Its funny when we look back on things and realize we should have done them a long time before. I did that with my iPhone. I should have had a smart phone from day one that they were out. It would have saved me a ton of late night email checking, appointment setting, etc....

Add to that, Exchange Server. Up until about 6 months ago I was using POP3 email. Great if you only have one device, but try to manage your email from a desktop, laptop, phone, web, etc.. you just can't do it effectively. Then I switched over to using Exchange Server. Man! what a difference. Now everything flows seemlessly through each device. If you struggling trying to manage your email you need to look at Hosted Exchange Server. Now, granted, I only use two email accounts with the company, so its pretty inexpensive. If you have a bunch of company email accounts, maybe look into Google Apps as a solution. I didn't go with Google Apps because I like the calendar and contacts interface I get to use with Exchange/Outlook.

I will now join the 21st century. unboxing my new i-phone as I write this. already not liking this since i need to use itunes. The few times I have had to play with an ipod I hated the syncing. I cut music for skating routines. SOme kids had an ipod. I couldn;t figure out how to just send 1 song to the ipod with out dumping their own library and replacing it with mine. I sure hope this isn't the case with the iphone.
I am looking forward to the "smart" side of the phone, I have always avoided these since they appeared to be more toy than tool but I can see the tool functionality being dominant.

you just need iTunes to sync music and to make some initial settings. Keep in mind, that iTunes also backs up your phone as well, saving all your info. If your phone ever gets broken, lost, or stolen, you can get a new phone and restore from the backup.

But understand this about iTunes and the iPod function, whether its on your phone or a stand alone iPod. Every iPod is tied and synced to one specific iTunes account. You can sync more than one iPod to a single iTunes account, but not vice versa. This is by design, not a flaw. This is how Apple prevents people from illegally sharing music. Can you imagine what would happen if people could freely download and upload from ipod to ipod?? Its nothing more than a security measure for them.

As you use your "smartphone" (or "superphone" as the more powerful ones are now called) I think you'll find that the toy aspect disappears pretty quickly.

For those with the Android O/S, I highly recommend K-9 Mail as your phone's client. In my case, I HAD to move to K-9 since the natively-installed email app did not properly handle IMAP. From font size to folder subscription...this app does EXACTLY what it says it does really, really well. No fru-fru or bells--just a straight and clean client. Very configurable, too.