My birthday was a few days ago and my wife gave me an iPhone. It was a total surprise. I hadn’t asked for it. Given all that’s going on with blist, I really didn’t want the “time suck” of converting cell phones and carriers. Well I decided to set up the iPhone today, and all I can say is “Wow!” I’m very impressed with three things already: A) the iPhone itself; B) the voice quality and C) the activation process, including converting from Verizon to AT&T while keeping my old cell phone number.

This isn’t meant to be an iPhone review. There are a lot of those. Here are a few comments about it though:

* The iPhone is a little heavier than I thought, but quickly it becomes worth it.

* I hadn’t planned to sync my email as I have more than 5 GB in Outlook, but after just a few hours I’m thinking about it.

* As a cell phone, the voice/audio quality is excellent. I don’t know if that’s because AT&T has better coverage than Verizon near my house or if it’s in the electronics of the phone, but it’s noticeably better than my Motorola RAZR on Verizon.

* Syncing up with the hands free bluetooth on my car was a snap and the audio/voice quality through it is better than with my old phone.

* Browsing the web with Safari on the iPhone is better than anticipated.

* The activation software was the best activation process I’ve ever gone through. EVER! It set up my iPhone, converted me from Verizon to AT&T, carried my existing phone number over and didn’t whack out my wife’s phone, which was part of a family plan on Verizon (and she’s not moving to AT&T just yet). Absolutely flawless. My wife even called Verizon to promote her phone from secondary to primary and they commented that they already see my phone had been ported over to AT&T.

* I haven’t yet found a single device that could be my cell phone and email device. I previously loved my RAZR as a phone and while I haven’t had a Blackberry of late, it’s a great email device but not such a great phone. The iPhone may be the first device that gets the distinction of being my cell phone and email device.

Now that we have a demanding blist user owning an iPhone and loving it, hopefully support for blist on the iPhone isn’t too far away. Playing with my blists on a iPhone sounds like a wonderful thing to me. How about you?