"...fulfilled the world’s expectations"

Hate to break it to you, but the world, and most the people in it, could care less about the iPhone.

Excuse me while I yawn...

Actually, he did mention 10.6, in a very off hand way. OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was discussed in detail after the keynote with Senior VP of software development Bertrand Serlet. As rumored it will be a performance based release, not a feature based release. It's going to push the speed forward to actually use all the hardware available in newer machines. OpenCL and Quicktime X were the major new announcements for this release.

You can find some of the details here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/06/09/apple_previews_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_with_quicktime_x.html

So clarify something for me:
Does this mean that my office computer, running MS Outlook on an Exchange server, could sync with an iPhone?

That's tremendously exciting, if it's true.

@ OJ:
Steve said the new iPhone software has Exchange support, so I would say yes, you should be able to sync your office PC with an iPhone. Still good idea to check with your IT folks, though.

The iPhone hasn't lived up to the hype. I bought one based on the great reviews, but, in retrospect, I haven't seen a serious review of the iPhone's capabilities, or, more accurately, its shortcomings. Many reviewers have ended up just being promoters, without really putting the device to any real tests.

Here is my review, based on really trying to use it.

Phone:
Reception has been really spotty with the phone. Calls cut out often.

Contacts:
If you're on the phone, you can't make new entries, as when someone on the phone gives you a name and number to call. 411 works well with the number being sent to you via SMS, but at a cost of $1.75 per 411 call!

There are no categories in the Contacts. Thus, I can't display only my contacts in one of *my* categories, such as Auto or Pool or Personal. I have to scroll through all 1,600 entries.

There is no search in Contacts. Apple software is simple. Contacts are sorted by last name. If you want to look up Annabelle's number, but you forgot her last name, or you remember which company she's at, you're out of luck. You have to scroll till you find her name. If you want to search by phone number or company or some part of the address, forget it. You can't do it.

There's no cut and paste, or ability to copy a contact. So, if you have entered Bill's phones and address, and now you want to create a new entry for Ann, his wife, you can't leverage off the already entered info. You have to start from scratch.

A phone number is limited to only the main number that you dial, and you can't look at any of the contact's info after you've told it to dial. This means that you have to memorize or write down on a piece of paper the person's extension, or the navigation through an automated corporate phone tree.

Notes:
Apple allows you to enter extra fields for a contact, but only the ones that big brother has made available, like Prefix, Middle, Suffix, Phonetic First or Last Name, and a few others, including "Notes". The only one I've found useful is "Notes" because I don't use and can't redefine any of the others. I use it for "Hours" for stores, and "Children" for parents, and for "Notes", but you're allowed only one note per person.

Web Browser:
Apple touts Safari as the best browser. But it can't display Flash or any videos that aren't on YouTube, even if they're in the same format as the ones on YouTube. Most of the sites I've looked at on Safari have little icons where the action is supposed to be.

Active pages: This device has 8 or 16 gigabytes, yet only 8 tabs can be resident at a time. Often a web page will want to open a new tab. If you already have 8 tabs open, you have to manually delete at least one tab to continue.

Performance: Maybe with a better radio, the performance will be better. But, with the mandatory $70/month cost of internet service for the iPhone, it's one of the slowest browsers. I've had far too many instances when I wanted to show someone something cool on the web. They usually start off pretty excited when they see the iPhone, but when you have to wait more than a minute to get anything to download enough to display, patience wears thin.

Other apps:
Camera:
This works ok, but there's no flash or zoom.
The photo viewer is nice with its zoom and flick-to-move-to-next picture. It would be better if I could tag the pictures and show off just the ones I want to.

Calendar:
It doesn't sync with Google Calendar, which allows me to manage my and my 3 kids' calendars, so I can't use it. I don't want to enter my calendar in two, un-related calendar systems. I hear that the Apple calendar might work if I spend a grand to buy an Apple computer to sync it to, but that's pretty steep for me. I tried using the alarm feature, but you can use only the few settings that Apple has decided you'll need.

Google calendar's access is pretty limited via the iPhone. I can view only a few days at a time by scrolling, then I can say only "Next" to get the next few days. There's no provision for searching and entry creation is really limited too, not allowing me to specify which of my kids' calendars I'm editing. (I get to edit only mine from the iPhone.)

Calculator:
I paid hundreds of dollars for the iPhone, and the only calculator it comes with is a 4-function calculator. No RPN, no date calculations, no financial, trig, or even square or square root. Fortunately, there's one available from Belfry SciCalc, but it requires a good wireless connection to work. So, if you happen to be out-of-range, you can't use it.

Maps:
This uses Google Maps, and works pretty well. The satellite view is really nice.I haven't found the traffic option to be very accurate.

SMS:
This is one app that works and is logical. Cut and paste is the only thing I'd add.

Notes:
This app needs Categories, so you can organize your notes, search capability, outline support, and more choices for type-ahead when only a few characters have been entered.

iPod:
This is almost good. It's probably great if all you listen to is pop music. But, if you listen to anything long, like a concert or opera, you'll find it hard to play the different pieces in order or to stop for a while and then come back to where you left off.
If you want to transfer an audio book into iTunes that you didn't buy from Apple or from Audible.com, then you'll have the same problem with sections and chapters playing out of order. If you play one book for the kids, then switch to your book, it might not start up from where you left off, so you have to spend some time searching. At the end of the day when you pick up the kids, you'll have to search through their book to find the spot where you left off. Bookmarks are a sorely-missing feature. Also, even though the Apple screen resolution is really good, the book "covers" from Audible are in such low resolution, that they're mostly unreadable.

What's missing?
Many things are missing, so I have to carry around the iPhone as a phone, but my Palm to do the following:

A To-Do list with categories and alarms.

A Phone Log, so I can keep track of phone calls, such as the 10th time I've called Tech Support and they still haven't resolved my problem.

Better and more type-ahead choices.

A Phone with re-dial until I get the number.

Data-entry for use in Quicken, Money, or, better yet, Gnucash.

The new model will have better GPS, so I won't list any complaints about it.

A cool app would be to allow quick entry of prices at gas stations to one of the web sites that keeps track of prices.

Enough criticism for tonight.

The 8GB iPhone will cost $200.
The 8GB iPod Touch currently costs $300.
Will the iPhone be a better deal?

The 56% of the people that said they wanted an iPhone but couldn't afford it must have been AT&T customers already, because I am sure that if you surveyed the general public the main reason someone wouldn't get an iPhone is because they would have to use AT&T.

I checked the coverage map from AT&T's site, and this is what my coverage is described as at home and at work:

"MODERATE: The areas shown in the light orange should have sufficient signal strength for on-street or in-the-open coverage, but may not have it for in-vehicle coverage or in-building coverage."

So I should be able to make a call when I am standing in the middle of my yard. let's not even discuss the fact that 3g is nowhere near my area.

The only thing that piqued my interest was the MobileMe. I was looking for an easy way to sync my work Outlook information with my home iMac.

Also, now that the cat is out of the bag (no pun intended) on Snow Leopard, I am curious as to what value proposition they are going to provide to make users want to upgrade to the new O/S?. If they are going to provide "speed enhancements and stability" as the main part of the new O/S they better provide it for free, or for like $2.50. If not you might start getting the argument that Microsoft provides Service Packs for FREE which include security patches, speed enhancements, and stability. Why should I pay for something that another company provides for free.

I know that a new version of Quicktime or support for more RAM will provide a good reason for me to upgrade.

this is welcome, though a little way from being perfect. although synching of personal information is now possible that still leaves it as a PIM (personal information manager). businesses require the ability to share and collaborate on information - shared calendars, docs, contacts etc. since exchange is expensive, and yet unsupported, solutions like HyperOffice will continue to fill this lacuna