iPhone combines three amazing products-a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod and a breakthrough Internet device-into one small, lightweight, handheld device with the best email ever on a mobile phone, full-screen web browsing, multi-touch screen, and applications such as Google Maps. And thanks to the latest software update (v1.1.3), you can now customize up to 9 home screen pages any way you like.

Capping literally years of speculation on perhaps the most intensely followed unconfirmed product in Apple's history -- and that's saying a lot -- the iPhone has been announced today. Yeah, we said it: "iPhone," the name the entire free world had all but unanimously christened it from the time it'd been nothing more than a twinkle in Stevie J's eye (comments, Cisco?). Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that's frickin' thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it's close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow out of the gate.

iPhone makes it easy to view your content up close. Its 3.5-inch high-resolution display and software-based interface allow you to zoom in on web pages, email, attachments, Google Maps, and photos.

The good: The Apple iPhone has a stunning display, a sleek design, and an innovative multitouch user interface. Its Safari browser makes for a superb Web surfing experience, and it offers easy-to-use apps. As an iPod, it shines. The bad: The Apple iPhone has variable call quality and lacks some basic features found in many cell phones, including stereo Bluetooth support and 3G compatibility. Integrated memory is stingy for an iPod, and you have to sync the iPhone to manage music content.

Sure, the iPhone and all those whiz-bang Nokia crowd-pleasers have users in their thrall, but that doesn't mean you should feel bad with the something else you've got. While searching for cool software for a Palm Treo 650, I discovered a productivity oldie that has yet to crumble into the dust of antiquity.

I put out a similar question earlier this week regarding the iPhone to a One More Thing panel of Apple users, but I've decided to broaden the scope. I'm trying to get a sense of how many people own a smartphone, or are in the market for one, and the kinds of things they want to see in an advanced phone. This is not going to be conducted in the most scientifically accurate fashion, but what the hell, let's take your pulse.

BlackBerry owners may be feeling like they have nothing to brag about now that the iPhone has added connectivity to Exchange e-mail systems--the BlackBerry's bread-and-butter feature.

I remember a time when making ringtones used to be a very cumbersome experience. My technique of choice was to use the open-sourced Audacity then do various conversions in iTunes or Quicktime Pro by tweaking some of the advanced settings. However, the Web has spawned newer, less tedious methods. On of them, Audiko, is a particularly well-done effort, letting you grab audio tracks from your hard drive or the Web and customize them for use on your mobile phone.

MxTube is a fantastic new native application for jailbroken iPhones. If you're one of the lucky few with a jailbroken handset and the installer app, you'll find MxTube in the recent packages section as of last night. The app is fairly similar to the iPhone's native YouTube video viewer with the added benefit of being able to download entire clips and save them to your phone's memory for offline viewing.

This week I perused the demo version of an upcoming product that promises to unlock the secrets of the iPhone by telling you about all sorts of secret tips and tricks. It's About Time to learn iPhone, as the product is called, is offered by a small Silicon Valley company that exhibited at last month's Macworld. I met Saied Ghaffari while I was there and he told me about an online demo, which I only now got around to trying (the GSMA World Congress got in the way).