Apple's I phone brand has me in a bit of a quandry. I want to love it for the way that it packs everything you need to organise your life into one neat accessory, but I want to loathe it for the way that Apple want to monopolise the market and refuse to loosen their stranglehold on the products to allow you a more versatile experience. I upgraded from the superb xperia x10 mini last year, and I'm sorry I did. I loved that little phone as it allowed me to do everything I needed to do. I phone promised the same, but would also incorporate my wealth of I-tunes material which would save me carrying about a phone and an ipod. Why not roll both into the one?

I phone 3G was originally rolled out back in 2008, and has subsequently been replaced by the 3GS, and then the 4G. It isn't unexpected that the subsequent models would be more advanced and carry more weight with it's users. However, the fact that there are so many 3G users still around, it seems somewhat frustrating and downright inconsiderate of Apple to have left 3G behind with its updates. The fact that you cant get the latest runner on this model means that you are now unable to enjoy many of the newer apps that are available from apple. This wouldn't be much of a problem if you are entitled to upgrades now and then with your contract, but I prefer pay and go as I dont use the mobile much for calls or texts.

My favourite thing about the I phone is the ipod. You can cram plenty of songs onto the phone and it operates in the same way that your ipod operates. You have a shuffle function and also the ability to build your own playlists. It wouldn't be much fun going to the gym, sticking shuffle on, and running to Whitney Houston or Snow Patrol, so the playlist function allows you to seperate your songs into appropriate playlists.

I also love the Kindle function that is available. I was tempted to buy a kindle recently as I take a lot of books on holiday. I looked it up and accidently discovered that you can use it on an iphone. This was a blessing for me, as it saved me £100 right before my holiday and allowed me to hit amazon, get a few mobi. books that I wanted to read, and off I went with a much smaller screen, but much heavier wallet. This isn't something I would reccommend if you're blind as a bat, or dont have good eyesight, you'll spend the whole time straining your eyes. It also wasn't great in the direct sunlight, but I spend most of my days on holiday in the water rather than beside it anyway.

There are various other apps that you can have on your iphone that make life easier to organise. There are a whole selection of games that you can download, budget and calenders, networking apps (with facebook being a regular on most iphones I would think), and plenty of lifestyle options. Most company's are now getting in the action and setting up apps that apple users can easily download. It seems the way forward. Many of the apps are easy to download, navigate and organise into little folders, which you can do by dragging one onto another, and naming the folder something of your choice. I have music, lifestyle, finances, games and books on mine.

The downside to iphone is that it is an apple product. I hate the way apple monopolise the market by disallowing you to use your purchases across different media formats. If I buy a CD, I expect to be able to play it on all of my CD players. Why would I not expect the same of music that I PAY FOR through I-tunes. This is the same across the board. I noticed the other day that my friend's ipad didn't have any slots whatsoever for me to plug my external hard drive into. If you are using an ipad as your main pc, and want to put music you have on your external HD onto your iphone, how the hell are you supposed to get round that one, but thats probably for a seperate review.

Iphone 3 comes in dimensions of 116mm by 62mm with a depth of 12mm, and has a 3.5 inch touchscreen. It also has a 2.0 megapixel camera which is poor by comparison of some phone camera's. It has no flash, takes pictures that are somewhat grainy and has very little by way of zooming in and out, although it isn't completely useless. It serves the purpose of attaching photo's to your contacts, but you can do this with an app that links facebook photos and information to your contact list. So really there is very little purpose of having the camera.

The connectivity of the phone to the web is pretty decent. It is fast and allows you to access most sites very easily through the safari app. Another negative is how much battery life drains quickly, although I have discovered that turning off several other things such as the location facility can extend the battery life. At one point though, when I'd charge it all night, and then use it for 40 minutes on the bus to work to listen to music, I'd find that I'd have to plug it in to charge at approximately 2pm that same day. Just go on and google if you find this, and it'll tell you the types of things that you can turn off to improve battery life.

I would like the iphone immensely if it had better battery life, and if apple weren't such a controlling operator. All in all though it is a great way of condensing all your information into the one little organiser. Just ensure that you do put a pin code on the iphone though. Remember its not just your details that are in the phone, but you'll most likely have other people's names, addresses, phone numbers and date of births at the very least. Its not a good idea to store this information if you're not security conscious.