Hello My Friends, 

Despite the fact that I was the first customer to receive my iPhone from my local store, (because of my preorder status I went in ahead of the 4 people ahead of me) I did not have a chance to work with the iPhone 3G S until this evening.  At the time of this post, I have been awake for 22 hours so I’m running on empty but, because my day, today, (Saturday) is full, I wanted to relay the following about my first 6 hours with the iPhone 3G S: 

By the way, I cannot underscore the importance of studying the entire user guide before actually receiving the device.  All-in-all, I think I spent about 8 hours studying the user guide this past week.  In fact, as I sat in front of my local AT&T Wireless store, 2.5 hours before it’s 7:00am opening, I read and reread my Braille hardcopy of the manual.  Because of this, while there is definitely a learning curve, upon powering on the phone, I felt as though I already knew how to make it work. 

It’s funny, when I was a younger man, I would have done anything but read the manual and spent countless hours trying to figure it all out.    Take it from us old guys, study, study, study!  (Smile) 

1.
My iPhone was successfully activated within 1 minute of attempting to do so. 

2.
Upon arriving back at home, at approximately 7:25am, I immediately enabled VoiceOver with no problems.  I considered launching the reverse screen display but decided not to do so, yet.

3.
After I practiced powering on/off and locking/unlocking the phone, I removed the SIM card and returned it to my beloved Epix. 

4.
I placed my new phone in a beautifully crafted leather case that allows for docking and access to all of the ports without having to remove the phone.  This particular case offers a thin clear plastic shield to protect the screen while permitting easy touch-screen access.  Before leaving the store, I had the sales person thoroughly clean the screen so as not to be damaged upon placing it into the case.  The case I purchased is the most remarkably sheer protection I’ve ever seen.  That is, it does not add bulk to the device. 

5.
I plugged my phone in so as to charge it while I went about my chores.  This would have been around 9:00am.

6.
At approximately 5:00pm, I was able to once again begin acquainting myself with the phone.  I began by trying different techniques in terms of how to access the various built-in applications. 

7.
I spent over an hour exploring the Settings area for virtually the entire device.  Of course, I had my trusty Braille hardcopy version of the manual beside me for reference. 

8.
Unexpectedly, my phone shipped with a female VoiceOver synthesizer.  While pleasant in comparison to DeckTalk, I would prefer a lower-pitch sounding voice.

9.
After dinner, I decided to create an Apple I.D. and update my Mobile Me account.  Because of the overwhelming interest in Mobile Me because of the remote access to the iPhone, the Apple servers would not allow many of us to sign in.  As a result, I was forced to contact Mobile Me support via Chat in order to resolve the problem.  I HATE USING CHAT FOR TECH SUPPORT!!!!!!

10.
Somewhere along the way, I decided to attempt to synchronize my MS Outlook Calendars and Contacts with my new phone on my Sony Vaio running Windows XP Pro.  After making backups of all my data and carefully configuring iTunes, I successfully synchronized everything via USB.  From now on, I will sync my Outlook info via Over The Air using my Mobile Me account but I wanted to make sure that the basic functionality of the sync process works as described. 

11.
Next, I decided that I want to sync my iPhone with two computers each with its own copy of iTunes.  To be honest, during the past two weeks, I have spent countless hours researching this including mind-numbing discussions with Apple Tech Support.  Basically, what I was told was that, aside from using a third-party application such as Media Monkey, attempting to sync my Outlook data on one computer with media files on a second computer would be fool-hardy. 

I am happy to say, that, as a Windows user, I am not content to hear that something can’t be done.  I have found, that in most cases, almost anything can be done.  Such was definitely the case, today. 

So, today, marked my very first iTunes hack.  This hack allows me to sync my iPhone with as many computers, including Macs as I’d like without erasing anything.  And, it’s free and, it does not require any software downloads.  While I did not discover or develop the hack, I am proud to say that I was able to locate it.  I will post a BLOG on how this is done in a future article.  I am just too tired right now. 

12.
After successfully configuring iTunes to do my bidding (and not the other way around), I decided to explore the iPod features of my iPhone.  In short, the PlayLists, categories, folder organization, album art, etc. works flawlessly with VoiceOver. 

13.
Finally, at around 11:30pm, I broke out my iPhone accessories including the car charger, the two-in-one dual charger and secondary battery A/C/USB kit to make sure all works as described.  I am happy to say that they do. 

Conclusion:
I am taking a very uncharacteristically pragmatic approach to exploring and learning how to use the iPHone 3G S Smartphone with Voice Over.  Why?  Because, as a breakthrough piece of technology, I feel that I owe it to everyone to know this product better than I’ve ever known any product before it. 

I am truly amazed at how well VoiceOver performs on the Apple iPHone 3G S Smartphone.  To a greater or lesser degree, the device is intuitive and, strangely enough, I find certain features easier to access than on my beloved Samsung SGH-i907 Windows Mobile 6.1 Smartphone. 

One of my favorite features is how fast the device synchronizes with iTunes including transferring video files. 

OK, I am almost completely out of energy. 

Take care and stay tuned for more.

Tired But Amazingly Happy,

Mark (Macintosh) Marcus