I’ve had two weeks with the new iPhone now – long time admirer, first time buyer – and I’m pretty impressed. Actually, I’m more than impressed; it is every bit the brilliant nugget of technology it has been promoted as.

What stopped me getting one before now wasn’t the stills-only camera, the lack of MMS, or even no copy-paste. It was the capacity. I wanted the iPhone to be my personal technological convergence, my single device, my ‘one ring’ and without that “32GB” label it could never be that. For me it’s simple math:

iPhone = phone + iPod + camera + DS + laptop

Except it’s not. With my iPod I could get through a couple of days of moderate use, my old phone only needed charging once a week and I went a whole holiday on a single charge of my DS and camera. This thing sucks power like it’s trying to reanimate Frankenstein. But it’s not just one of those devices, it’s all of them and it fits in my hand, you can’t blame the little thing for being a bit power hungry.

The new features – video camera, compass, voice control – are surprisingly useful. There are some great apps to make use of all the shiny too; Maps now lets you orientate yourself using the compass and Doom Resurrection really tests the speed and graphics bump.

Doom Resurrection

One thing I wanted to do was use my iPhone for work, the Exchange support makes that easy; It syncs perfectly and plays nice with MobileMe as well. But for business use there are (in my opinion) some crucial features missing:

• Tasks and to-dos – I rely on the great to-do management in both iCal and Outlook. Just a simple app sync with these would surely be a boon for any business user.
• Flagging emails – All email clients and protocols support this, it’s basic. Implement it already!
• Email signatures – Why can’t I have separate signatures by account? Silly.

I admit these are all minor gripes and it’s only because of the near perfection of the iPhone that these stick in my throat.

The iPhone has delivered on it’s promises, I can see now why it’s been such a game changer for the mobile market. Its strength is in its versatility; it can be anything and provide everything. With it in my pocket I feel invincible; wherever I go and whatever I do I know where I am, I carry all my media and all my important information, I’m always connected and I have the entire internet at my finger tips. That’s a powerful thing.