I have had my Apple iPhone for about a month now. I admit that I chose this for my upgrade because of Smart Phone Envy. This is the feeling I had at meetings when everyone at the table whipped up an iPhone to Google people, places, and things; find e-mailed agendas that didn't get printed; and just about everything my 3-year-old Nokia simply couldn't do. I felt like I had a buggy whip in my purse.

Now that I have had an iPhone long enough to feel comfortable with the basics, it's time to see if it lives up to my expectations.

Why buy a smart phone?
Other than Smart Phone Envy, I desperately wanted to text with a keyboard. Using my old cell's keypad made even the most simple text a tedious exercise in frustration. In one case, I tried to tell someone that "Jenn" was invited to our home, but it came out "Leon" -- without offering an edit other than going in the spelling out mode. I found myself avoiding words and names that the system didn't understand.

If the smart keyboard was its only feature, I would sing the iPhone's praises forever! The keyboard is only the beginning. Text threads are visible through balloons (like comic strips) so you can scroll through your conversations. For me, this means that I can just scroll up the thread to see whether or not I gave directions to the restaurant or just the name. My kids think I'm evolving to become a better texter, but it's just this incredibly user-friendly interface!

Everything is so small. How can I make it out?
Enlarging a web page is a not as natural as I would like, but I got used to it quickly. Tap on the screen twice with three fingers, and you've go it in readable size. It didn't take me long before I was easily navigating through this website and several others. I won't pretend that it's as comfortable as a full-size screen, but it certainly beats waiting till you can get to your computer.

You can also increase the size of the text fonts in your settings app. This is really important if you've got eyes over 40.

What about locking your phone?
The iPhone will automatically lock if you leave it idle for one minute (you can adjust the delay time), but a handy button on top will immediately lock the iPhone.

How fast is the web?
The iPhone uses Safari as its browser. It feels plenty fast to me. My major Googling was to get addresses for buildings whose names we knew so that I could get directions to it. It was lightning fast.

What's the WiFi/3G thing all about?
When you turn the iPhone on (or unlock it with a simple slide of your thumb), it senses WiFi signals and asks if you want to use them. Unless I'm in a place that offers free WiFi, I opt to cancel out and just use the 3G. Both systems work just as well.

Costs to run?
AT&T Phone Store gave us a 2-GB data plan for $30. This included free connections with any other mobile phone. Therefore, we'd only be using our minutes when connecting to landlines. We have three lines on our account, with mine being the only iPhone. Our bill was promised to be about $170, including insurance. The whole thing adds about $30 to our monthly bill. The fee to upgrade to the iPhone was $85, including tax.

Because there is a hefty fee for going over the data plan limit (I admit I don't remember how much, but it wasn't cheap), I haven't done all the app shopping everyone else talks about. At the moment, I'm limiting my surfing to searches and my favorite utility: the compass.

What's the big deal with the compass?
This is an actual compass. You turn the iPhone around to find magnetic north, just like you would with the real thing. Then there's a button in the lower left corner of the screen that switches to a satellite photo of your location. The first time I did it, we were in a hotel, and our room overlooked the swimming pool. I couldn't get over seeing the pool as clear as day when I switched to the location! Maybe I'm still an innocent, but I'm in awe of the technology that put a satellite photo of our hotel's swimming pool in the palm of my hand!

So, does it actually make phone calls?
With all the bells and whistles, it's easy to forget that this is a cell phone and should be able to make and receive phone calls.

Before going into detail, I should explain that we got the phone on our way to Reno because I discovered that my old cell was officially a paperweight the night before we were due to leave. I didn't actually make or receive calls on it until I was in the casino. This may be the reason I missed a couple of calls. I didn't have the chance to adjust the ringer volume.

Having gotten that disclaimer out of the way, I can tell you that it easy to dial new numbers. There's a little finessing to get to the right name on your contact list. Their is a teeny alphabet running down the righthand side of the screen. If you touch (remember that I have eyes over 50) in the vicinity of the first letter of your contact's last name, it will zip to the correct section of your contact list. In my case, this was interesting because my phone list was informal with entries like "Jane's cell" and "Jane's work." I discovered that Jane's cell was filed under C and Jane's work was filed under W. This was a problem for me because I am too lazy to edit those entries correctly. No problem for the iPhone! There is a star icon called "favorites" at the bottom of the screen when you're in the calling mode. Click on that icon and copy your most-dialed numbers into that list. Now my husband's, daughter's, son's and close friends' cells are easy to find in my favorites list.

Outside of a loud casino, it's pretty easy to hear my ringtone. Now I just have to learn how to recognize it. I'm not used to the quirky xylophone yet. My old phone had a sonata ringtone. I'm too lazy and cheap to download another classical music ringtone, so I'll just learn to grab my phone when I hear that xylophone. I don't know which is more embarrassing in a restaurant: accidentally ignoring your phone because it sounds like it could be someone else's or rushing to answer it when it actually is someone else's!

Voice clarity and volume. It's very good for the most part. If you're out in the boonies (as we were when we drove from Reno to Carson City), reception will affect the volume of your call. I also had to learn how to hold the iPhone so the mike picks my voice up. I have to hold it at almost a 4 o'clock position. When I have privacy, I prefer to turn the speaker on. I'm more comfortable talking into the phone "face to face" anyway. I rarely have any trouble hearing in either position.

There are those "failure to communicate" moments: My husband claimed he couldn't hear me well at all. I checked his cell and found out that he accidentally turned his volume all the way down. I have trouble hearing my adult children, but that's because they tend to mumble those things they didn't really want to tell me. They have trouble hearing me whenever they decide I'm boring them. These anomolies are no fault of the iPhone. They'll take care of themselves in person.

Are you happy you bought it?
Indescribably happy! I haven't even scratched the surface of what I can do; but it's already helped us get around in suburban areas of Reno and Carson City, kept us in touch with our adult kids by text and voice, and has been a source of information about apartment complexes that we couldn't get through the Yellow Pages.