I stopped by the Roseville Apple Store this afternoon to diagnose 2 recurring problems with my year old MacBook Pro; 6 month old battery barely holds a charge, and bottom quarter of the LCD screen is all multi-colored stripes – completely unusable. It’s just a few weeks outside of it’s one-year warranty, again proving to always buy AppleCare for portables.

Finally got a chance to check out the iPhone – as the signs in the store remind you – it’s the best iPod. An iPod with 2 networks attached to it (WiFi & AT&T). Definitely not a phone with an iPod attached (my hope). As you’ve probably read before, it feels good to hold and to look at. I found the flatness of the touchscreen a little unsettling – no tactile-ness to confirm appropriate pressure.

I was also disappointed in how Apple implemented the YouTube integration – no way to browse YouTube’s tag structure – just the Most Viewed and Featured – making it feel too much like a rented walled garden.

Clicking around some more, I checked out the Notes application John Gruber eloquently called ‘a train wreck’ and started typing.

“Just type any word, don’t worry about the keyboard”, requested the Apple sales guy.

I start typing my name.

g. a. w. x. x. k. (or something just as off).

“Garrick?”, asks the spell-check.

I’ve never had a spell check guess my name from a misspelling. Even when correct, most think I’m garlic.

Well done.

08 July Update: Just found why I might end up getting an iPhone: iPhone for Web Developers

Elsewhere:

“…this thing is not Mac stable, it is maybe Windows mobile stable… ” – Brian Lam, Gizmodo