So the great buzz this weekend is the iPhone. I can't wait until I can review it first hand for you, but with prices starting at $499, I'm not done saving up for one yet. In fact, the initial price plan and the fact that AT&T doesn't offer a subsidy on the iPhone like it does with other phones is a real turn off for me (Not as much of a turn of as using AT&T at all is though! What was Apple thinking?). Regardless of where you stand on the AT&T issues, I'm guessing you are at least intrigued by this much-hyped device. I know around here there were lines out the door for hours before the iPhones went on sale. Most people who wanted one have been saving up for months to be able to afford it. Was it worth the hype? Take a look at some of the buzz around the internet and judge for yourself:

The First Dissection. Slashdot and ThinkSecret posted links to the first iPhone dissections. that's a good thing. The urge to look under the hood is a strong one, and I'd rather have someone else destroy their $600 iPhone than do it myself. ThinkSecret posted nearly 30 photos of their dissection, and SlashDot has links to a dissection gallery as well. Click here and here to see it.

Activation: Issue or Non-Issue? That depends on who you are. It seems if you went through AT&T it is an issue (click here and here) and if you didn't your iPhone is working just fine, thank you (click here). I'm not surprised AT&T is having trouble. Cingular used to have customer service on a par with Apple's own customer service, but since they were bought by AT&T it has gone downhill fast. Between that and AT&T penchant for spying on its customers and not protecting your private information, not to mention it's recent cooperation with the RIAA and MPAA, I am only feeling marginally left out by not having an iPhone yet.

How Do You Work This Thing? Apple has the answers, here. ZeFrank has the song to fit the occasion here. The lack of buttons seems to be what is throwing the most people off, though I think it's cool. My current cell phone certainly takes some abuse in the button department (they pop off, get stuck, letters get erased over time), and I'm wondering if this system will indeed be better. I'm curious to know how it stands up to fingernails and heavy fingered key punchers over time.

How Do You Get This Thing? You can buy your iPhone from the Apple Store or from AT&T. Judging by the customer service at Apple compared to the customer service at AT&T, I'd go with Apple, in spite of the backorder issue of 2 weeks discussed here. Here's a link to buy yours online from Apple (click here). While you are grabbing your very own iPhone, you will want to look into a case for it as well. With the front being a full screen, you'll wish you'd spent that extra $10 - $50 dollars on protection, I promise, because it will get dropped. Every cell phone and iPod gets dropped, no matter how careful you are. Luckily, manufacturers have been gearing up for the iPhone for months, so there are lots of cases to choose from already. You can see some of them by companies like Vamp by clicking here.

Touch Typing: The New Dimension. Apple's iPhone uses the much touted touch typing, right on the screen. What happens if you are sausage fingered, or just a bad speller? Read about real world touch typing experiences here. It seems that the correction of errors is pretty accurate, which is nice. I know on other cell phones the "fill in the word" feature leaves a lot to be desired, often producing words you'd never use in real life. That makes Apple's correction feature appealing. I'd be interested to know if you can use a stylus with this phone if you have long fingernails or clumsy fingers. if any of you find out, please leave me a comment below.

Hacking The iPhone. As with anything Apple produces, there are always hackers waiting to see if they can break it or find bugs. I'm sure it will only be a matter of days before the first hack reports are in. Meanwhile, read this piece on hacking the iPhone here.

What's your opinion on the iPhone? I'm interested to hear it. I know there are a lot of people like me who flat out haven't saved up enough to try it yet, and people like some friends of mine who are not going to buy it because of the association with AT&T, who operate a thug like operation. I also know there are people who bought one yesterday and who I haven't seen since - they are too busy playing with their new tool and toy. Leave me a note and let me know which camp you fall in to.