To Address the iPhone

Ok, so the iPhone release was last Friday and the reviews are pouring in.  People are raving about the touch screen, the GUI, and pretty much all the advertised features.  There are, however, complaints:  it's too hard to use the keyboard, you can't remove the battery, and that thing about the activation process.  I will address these issues one at a time.

With regards to the keyboard:  are people really complaining?  Steve Jobs said before the release that the keyboard has an approximately one week learning curve, and people are still whining, "the keyboard is too hard to use!"  Well, you were warned.  And if you have a problem with a one week learning curve for new technology, consider this: a piano player is considering trying to play the guitar because he wants to venture into a more modern musical arena.  When he learns that it may take several years for him to become as proficient on the guitar as he was on piano, will he give up his pursuit of being a guitarist?  Probably not.  The point here is this:  any new technologyu is going to have a learning curve, and to progress you sometimes have to aquire new skills or learn new things.

So you can't remove the battery?  There is less to say about this because this could cause a legitimate problem, but is it really that bad?  the phone would lose much of it's charm if the design were comprimised to accomodate this, and, if you really need the battery replaced (you shouldn't have to if you know how batteries work and charge them accordingly), just overnight th eiPhone to Apple and they will replace it and overnight it back.  Apple has been known to service items quickly, even if they are out of warranty.

That last thing about the activation is AT&T's problem, so I won't really go into it, because it's largely fixed now and I don't much care for AT&T.

Overall, I think people should stop complaining so much about the iPhone and take it for what it is: a game-changing phone that is amazing for a first-generation product.