I was able to play with the iPhone yesterday.  For my fellow Canadians, and anyone who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of touching the device, it is almost everything that the hype makes it out to be.

It is thin.

It is fast.

I love how it “knows” when you’re looking at it in “landscape” fashion, and when you’re holding it upright.

But typing with the touch screen isn’t easy, and in fact, was sometimes downright frustrating — even though I have average-sized mitts.  I could tell that over time, however, that its something you could get used to and compensate for.  Having said that, there’s something to be said for actually having buttons, but I realize what it would do to the rest of the phone.

[incidentally, if you'd like a good laugh, my host, Dreamhost sends out a monthly newsletter that was typed out this month using an apple iPhone -- in store.  The text is well intentioned but barely readable.  Those dudes get an A+ for effort!]

The worst thing about the iPhone, by FAR, though, is the EDGE network.  For what the iPhone is *Trying* to do — which is trying to display full webpages, not mobile formatted pages — the EDGE network is an utter abomination.  Truly.  There are no words to compliment a service which hobbles, and at the risk of sounding even more outraged, cripples the phone.

Case in point: I tried to show off the iPhone to my wife, but the phone ended up looking much less cooler after we waited something like 30 seconds for the Apple home page to load.  An agonizing eternity!  Same for the gmail home page.  MSN.com site.  Wow, I could go on.

Luckily, the sheer sexiness of the entire device is more than enough to make up for it.

Well, I guess over 700 000 people think so, anyway.