Yes, I’ve got an iPhone. No, I don’t want to make a big deal of it. Yes, I’m using it to write this. No, I’m not on the toilet.

It’s as awesome as you’ve no doubt heard it is. It’s also as limited, lacking many esoteric features I’d gotten used to on my prior device. You’ve probably heard about them too (push email, Bluetooth music, 3G). It’s still worth it, of course, though not for the rich possibilities I thought lay in homebrew applications. In truth they’re a rather depressing bunch at this stage, with the only feature I’d actually want (instant messaging) being as poorly implemented as the file browsers and the lightsaber emulators.

What does make it worth for me it isn’t the iPod function, as you might expect, but the browser. The phone has always been a communications device, its two most popular features remaining calling and sms no matter what multimedia bells and whistles are crammed inside. A full-blown, usable web-browser is a natural extension to this, letting communication by email, rss, blogs, wikis, social networks and any other web 2.0 bullshit occur wherever you happen to be.

Of course, the music is nice too. It’s not really anything the competition don’t have though.