There's little doubt that box office reports early next week will declare Pixar's "Ratatouille" a big hit, but what about Apple's iPhone which also debuts nationwide this Friday? Anticipation is high and the fans are already lining up as the first reviews come in. Personally speaking, as a Pixar fan I am quite anxious to see "Ratatouille," but I haven't even watched the trailer. And as a diehard Mac user, I've now read the iPhone reviews and every time I decide to take the leap, I pause and reconsider. The virtual keyboard, the high cost, the small hard drive and the questionable battery are my biggest concerns, in that order. The early reviews address all these points, but as many are warning, is it a bad idea to buy a first generation Apple product?

The reviews, so far...

"The iPhone is revolutionary; it's flawed. It's substance; it's style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones. - David Pogue, The New York Times

"Despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions." - Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal

"Apple has delivered a prodigy -- a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset. Still, iPhone isn't perfect, or even the most ideal smartphone for every user." - Edward C. Baig, USA Today

"It's a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding."
- Steven Levy, Newsweek