IPhone-Is it really worth the hype

Hi guys,
u know the big news, Iphone 3G is out in India with a price tag of ahem,ahem........31000 for a 8 GB phone and 36000 for a 16 GB.
So if u can cough up the money, here are a few reasons to do just that.

Apple Iphone is a touch based, virtual keyboard, a 2 mega pixel camera, a media player equivalent to an ipod,also supports internet browising,email,visual voicemails and u can make make calls and send messages of course(bad one i know).

The Iphone's HVGA screen is 9 cm (3.5 in) liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 6.3 px/mm, 160 ppi), touch screen designed to use with a finger.The touch pad also understands complex gestures like multi touch.The iPhone 3G includes A-GPS but also uses cell towers and Wi-Fi for location finding.There is a single home button beneath the display which brings up the main menu.It also has 3 additional buttons for wake/sleep, volume up/down, and ringer on/off.

The Software:

The OS is the IPhone OS which that runs the iphone as well as the ipod touch, which is derived from the Mac OS kernel.
You need itunes 7.3 or later to manage the iphone on XP and Vista(32-bit). Itunes 7.6 is expected to be released to incorporate 64-bit versions.
The web browser is Safari which supports web applications written with AJAX.

The Audio:

Need i talk about the audio where Apple is concerned?....Its equivalent to an ipod when it comes to music...awesome sound quality though not quite the same disk space as an ipod would have but no holding back as far as the quality of sound is concerned.The iPhone's headphones are similar to those of most current smartphones, incorporating a microphone.A multipurpose button in the microphone can be used to play or pause music, skip tracks, and answer or end phone calls without touching the iPhone.
You could also try the wireless earpieces.

The layout of the media library is very much like the ipod. The music is organised under Cover Flow,songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations.The iPhone allows users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi with the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.

The Battery:

The battery in iphone 3G is fitted with the help of a connector rather than being soldered in, as in previous iphones.
The iPhone 3G's battery is stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi or five on 3G, ten hours of 2G talk time, or five on 3G, 24 hours of music, or 300 hours of standby.It has a one year warranty.
Applications:

There are several applications located on the Home screen: Text (SMS messaging), Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube, Stocks, Maps (Google Maps), Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, and iTunes (store). There are 4 other applications at the base of the screen Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod.
The youtube application can stream only a select few videos from the site as very few have converted to the required codec.

Features:

The iPhone allows audio conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. Voice dialing and video calling are not supported by the iPhone.
The iPhone includes a visual voicemail feature allowing users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen without having to call into their voicemail.

GPRS and Internet:

The Iphone can connect the internet through EDGE or a GSM network.The iPhone 3G supports third-generation UMTS and HSDPA, but not HSUPA networks.It automatically detects all the Wi-Fi
netowrks available in the region and prompts for the password when required.The iPhone is able to access the World Wide Web via a modified version of the Safari web browser. The web pages
are displayed in a landscape mode and it also supports zooming by double tapping the screen.The iPhone does not support Flash nor Java technology.

The iphone also has a built in email application that supports veiwing attachments like photos,videos,pdfs, ppt presentations etc.Yahoo! offers a free push-email service for the iPhone.


Camera:

The camera in iphone is downright bad..... Its a 2 megapixel camera, just for still photography....... nothing else. No optical zoom, no autofocus and DOES NOT support video recording.

Bluetooth:

The built in Bluetooth 2.x+EDR DOES NOT support stereo audio (requires A2DP), laptop tethering (requires DUN and SPP), or the OBEX file transfer protocol (requires FTP, GOEP, and OPP).
The lack of these profiles does not allow the user to connect to any other bluetooth enabled cell phone.


Specs:

* Color: Black (8 GB or 16 GB) or white (16 GB)
* Size: 4.5 inches (115.5 mm) (h) × 2.4 inches (62.1 mm) (w) × 0.48 inch (12.3 mm) (d)
* Weight: 133 g (4.7 oz)
* Headphone jack (non-recessed)
* Battery has up to 10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 5 (3G) or 6 (Wi-Fi) hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 300 hours on standby.
* Tri band UMTS / HSDPA: UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100
* Assisted GPS, with preference to location based on Wi-Fi or cell towers
* Digital SAR Rating: 1.38 W/kg