Bearing in mind that this is the first phone Apple have made. I don't think that they have done too badly at playing catch up. When it first came out it was pretty much a browser in your pocket that you could keep your music on and make calls from.

Little by little they have added functionality and they are continuing to do so. My guess is that software version 4 will include iLife integration. As iLife can handle Office documents this should allow the phone to do the things that you want. Or maybe Apple will release iLife for iPhone as an application. Either way I am sure it will arrive in the not too distant future.

What would be nice is to integrate the calender with the maps. You can put in an address into the location field, press it and it will show you where it is on Google Maps as it does with a contact address. Maybe in a future version.

Colleague states he has to edit an appointment so he can add the time etc taking him thirty seconds in total, compared to ten seconds or so on his previous windows mobile powered phone.

I really need the PDA side of things to come up to scratch. Does it on the iphone?

The fact that bluetooth doesn't work is putting me off. Essentially, I need to be able to transfer word and excel files/PDFs/music/pictures from any computer or phone onto the iphone. Is there a way then, given BT won't work, that I can do this?

Don't forget the iphone has wifi. You can use it with dropbox or airshare (app) to transfer files etc

If you need a PDA/micro laptop then the iPhone is not for you. It is a great iPod, a pretty good browser, it has a lot of very easy to use functionality but it is no substitute for a laptop. I suspect that if that is your main focus then a Windows based handset would be better for your needs.

Out of interest does anyone know how well Blackberrys handle things like Excel and Word files?

Email?

Edit Microsoft® Word and Microsoft® PowerPoint® Files – Just download the attachments and start typing! 
Copy, paste, change font formatting and more.4
Download and Save – Grab a file on the Internet, and save it to your smartphone to view or edit later.

Taken from BB website

I don't really want a BB.

I won't be editing word/excel files on a regular basis, but may be once in a while.

Is there a function that would allow me to write a pages on something on the phone? Or is it too much of a PITA to type a good few paragraphs on the iphone?

The built in notes app works for me.

Has anyone used Mover? I've got it, but when ever I'm with someone else who has an iPhone I always forget to suggest we try it. It looks pretty brilliant though.

As for the documents thing, has anyone tried Google Docs???

I don't have the need to write more than a line or two, which I put in Notes.

One thing that I'm looking forward to on the iPhone is a Finder/Explorer type application and proper BlueTooth, so you can share photos/.mp3 files/e-mail attachments/etc/etc. If they could get QuickLook to work too with Finder then that would be absolutely fantastic. That would really be getting towards PDA territory, especially if you could edit .doc and other common file types.

If I had WiFi access, I probably wouldn't be using the phone for data. Consider this scenario;

Your laptop's battery is going to run out in 5 minutes, and you need to transfer a file to your phone. Perhaps it's a document you've been working on and need to send to someone. You're on a train, don't have WiFi and your laptop isn't on line. This is quite a regular thing for me, and I'd use bluetooth on my not-very-smart Nokia. Going back ten years I used IR; a little tricky in the car, but I've done it many times.

How do you do it on an iPhone? Would Airshare help?

Perhaps you could just copy it over using an SD card? Clumsy, but if it works...

This would be an absolute deal breaker. Having a data enabled phone but not being able to transfer my stuff would mean I'd have to carry a second phone. For the time being, I've got almost a year left to run on the Nokia and it does everything I need. I just want an iPhone because the browser and GPS are cool. Perhaps I should look at the new Android?

If that's the brass tacks, you'd be better off with a 3G USB stick for your laptop and a relatively cheap satnav system.

Jon

But you can't fit all that in your pocket!

I have a Tomtom in the car, but it's useless when you're walking around London and pulling out your laptop on Oxford Street to quickly check something is ridiculously cumbersome. The iPhone would be great for this.

You're right, a 3G stick would be good - but the amount of mobile data I need to shift urgently on a regular basis is well within the 250MB monthly limit on my current phone contract, and if I need to urgently download DVD ISOs (The "Oh Feck, there's a new version and the broadband isn't live yet" syndrome, which thankfully has only happened a couple of times) then the ~2GB limit on the stick is too small anyway so it wouldn't really help.

So, an iPhone for the non-phone stuff plus my Nokia for the phone stuff would do everything I want - but that's just plain stupid needing a second contract to cover the basic communication functions I've had for a decade. With the right firmware the iPhone would be capable of doing everything I want; it's just crippled for reasons I can't comprehend.

Sorry, I am a bit slow here, what has been crippled exactly?

bluetooth