Last month I spent a week in Dallas for our in.Telligent conference, which was held at the Westin Galleria hotel. The hotel was pretty nice and was adjoined to the Galleria mall, but for all the shopping that was on-site, what I was most interested in was the big AT&T store across the street. You see, my cell phone contract had expired while I was there and I had my sights set on a shiny new 3G iPhone.

For the past two years I've used the Samsung Blackjack I smartphone, which was a great phone and did what I needed. But over the last couple months the phone seemed to weaken quite a bit and many times struggled to hold calls. I began to research new phones, and the more I read, the more I kept coming back to the iPhone. My decision also became easier because between my brother-in-law and my co-workers, I've seen a lot of the iPhone. So after verifying the AT&T store across the street had plenty of new 3G iPhones in stock, I took a break from the conference and went over to grab one. I chose white (16GB):

Now that I've given myself plenty of time to use it, I can honestly say the iPhone is how phones are supposed to be. There's really not much to complain about, and it's easily the best phone I've ever had. By a landslide. Some other thoughts:

• Love the interface. Simple taps and finger slides is all you need. Brilliant.
• Very sturdy and solid. Size seems just right.
• The App Store is a great idea executed well.
• The electric plug adapter for the USB cable is simple yet genius.
• The on-screen keyboard takes some getting used to.
• Exchange support is smooth, but why allow only 1 ActiveSync account?
• The built-in camera is average. And why no zoom in/out?
• The awareness of apps to automatically change orientation (portrait/landscape) is pretty cool.
• The built-in GPS with Google Maps is sweet and will come in very handy for directions.
• Showing people how to zoom in/out of Google Maps will never get old.
• The Airplane Mode setting is, again, simple yet genius.
• The jury is still out if the iPhone will replace my Zune for all my travel media needs.

After now having the iPhone, it's easy to see why there are so many Apple zealots out there. Apple's approach to design is far ahead of everyone else, yet it makes me wonder why? It's not like Samsung, Motorola, or Sony don't have great designers.

In any case, I'm a happy camper. I don't necessarily regret waiting so long to get an iPhone, but now that I own one, I can't see myself using anything else.

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