There’s no question that I’ve given up some benefits and gained some freedoms with the iPhone. Regarding refreshing, it is possible to use the iPhone in data “push” mode with should make it work in real time according to the documentation.

However, this drains battery life, which by the way, is one thing I do notice. The iPhone with its big sexy screen and 3G horsepower definitely eats battery power faster than the BB.

A lot faster? Not really.

You could be on it all day and expect to consume the battery – just charge it at night.

I think that’s the point – you can be on it all day enjoying lots of rich media, whereas the Blackberry remains less engaging as it’s more of a “phone” suitable for texting, emailing and talking.

With the Blackberry, I would go for days…sometimes a week without having to charge it. I really miss that already.

Anyway, I don’t regret the change…although I do think about whether or not I really “need” this thing!

I still use BB Pearl but have a few friends who have let me play with their iPhones. I agree that the 3G enables much better websurfing which saves time logging onto the laptop. (I believe the newest BB have 3G?) The added memory and ability to download video will come in handy when travelling plus the interface is more attractive on the iPhone.

The keyboard takes some getting used to as many prefer the “feel” of buttons but as with all others, it is only a matter of time before you get the hang of it.

So far my only two negatives on the iPhone are it’s messenger capabilities. I like have BB Messenger as it is easier to converse with contacts that also have it. Also,according to a friend of mine that uses iPhone, the MSN Messenger that it comes with is not good at all, it’s slow and requires manual refreshing. Perhaps there is another MSN Messenger application that can be downloaded to iPhone that is much better. The one that comes standard with BB Pearl is nearly as good as using a PC.

My goal is to have as many capabilities on as few devices as possible. So far with added memory I have been able to use my BB for my audio listening but I do want something that can also play large amounts of video. So far I have held off buying portable DVD players or other video devices so unless BB eventually comes up with a product that can store video I may just end up with an iPhone too.

Thanks for the review Brooks. I agree that this type of iPhone interface technology will probably become much more common in the very near future.