No. I didn’t get to spend two weeks with an iPhone. But I did manage to steal a few moments to play with one on loan to USAToday’s Ed Baig this afternoon, but not enough time to get the hang of typing on its virtual keypad.

Tapping out ”Hi” turned up “Ho”. 

It was also long enough to check the weather in Cupertino and to watch a video on YouTube after waiting the better part of a minute for it to download.

And it was enough time for this reporter to suspect the possibilities for developing finger blisters after sliding my callus-free finger across the screen enough times to scroll through Baig’s digital album. (cute baby pics!)
     
The consensus, from Ed and a few others who have spent more time with the device, is positive. Not much of a surprise, they all think it’s pretty cool, but not perfect. AT&T’s network impressed no one.

Video of Baig playing with the iPhone here. 
     
Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg (subscription): 
“Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer.” 

Likes:
* Virtual keyboard: lack of physical keys was a “nonissue” except that typing error correction “didn’t seem as clever as the one on Blackberry” 
* Web browser: best “on a smart phone”, flies on Wi-Fi 
* Impressive battery life, memory, display. 
* Visual Voicemail 

Dislikes: 
*The “pokey” cellular network it runs on, “not great” quality of voice calls 
*lack of a removable battery 
*lack of a way to search the phone’s contents 
*lack of common methods to edit or change documents 
*lack of video games. 
     
USA Today’s Edward Baig: 
“Apple’s iPhone isn’t perfect, but it’s worthy of the hype” 

Likes: 
*The display: How it changes from vertical to horizontal depending on how you hold it 
*The virtual keyboard: Took just a “few days” to get used to. Making calls on it was  “surprisingly easy” 
*Visual voicemail, which tells you who’s left a message - “one of the best features” 
*Music player - Did not miss the iPod scroll wheel. Liked Web surfing while listening 
*Photo display: ”Looks fabulous” 

Dislikes: 
*Voice coverage was so-so 
*Web surfing on AT&T’s network, which he also described as ”pokey” and the phones “Achilles heel” 
*No voice recognition or voice dialing 
*No memory slot to add more music 
*No extra ringtones available to purchase, no way to  use own songs as ringtones 
*Found taking pictures “a tad awkward” 
     
New York Times’ David Pogue: 
“It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.” 

Likes: 
* How it looks: “so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese.” 
*The software: “It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate.” 
*The Browser: “You get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen .. can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading”

Dislikes: 
*Slow Web browsing: The New York Times’ home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo. two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem” - Ouch! 
*The virtual keyboard: “Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first.”  “The Blackberry won’t be going away any time soon.” 
*The phone: making a call takes “as many as six steps” and “Call quality is only average.” 
*No video recorder 
*No picture messaging