Let’s get right to it. The iPhone is worthy of all the hype. It does everything its supposed to do with elegance and panache. Plus, it makes you an instant celebrity. You don’t need any talent (just like Ms. Hilton) - you just have to show up. With your iPhone, of course. Suddenly, you’re swarmed by people wanting to get a glimpse of it.

Evidently a lot of people swarmed Apple and AT&T outlets over the past week. Early in the day on Thursday, Apple’s website listed only two of its many stores having any iPhones in stock (in Pennsylvania and Washington state, for what its worth). However, a check late Thursday night revealed additional stock arriving at many locations, including Rockingham Park Mall in Salem, New Hampshire (no sales tax!) and Northshore Mall in Peabody, Massachusetts.

Some sources report that AT&T has activated over one million iPhones, which would cement the iPhone as Apple’s fastest selling new product, and one of hottest new tech gadgets in history.

It appears the iPhone is durable as well as stylish. One tech website submitted it to a “torture test”, placing it in a bag with car keys and other sharp objects. The iPhone came through unscathed. Then, in a segment I found difficult to watch, the techie torturemaster scraped the iPhone’s glass cover repeatedly with car keys. Oh, the humanity! The result? No scratches.

Like its cousin the iPod, the iPhone feels solid. No brown Zune plastic here. And, yes, Virginia, the glass screen does get fingerprints and smudges on it. However, the iPhone comes with a handy cleaning cloth, and my cleaning tests with a sleeve and shirt tail were also effective. I will, however, be purchasing a case for my iPhone, just in case.

What’s my favorite iPhone feature, you ask? In preparing for the iPhone, I changed my .Mac email account from POP to IMAP. IMAP stores my email on the .Mac server, and makes it available to any computer (and my iPhone) bearing my account information. It stays there until I delete it. So, during the day, instead of opening up my MacBook Pro to see if I’ve received any interesting or important email, I can just check mail with the iPhone. If something demands a long response, I can go to the MacBook Pro and type on a “real” keyboard.

Next time – what I don’t like about the iPhone.