I came so close to wanting an iPhone

With less than 6 days away from the release of the iPhone, I recently watched a 20 minute guided tour of the iPhone over at apple.com. This video is slick, with its smooth interface and seamless transition between different applications. I found myself primed and ready to part away with my hard earned cash for this beautiful device.

That’s until I read an article over at engadget entitled “New Details about the iPhone”. Over at engadget they had a chance to obtain some juicy details from an inside source who had a chance to fool around with the unit.

Here are a few things that caught my attention.

• The user simply described the keyboard as “disappointing”. Typing with two thumbs registers multiple key presses resulting in a lot of mistakes. You’re pretty much stuck typing with your index finger.
• The auto-correction only works for simple words
• This device won’t replace a BlackBerry. It’s not good for text input.

After reading the rest of the article, I soon had a nice taste of reality and decided that I would hold off until I hear some reviews about this device.

Minus all of the other features that you can nit-pick on about the iPhone; the on-screen keyboard is the most vital part of the device. I can’t picture people typing away an SMS or email message with one finger on a keyboard that doesn’t even provide any tactile feedback.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what the iPhone is really like. However, I’m afraid that the iPhone won’t stand up to the massive amounts of marketing hype that it’s getting.