Of course I lined up and got one Friday.
Of course Apple will update it to add features in the coming months, that is one thing that sets this platform apart from Windows Mobile: regular updates with new features.
To all those that say "Where are the features", I say "Remember when Windows Mobile first came out?" The features will come and unlike with Windows Mobile we won't have to buy a new phone.
The wall charger is very very nice, incredibly tiny and the fangs are completely tucked inside so you can stick it just about anywhere for traveling. It uses the ubiquitous 30 pin to USB cable which one can find anywhere now. And it comes supplied with a dock to slip it into.
The folks that say its a toy: I've got my corporate Lotus Notes email up and working on it.
PDF's and DOC files have to be delivered via email attachment right now but Apple will supply USB Mass Storage Mode and a Filing application soon. In the meantime the PDF/DOC access is superb! The 160 PPI screen with LED back lighting is simply stunning and the touch interface under what appears to be a solid chunk of optical quality boro-silicate glass is like using LCARS.
I've hooked all of my personal email accounts into the device. The touch interface means I can rip through my email faster than ever before. With the WiFi interface I get full speed to the internet email servers. Yahoo/GMail etc all setup just by entering your username/password: it handles the gory details of setting up the account. Heck with GMail it came back and told me I had POP access turned off on my GMail account and I needed to turn it on and how to turn it on.
I have iTunes TV subscriptions and you can sync your unwatched episodes onto the device automatically. As you watch them it removes them. During the process of watching them it syncs the current play position back and forth so you can seamlessly switch from computer to iphone to computer and keep track of your most recent play point. Ditto for movies.
The device feels indestructible.
Nothing shifts, nothing bows, nothing twitches, nothing creaks. It feels like it was carved from a piece of metal. if you examine the various tear downs you can see just how well built it is. At the end of the day you know where some of the $600 went: into the case. So far no one has reported being able to scratch the glass, even after going medieval on it.
As for FLASH, Adobe has been getting away with some really bad things for awhile now. I think the reason there is no FLASH is very simple: Adobe's license for embedded devices is a
king's ransom. Completely and totally unreasonable and I'm glad to see Apple calling Adobe on it.
Battery life is excellent, far far far in excess of the iLiad. OK, so that's damning it with faint praise, but seriously. I've been demoing it all day today and the battery just now hit 75% after 9 hours of heavy use with WiFi on for Internet access for most of that time.
The lack of 3G has not been an issue for me. I swim in WiFi here in Seattle, the buses I take to and from work have WiFi into 3G. All the Starbuck's have WiFi and in Seattle there is nearly one on every corner. The EDGE is slow, 172Kbps on average. Not wonderful but better than nothing at all.
If it had a Mobipocket reader on it I'd frisbee my iLiad out into Elliot Bay.