Singapore.  

Singtel iPhone mailer

T minus 9 days. I’m holding my breath.

Apple posted its third quarter fiscal earnings yesterday, and on that same conference call, Apple mentioned that the next rollout of iPhones internationally would be on 22nd August 2008. This next wave will rollout across 20 countries, and my inkling is that Singapore would be one of them.

Read about this at Macworld

From the first wave, we already know it didn’t go smoothly. Launch day itself in US was marred by activation delays. In UK, things were awfully similar.

I hope Singtel would be ready for mayhem should there by delays like this.

Now, there’s only 31 days to go.

(give me my iphone already!)

Fresh off the press, Singtel has announced they have signed an agreement with Apple and will be bringing the iPhone to Singapore.

Whether or not they’re exclusive remains unconfirmed, but judging from Apple’s earlier tie-ups with telcos its most likely to be. My guess is that more should be announced after WWDC 2008 where speculations of the next-gen, 3G iphone is rumored to be announced.

Now if you’re on another telco, worry not. Come 13th June, full mobile number portability will be in place. This means if you’re free from a contract, you’re able to jump to another service provider and keep your current number. Also means telcos will probably be much more pressured to provide better deals, to secure their customer base. Ha. We win.