My phone is driving me nuts and blinkin Vodafone wont let me upgrade until September even though I’ve had the phone for 18 months…. 

So my relationship with Vodafone is looking a little fragile especially as my current Nokia handset really doesn’t cut the mustard when it comes to working remotely.

I use my phone a lot… I take a lot of photos, shoot a lot of video, make a lot of calls, review a lot of files, check and send a lot of email and I do all of this on a phone that was never really designed for it.

When the iPhone came out I thought I would never be tempted by the band wagon it so merrily led. But since my falling out with Vodafone and the more than sluggish performance of my ageing Nokia the iPhone was starting to look a much shinier and sparkly option.

So on Sunday I wandered into the Apple Store in Milton Keynes to check out the iPhone personally for the first time.

The first thing about the Milton Keynes Apple store that strikes me is the greeting you get from a member of staff positioned at the door. They cheerily say ‘hello’ but only just after you enter the store, causing you to have to do a double take and crane your neck round to see who it was actually saying hello to you… very bizarre. The store itself if not very inviting. Loads of demo kit on the main floor, but I presume the main shop floor is upstairs. I never went up there as it looked kind of like a staff only stair case and there was no signage to indicate the shop continued upstairs.

Back to the iPhone though – loved it. The size, the fab screen, the interface etc, etc, etc. I couldn’t help myself though… I had to have a dig at it to the salesman doing his best to show me all the fun functions on the phone. You see I work on PCs and Macs and me have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship. I had to find holes in the iPhone… and I did.

I wont be buying an iPhone (yet) because of:

Keyboard – well fiddly unless I use my little pinky

Battery – Naff – and if used the iPhone like I did my Nokia it would be dead in six months

Email – you cannot search the iPhone for an attachment and send it. You can only forward attachments or send photos. The iPhone has no file management facility so it is in fact just a pretty toy.

The salesmen did his best to say the SDK is now out and you will lots of user developed applications coming onto the scene. But I don’t want a Donkey Kong emulator – I want a phone that kicks arse, takes names and works well.

Gonna hang on for version two me thinks….

… and Apple Store Milton Keynes – sort your signage out and take the irritating greeting staff away from door!

Sam