A couple weeks ago I broke down and purchased an I-Phone 3G, and I must say that so for, the $199 has been worth every penny.  Lately, there have been numerous reports of people getting horrible 3G signals - even when they're in a known 3G area.   I haven't experienced any of these issues where I'm located.  My old cingular 8125 ran on ATT's EDGE network (same as the first version of the I-Phone) which was molasses.   The 3G is fast.  Enough so there are times I can't tell a difference between 3G and Wi-Fi speeds (although when I'm at home, Wi-Fi is noticably faster).

One of the main reasons I wanted an I-Phone is because of it's web browsing capabilities (for the most part, web pages display just like they due on a desktop pc).  I like the idea of always being connected and being able to access information at any time no matter where I am.    The Maps application which uses the built in GPS is also very cool.   I use it every night before I leave work to check traffic on the interstate.

The only 3rd Party App I've put on my I-Phone as of yet is the Bloomberg app.    One of the cool things you can do on an I-Phone is take screen shots of the desktop,  so I've taken some screenshots of the Bloomberg App for your viewing pleasure.  First though are a couple shots of TK on the I-Phone (haven't had any problems with TK using the I-Phone to date).    Keep in mind you have the ability move/slide around and zoom in/out of screens.

TK Pic 1:

TK Pic 2:

TK Pic 3: 

Desktop Icon: 

The about screen: 

Splash Screen:

News (the unknown error you see is because my wi-fi is on instead of 3G.  I forgot to switch to 3G after I left my house this morning )

News Article ( notice all 5 bars.... yeah baby!!! ) : 

World Markets:

Work Markets ( Detail )

Stock Finder: 

Stock Update:

Pie Chart:

Chart:

Very cool.  every day, I regret not buying one when I had the chance.   I was out from under my contract, but went with the free phone instead.  I think that I underestimated the power and features of all the applications.  I don't actually need all that stuff, but I admittedly underestimated the feature set (including apps).  I would mainly want one for the ipod features (music) because I still haven't broke down and bought an ipod. 

So, now I guess if I want the $200 iphone, I'm stuck waiting 2 years until my contract expires?  argh.  Maybe they'll have a better one by then.

Hey I don't recall agreeing to have my image used as an iPhone promo?...lol

 Kidding of course. Looks like it takes decent quality images too.  I still have issues being forced to use their network and I'm guessing you can't just use an available network in the area to connect to the net can you? Your home wireless network for example?

 Anyway, I am looking a little bit harder at maybe getting one, but still a definite maybe for me.

Danny,  I was really surprised when  I bought my phone a couple weeks ago (on Sunday the 17th to be exact).  There were no lines at all (otherwise I would have left right away).  I was in and out of the Apple store in 15 minutes.    So either I got lucky,  the fuss has died down, or Apple has ramped up production.    One of the things that initially held me back from getting the phone was the extra $30 a month for the data plan,  but after using the phone for a couple weeks so far,  I feel the $30 is worth it and have no regrets. I paid $212 total with tax for the phone plus an $18 upgrade fee (I had a little over two months left before my current contract expired).   I use the I-Pod feature for hours on a daily basis - at work,  working out, etc...   I like how you can flip through the cover art.   The I-Tunes app on the phone is pretty cool too,  but for some reason you can only use it with Wi-Fi (that's for all I-Phones as far as I know).

The phone  has UTube on it,  so if there's a song I want to hear,  rather than paying for it through I-Tunes,  I just play it on U-Tube (The sound quality is just as good in my opinion).   After that it's saved in my history folder and I can replay the song whenever I want.

If I had to complain about something, it would probably be the battery life. It sucks up a lot of juice if you constantly browse in 3G mode.

Corbinb2,   The screenshots I took are very good quality.  If your taking an actual picture of something though, I would say the quality is good,  but not outstanding.  Definitely not as good as the screen shots you see here.

When you say you're forced to use their network,  that's true only if you don't have access to a Wi-Fi hot spot.    I have Wi-Fi at home, so I switch to Wi-Fi mode when I'm at home.... or any other place that offers Wi-Fi for free.

If I can work something out with TK and collect some type of royalty on this blog post - or maybe get some advertising lined up,   I'll make sure you get a piece of the pie :)

Thinking about it afterward, if you are paying for an unlimited data plan, the need to switch to a 'local' network would be almost moot, but nice to have options if the AT&T system is having trouble.

Mobile Internet is just coming into it's own now and I expect many new challengers to enter the fray here in the next 6 months. Apple was first and will be probably be consistently better because of it. The dedicated network has advantages in the respect they can control the quality of the network you are using, but you can't get AT&T everywhere and that makes it a drawback.

 Keep is updated on how it works out for you over the long haul....:0)

I asked someone on the forums that had an iphone if they can get on TK with it.  And they said you can't because you can't log in with the security keyboard.  Is that true???  Please let me know if you can log into your account.  I noticed you haven't logged in on those screenshots. But the question is CAN YOU? 

P.S.  I am getting one in November as a gift as soon as my stupid VZ plan expires.

Maybe it's true for the person who said the can't,   but I am able to log in just fine.   I purposely didn't log in on those screen shots for security reasons ( I didn't want my user ID to be displayed ).

Here's a shot of The Options Playbook which you can't access to unless you are logged in.  

Just realized I look pretty good in those screenshots...lol

On the leaderboard with trade notes showing...maybe I should be paying you royalites...:0)

Hi JS4Dividend.   I don't know of any security differences between using an i-phone from a regular desktop.

Don't quote be on this,  but when logging into TradeKing using an I-Phone in 3g mode,  the connection is a high grade AES 256 bit encrypted SSL connection.  I say this because when I log in with my I-Phone.  I see a little lock icon in the address bar that normally appears in a desktop browser when you log into a website (TK uses 256 bit ssl connection).  

When you're in Wi-Fi mode,  you can take it a step further.  For example,  the I-Phone is capable of logging into WEP (Wireless encrypted protocol) encrypted wi-fi networks.  I know this for a fact because my wireless network at home is encrypted using WEP.  From there you have the advantage if using TK over a Wi-Fi WEP connection on top of being connected to TK with a 256 bit SSL connection.

You can even take it one step further.   On your wireless router at home,  you can set up the router so it will only allow computers whose unique id ( MAC Address ) you  tell it to accept - otherwise known as MAC filtering.  If you do this, along with enabling WEP, you should be pretty secure. You can find your IPhone's  unique MAC address in settings/general.   From there you can enter that ID into your routers set-up page along with any other computers you want to be able to use your network.   At that point, only your I-Phone and other computers you specified by entering their MAC address will be allowed to you your Wi-Fi connection.