I need a cold shower...

I am not one to praise the short cube walls in our new office space, but today they proved themselves. It all started when the SVP of Product mentioned to one of my marketing coworkers he needed to open a job to review the packaging from the iPhone. Yes, I am short, and no, I cannot see over my cube walls when seated in my desk chair. But I can certainly hear conversations near and far. When I heard "iPhone" my ears perked and I immediately jolted up out of my chair. I asked the SVP if someone had an iPhone... he did have the packaging in his hand afterall. He pointed to the new technology guy (not a new employee Nickolas, an employee that focuses on new techology) and said he had the iPhone right there on his desk. I asked if I could touch it and he told me I could come on over and play with it all I wanted.

Yes folks, I played with the iPhone today.
I'll sum it up in one word: hot.

Now, I've read a bunch of reviews (thank you Nathan), I've heard all the flaws, missing applications, shitty keyboard, the list goes on. But damn... is that thing awesome. It's about the size of an iPod, a little longer. About the same weight, though I think it holds better in the hand. There is one button that really just takes you back to the main menu when in anther application. When locked, to unlock you touch the screen, a slider lock appears, and you slide it to the right with your finger to unlock the glory. Then.... then you get to play.

The office iPhone was not yet connected to our secured wireless system, so I wasn't able to surf the internet or really do much with the maps. Because they had just taken it out of the (standard Apple-amazing) packaging, there wasn't much media loaded, so I wasn't really able to experience the iPod or video functions. I did play with the maps a bit, zooming in and out with a touch or a "pinch" of the screen. The screen itself -- awesome. Great, bright, vibrant colors -- really sweet against the black background. I also got to try out the "texting" function. I will say I agree with the reviews - the keyboard is less-than-great. I've played with the crackberry, er, blackberry, and Nathan's phone with the slide-out keyboard (I can't for the life of me think of what that thing was called -- I blame the iPhone) and could use the keyboard just fine with my two thumbs. However, the iPhone is a bit trickier. The touchscreen keyboard keys are bit close together and makes it pretty difficult to ensure you are hitting the correct letters -- unlike the blackberry or Nathan's phone that you could feel the buttons. Apparently the new tech guys says it's supposed to take about five days for it to become natural, but I am not convinced. Maybe I'll just have to take it home for a couple days and try it out!

Am I ready to buy one? No. There are applications I would want on there many believe will appear in the G2 and G3 versions. That -- and still a bit pricey, no? In the meantime, I'll give the new tech guy a day (and the weekend, I guess) to get some stuff loaded and connected to the internet before I beg to play again next week. Yes, yes I will play with it again. I will experience more of the iPhone's glory. I will need another cold shower.

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In case you're wondering what's so amazing about the iPhone packaging or Apple packaging in general is that there are no words on the packaging. The iPhone packaging has the Apple logo on two sides and a front shot of the iPhone on the other two. That's it. It's hot. I'm not sure there is another way to describe it. There's something about the way the box looks, any Apple box for that matter, that makes the customer look at the product and know what they are getting is not only a great product, but a product that is worth all they are paying for it, and one with which they know they will not be disappointed. From a marketing standpoint: genius.