A variety of Apple-certified iPod accessories we tried had issues or simply didn't work with the iPhone. It complained that Apple's own iPod Hi-Fi wasn't certified, although it did play sound through the system. Neither a Monster FM transmitter nor iTalk or XtremeMac voice recorders worked at all, and each triggered an iPhone error message. (iPhone's operating system may be entirely different from an iPod's and could be related to these problems.)

The lack of voice dialing has been widely mentioned, but Copy and paste are missing from iPhone's vocabulary. While Mail does its level best to make links tappable and open in Safari, if it fails to recognize a link, you'll just have to memorize it and enter it by hand.

Another glaring software omission is to-do lists. This is a basic organizer feature, and a part of iCal. It's bizarre that this is completely missing on iPhone. You could use the Notes widget to keep a list, but with no copy-and-paste or drag-and-drop, good luck re-ordering and prioritizing it. This alone may be a deal-breaker for users of existing PDA smartphones such as the Palm Treo.

Support for stereo music over Bluetooth would also be nice. It's a common feature among high priced mobile phones. It borders on ludicrous that iPhone, with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR on its spec sheet, doesn't support this. iPhone also doesn't support voice dialing, making truly hands-free use functionally impossible. (Some cars provide the voice dialing feature independent of the phone handset; MacInTouch readers report success with Acura and Toyota Bluetooth systems.)

Bluetooth is limited to handsfree sets and links to car audio systems. iPhone does not support OBEX file exchange, which means it cannot wirelessly send or receive photos, movies, sounds or other files from mobile phones or Bluetooth-equipped computers.

Other missing features include custom ringtones, voice memos, video capture, picture text messaging (MMS), a true instant messaging client that doesn't incur SMS texting fees, and more flexible QuickTime H.264 support. We'd also like to see Safari able to remember and autofill web forms.

Finally, iPhone is locked: it can only be used with AT&T. In some parts of the world, phones must be unlocked at customer request, but the U.S. is not among them. Until Apple agrees to unlock it, iPhone cannot be used with other GSM providers in the U.S. or abroad.