I'm becoming an iPhone fan-boy

Well not really. There are some things I don't like about it but mostly I love its ease of use and functionality.

My Nokia N95, after a brief period of random failing stop working at all in early June. When booting it comes up with a message that it has failed and to contact my retailer. Quoted week at a Vodafone store to have it sent away for repair (or for checking out to see if repair is possible) I decided to buy an iPhone. It took a day to get to a store that had one in stock and about 20 minutes to go through the paperwork.

The interface took all of a couple of minutes to get used to and I had installed a LinkedIn app, along with Freshbooks and Highrise apps and Google Earth in no time at all. I don't use the iPod functionality at all and having to go through iTunes on my old PC (see below) to copy music onto would be a huge disincentive anyway. Does anyone know how to just connect an iPhone as a storage device on Linux and copy mp3 files to it - I would use it on occasion to download podcast but the hassle isn't worth it.

Two main beefs that I have with it are:
1. iTunes - it goes against the grain to be locked in to a proprietary tool to be able to even able to start using the phone as a phone be cause of having to register it and the iTunes store for downloading apps. What really grated was needing to give Apple my credit card number in order to download even free apps although I have now spent $1.29 on a Keepass, a password safe.

2. The other major gripe is that I can't save my contacts back to my SIM card. I have always kept all my phone list on the SIM card so that if the phone dies I can plug it into any compatible phone and be in touch. Now I am tied in to backing up through iTunes and can only restore onto another iPhone.

The only PC I have that runs Windows (out of about 6) and hence iTunes has only been used for running an accounting program. It has never before connected to the Internet apart from when first registering the accounting package. I therefore haven't worried too much about keeping it patched. It was a mission to get it into a state where I was comfortable with allowing it to talk off the LAN and it is slow and tedious to use - and now the only thing it is used for is iTunes... we have taken the accounts to Xero.

If the iPhone lasts only as long as my last Nokia I'll probably not replace it with another iPhone and will have to go through a complex process of restoring my contacts to my SIM to use in whatever I get next - may be a Google Nexus.

Another minor glitch is the battery life although I am using 3G Internet more than previously and I have to charge it pretty much every night.

Anyway mostly I am very happy with it.