“Listen my children and you shall be shown, of the many delights of Apple's iPhone. On the seventeenth of July, in two thousand seven. Hardly a man is now alive, who hasn't yet heard the iPhone's jive.

My apologies to Mr. Longfellow (who’s probably doing about 1500 RPM about now). But, yes, boys and girls, its MMOOS time again - as in Maine Macintosh Owners & Operators Society, our local Apple User Group. Our July meeting is next Tuesday, the 17th, at 6:30 PM, in the large meeting room in Bldg. 25 at Thornton Oaks Retirement Community in Brunswick. Check our website at mmoos.net for directions and more details.

Our feature program will be entitled “iPhone: Worth the Wait, or Worth It To Wait?” We’re not just gonna talk about the iPhone, we’re going to smudge it up real good. We’re gonna poke it, prod it, push all its buttons (real and virtual) – all up close and personal, like you’re doing it yourself, through the miracle of “MMOOS-Vision”. Don’t know what that is? Come and find out. It should be a hoot. Oh, and if you’re a Windows user, remember that the iPhone also plays well with Windows PCs.

OK. I promised last week I would talk this week about things I don’t like about the iPhone. I keep over 75% of my promises, so let’s begin.

I wish the horizontal, widescreen, or “landscape” viewing mode was available in all iPhone applications. For example, when using the iPhone’s Safari web browser to view a web page, you can turn the iPhone onto its side, and see a widescreen version of the page. The text and images are slightly larger (obliging my 50-year-old eyes). If you invoke the keyboard, to say, type in a new URL, it pops up widescreen as well, with slightly larger letter “keys” and more space between them (obliging my pudgy thumbs).

However, when reading an email message (which can often contain very web-page-like formatting and images), you’re stuck in a vertical orientation, both in viewing and using the virtual keyboard for typing. The iPhone’s Calendar application is also “stuck” in a vertical orientation.

One great thing about the iPhone, and its lack of physical buttons, is that interface changes and added capabilities can easily be accommodated through software and firmware updates, which are sure to come soon, especially with Mac OS X “Leopard” just around the bend.