Yesterday I went over to the Apple Store at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, to cover the line over there for CNET TV and to secure another test unit iPhone for our labs. I was there for about 4 hours, and by the time 6PM rolled around, the line was pretty damn long. I wasn’t intending on buying an iPhone that day, but when I got up to the counter and the smiling Apple clerk asked me what he could get for me, I blurted out “Two eight-gigers, please!” I caved under the non-pressure.

So now I have an iPhone of my very own. The one you see above isn’t mine, but Ryan’s. The reason why you don’t see mine is because I realized that I still have ’til the 10th of July before my T-Mobile contract is up. I’ve already spent $600–I’m sure as hell not going to spend another $200 just so I can use it now. Oh, but is it ever hard not to activate that sucker. You can’t do anything without activating it! Luckily, I’ll be surrounded by them both at home and at work, so I won’t feel like I’m missing out too much.

I have to tell you, I didn’t want to get sucked in like this, but it’s cool… really cool. Yes, the keyboard can be a little flaky. And yes, the EDGE kind of sucks. But my initial feeling is that it’s a very fun and easy to use phone. I guess I’ll have to wait until the week of the 10th to give my full impressions!

In the meantime, the real phone/MP3 player pros at CNET have taken their First Look, so go check that out.