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So, we’re having a birthday party for Maryam today and I was at the store getting some ice and last minute things when Mark Graham, senior vice president at iVillage (a Website aimed at women) came up to me with this big grin showing off his iPhone.

He showed some other people entering the store what the iPhone does. This is going to be the real key to success. Whether the phone remains a conversation piece and whether those conversations lead to real customers.

Today at the party we’ll have a bunch of non cult members over (ie, those who think it’s idiotic to wait in line for two days to buy a device). That’ll give us a chance to see how it plays with them and give us an idea of how fast the iCult will grow.

Come back later for some video looks on my Kyte channel.

The San Jose Mercury News has a picture of me reacting to getting my iPhone. Yes, I was, and still am, excited. My son has turned me into an Apple fanboy. Heheh.

Thomas Hawk, I’ll always treasure this photo you took of me and my son and a couple members of the original Mac team. Always. And his writings this morning NAIL why it was an incredible two days.

Remember, I still don’t have an iPhone. My son has one. Maryam has one. I didn’t get one. Why? Cause I have a Nokia N95 and I wanted to see if the hype really was worth selling a $750 device (which surely this morning is worth less) and buying a $600 one that had fewer features. I guarantee you that I’ll be getting an iPhone soon. Even after noticing its many flaws this morning it still meets the hype. I wasn’t quite as prepared as Patrick in the savings department. It’s Maryam’s birthday today and I spent my discretionary income on her since she desperately needed a new phone. Her TMobile didn’t work in the house, the iPhone has full connectivity with both Wifi and AT&T.

Anyway, Thomas Hawk. What can I say? The two days I spent in line with you and hundreds of other people were two damn fun days.

OK, I have some sleep. The waiting-in-line with famous original Mac team members Kool Aid is wearing off.

I want to be snarky. Write a horrible review of the iPhone and tell you how it’s all a bad joke.

I want to tell you how the keyboard sucks. I want to tell you all about how the camera sucks. How it sucks for not coming with any video games. How the activation process was too difficult. How horrible it is that there isn’t a replaceable battery. That the device is already getting tons of finger prints and smudges on it. That the fonts on the browser are too small to read on many Web sites. That it wasn’t worth the time waiting in line (although you could have walked right into the Palo Alto store last night and picked one up).

Oh, this snarky review would continue to discuss what a tragedy it is that it doesn’t have 3G. That it doesn’t have Flash, or the .NET Framework, or the Java runtimes on it.

But then I start playing with the device and I find I overlook all these faults. My Nokia N95 doesn’t have any of these faults but it just isn’t as easy to use. Nor as fun. And the screen! Whenever I look back at my Nokia I feel like I’m using Windows 3.11 on a 640×480 screen again after I’ve gotten Windows 95 and am running it at 1024×768.

This phone is far from perfect. It has lots of weaknesses that Apple’s competitors can exploit. The snarky reviewer inside me can point them all out to you on this morning after if you’d like. But it really doesn’t matter. This phone drags you back to it even if you’re kicking and screaming and noticing the flaws.

But the other companies are only going to be able to keep Apple from taking massive market share if they dramatically push their phones forward.

Seriously there’s one customer who REALLY should think about not buying an iPhone: someone who uses a thumb keyboard phone like a Blackberry. The keyboard is frustrating to use if you are a heavy Blackberry user. That’s the one case where the iPhone’s other benefits will have a tough time counteracting those flaws.

For ME that’s not a big deal (I will never own a device with a thumb keyboard again because back in the 1990s when I owned a Blackberry I was such an addict to using it that I got repetitive stress problems and my hands started hurting. That pain went away when I lost that Blackberry in a cab in New Orleans back in 2000).

My #1 frustration this morning with the iPhone? Fonts. Dave Winer’s right. I want to change the default view on the Web browser to always be zoomed in.

So, what’s your “morning after” review?

I’ll have Patrick give his morning after review after he gets up. The poor kid was pushed to his breaking point. He was so tired that he didn’t even want to stick around to meet Steve Jobs. If you know Patrick you’d know that’s how you can really tell he was tired since meeting Steve Jobs is one of his life goals. Back later.

Kara Swisher, co-founder of the “D” conference, which is where you saw Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on stage together, which makes her one of the most powerful tech industry people, dropped by today while we were waiting in line for our iPhones.

I introduced her to Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki, who paid some respects to Bill Atkinson, inventor of HyperCard. Turns out the wiki was influenced by Hypercard. To see this all go down, watch Kara’s video she shot today.

Here’s some photos on my Flickr stream. I know there’s others. If you have them, can you post them into the comments here?

UPDATE: Brian Solis has a bunch of photos.

Here’s some photos on my Flickr stream. I know there’s others. If you have them, can you post them into the comments here?

Amazing device. Amazing line. Steve Jobs showed up, unfortunately that was after we had left the store but we saw him arrive and walk into the store (he walked to the store from his home).

Also joining us in line was Andy Hertzfeld in addition to Bill Atkinson, who I talked about earlier. Both members of the official Mac team. Inventor of the Wiki, Ward Cunningham, showed up earlier in the day. Kara Swisher, one of the most powerful tech journalists (she works for Wall Street Journal and, along with Walt Mossberg, produce the “D” conference which is the one where both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates shared the stage a while back.

Patrick is so happy he doesn’t know what to do. We are absolutely drained. Got a shower, but am off to bed.

Being the first customer into the store was an experience I’ll never forget. They had something like 50 employees all hanging around the store. All cheering wildly. It was surreal. I should have brought a video camera in, but it was a moment I’ll never forget. Over the top.

It was worth every minute of waiting in line.

OK, I’ll be honest, we’ve barely turned it on. But when you open your box you’ll realize that Apple has changed the way we all will look at mobile phones forever. Even if you don’t buy one you’ll see other companies react to this.

When people say it lives up to the hype they are right. Amazing device. Amazing store experience.

If you wonder why Apple gets hype you need to come and wait in line with us and see just what’s up.

The adrenaline has to subside a bit before I really take on doing a halfway decent review.

More after we get some sleep, too.