iPhone Buzz Picking Up

The continuous buzz among my tech reporter friends on the East Coast this week has been nothing other than iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. I knew Walt Mossberg would get an early iPhone to test, but who else would Jobs send advance phones to I wondered? Ed Baig and David Pogue were my guesses and sure enough they had iPods to test together with Newsweek's Steven Levy. All of them were apparently allowed to break on the same day.

Mossberg's take on the iPhone here. Ed Baig's take here. David Pogue attempts to simplify and answer readers' questions here. Baig was also on CBS and talked to NPR about it today.

I had a chance to look at it briefly and while it looks fabulous and shows photos better than any other device I've seen to-date, I still can't get over the fact that it only runs on one network (a less reliable one than what I have now), no keyboard, so how on earth do I efficiently do email? and that it will be the first version, so it may take awhile to iron out the kinks.

I talked to two of the four reporters who had an early look. Aside from what they say in their reviews, positives seem to be battery life, interface, design (as always with Apple), the photo display, the quick scroll feature for accessing contacts and the fact that the network also works in Europe. It goes on sale in stores on Friday and I already know five editor friends in Manhattan who plan to get in line early to be one of the first to walk away with one.