The iTouch in MY opinion was a waste, because for the full day that I owned one, I kept thinking how much better it would have been to have the iPhone. The added features of the phone, speakers, and camera are worth the sacrifice of paying $100 more (if one compares the 8Gb iphone with the 8Gb itouch). When comparing with the 16Gb itouch, I don’t see how taking away all those features justifies paying the same (around $400) for merely having a storage capacity upgrade. I see it as a way to milk money from people who aren’t At&t cellular customers and who don’t have the iPhone readily available to them. Whatever, if that’s ok for some, then great for them. After deciding to return the iTouch, I am going to wait patiently for the new and improved iPhone.

The keypad. I am not going to make baseless assumptions about a majority of user’s opinions(*AHEM, Simon), and instead will simply give my two cents. I did have to backspace a few times, but it wasn’t irritating. I never used a qwerty pad on a phone, and I thought using it was refreshing and quick compared to using tactile number pad. I can’t say much for previous smartphone or pda owners. If it’s a big issue and a problem for you, then you’re probably looking for another product that gears more towards business applications such as document editing. The thing is really for fun and for people who don’t give a damn about a few grammar errors.

o Two “i”s not capitalised
o Two “p”s not capitalised
o One spelling of iPhone as “i phone” i.e. with an erroneous space inserted
o AutoCorrect spelt as two words instead of one
o Sparse use of punctuation (missing commas and periods/full stops)

So, quite a few errors in just a few words… and we don’t know how many mistakes you corrected as you typed the message (quite a few, I suspect). In other words, the text of your message doesn’t suggest that the typing experience on the iPhone is all that great, even for someone that says it’s good.

Now, having said that, I’m quite prepared to believe that people get better at using the iPhone keyboard with time. But, and it’s a big “but”, there’s no getting away from the fact that the iPhone keyboard software needs an “autocorrect” feature. That is - pretty much everyone who uses the iPhone keyboard hits the wrong keys by mistake a high percentage of the time. By definition, that makes it a bad user interface. As I say, though, it’s “good enough” - after all, it’s not like people can’t type on it. Nevertheless, I think it’s one of the weak points of the device.

And yes, you’re right about the third-party apps. Of course, because you have to hack the touch to get these apps on the phone, it’s for geeks only. BTW, you can even do voice apps on the touch with a little hardware hack. Right now, probably the majority of touch owners are geeks… but going forward, it has to be a mass-market device. There’s another lesson for Apple there - one of the things that makes the touch/iPhone interesting to people is the fact that you can install lots of apps on it. We’ll find out whether Apple understands that one, when they release the official SDK, and explain their business model for third-party apps. If it’s not possible to distribute free apps at no cost to developers, there will be a problem e.g. if Apple decides to charge developers a few hundred dollars per app to certify it for the touch/iPhone.

On your point that “everyone who tries one is impressed”; I’d qualify that with “everyone who tries one is impressed, except for the keyboard.” This is really close to being a totally killer device… if they fix up the business model and the keyboard problems, they’ll sell a hundred million of these things.

So while it’s true to say they lack official third party apps they actually have loads of unofficial ones!

Your right on the iPhone costing too much - there are 4 or five touch owners in the office but no iPhone owners - although I suspect that may change on 3G.

On the point on web browsing - tried it over wireless on a touch - impressive. The bottom line is the touch interface actually is very well implemented - and the screen is fantastic - movie quality is very good for example.

Everyone who tries one is impressed - if your in the market for that sort of device - which not everyone is - then I’d say the touch is actually a real must have product - though a little too expensive at the moment to be main stream - you could get two nano’s and change for the price.

So just as the zune was getting close to the iPod on design and features ( if not on quality of software - I hear syncing isn’t straightforward ) Apple have taken cool gadgets to another level.

Development on iPhone rev 2 should go full scale post the MacWorld Jan 2008 expo release of the ultra-compact SSD based device. I don’t think we’re going to see just one device though, the touch-pad technology combined with SSD will see the arrival of a new ecosystem of devices that should represent a paradigm shifting moment for consumers, who are now firmly educated into what a well thought out human interface should look like.