So I got it. Not for me, of course. My wife wanted my old iPhone so naturally I had to pick one up. Besides, I’m the infobhan. How could I not do it?

Here’s what really went down: I walked into the Boylston Apple Store to kill some time and get out of the intense summer heat. I made my way up to the second floor and saw a line of about 25 people or so. There was another line to get into the line, but first you had to make it past a screener. There must be some poorly-understood human instinct that drives one to queue in response to seeing a line, because somehow I found myself suddenly in front of the screener.

“Which models do you have?”
“8 and 16 GB Black.”
“Oh, really? Okay 16GB black sounds good.”
“Do you know if you are eligible for…”
“I have an old iPhone.”
“Do you have any corporate…”
“I know how to turn it off.”
“Because if you don’t then by the time you get to the front of the line we won’t…”
“Don’t worry.”

And I’m in. I feel like the member of some elite club. I pull out the iPhone and start dialing AT&T. Within minutes I was on the phone with AT&T customer service.

“Hi, I’m about to get a new iPhone and I need to remove my FAN.”

The rep reads me some generic message he knows I won’t listen to.

“Okay, you’re all set. Now it may take a few minutes before it gets down to Apple’s servers.”

“That’s okay, it looks like I’ve got plenty of time.

And I did. About an hour. That’s when Matt, a young fellow who had been hired last week to help out with the iPhone madness showed up to “help me buy” my phone. After I made it clear I knew what I was doing and didn’t want accessories, AppleCare, etc., he went into a back room and returned with an iPhone. Did I really want to do this? (Actually, I’m just inserting this thought after the fact; in real life there was no second-guessing).

Within minutes, Matt and used his handheld to have me sign a few forms and my phone was activated.

So far, so good. First impressions: much easier to hold, feels slimmer (though it’s not actually) and wider, better sound quality for both phone calls and music, much better speakerphone. I haven’t tested out 3G data that much yet, but the battery life is far worse with the combination of the new features of OS 2.0 (push email) and using 3G data. Minimal use of the phone and a single brief phone call had me down to 20% battery life by evening, something which I never saw on my previous phone unless I forgot to charge it.

That said, there is an option to downgrade to EDGE mode, which should actually give me better battery life than the old model. For now, I’m going to go full 3G all the time and see what happens. I have a charger at my desk and in the car to be safe.

For those who are curious, the Griffin PowerJolt SE works great with the 3G iPhone.

Update: The battery life seems to be doing much better today, for unclear reasons (I’m in 3G mode in a 3G zone). It could be that there was some background process draining my battery yesterday.

Recently, some of overheard comments from me that suggest that I may be considering buying the iPhone 3G. This is true, I am considering such a purchase. What is not true is that this represents some sort of “flip-flop” on my part.

Any purchaser of technology would be remiss if they did not consider the situation on the ground when making purchasing decisions. You can’t just make a bold statement and stick to it just for the sake of sticking to it if new information suggests you should do otherwise.

Here’s the new information. In addition to the higher data speed and GPS that the iPhone 3G offers, several respected reviewers have noted improved sound quality (both incoming and outgoing) for calls. In addition, the original iPhone would block incoming calls during data downloads and send them to voice mail. Not so with the iPhone 3G.

These are not, my friends, reason enough to rush judgement. Thus, I plan a fact-finding mission to the Apple Store in the near future. As always, I will report back my findings right here.