Last night, as I looked at all the photos tagged “iphone” rolling in on Flickr, I wanted to capture all the iconic first photos people would inevitably take with their new iPhone once they got it. At the same time, I wondered, can an iPhone buy happiness*? So I started two competing groups at the same time: Photos of me with an iPhone, and Photos of me without an iPhone. Here are some of my favorite photos posted in the last 12 hours so far:

The Haves

Xeni Jardin covered the line for BoingBoing with Sean Bonner, a Have-Not.

Andrew Mager, who covered San Francisco.

Elsie Flannigan

vernhart, trying to decide whether to open the box or not.

The Have Nots

Dana Robinson’s photo inspired me to start the pool.

Micki Krimmel is perfectly happy in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Josh Leo’s happy enough in West Michigan.

Action Girl’s got the old-skool bling.

Paul Dateh, and gorilla can not has iPhone.

Lots more great ones in there. Got a photo with or without? Please add it to one of the pools: Haves | Have-Nots

*For a little extra fun, check out the first episode of Technology Show Internet, where they see if anyone in the Fifth Ave Apple Store line can really say, “iDeserve iPhone.”

Mind you, so does everyone else. But I need something to make you click and come to shey.net. Please don’t hate me.

At any rate, David Pogue and Walt Mossberg have both done video reviews of the new iPhone. The Pogue review is exceptionally good — I can’t understand why it’s only been viewed a couple hundred times on YouTube, but that may be a very short-term thing.

I can’t help but notice all the smudges on the screen, which I’ve imagined will be the main drawback of an iPhone — people like me who aren’t at peace with the fact that we are greasy animals will be carrying around little bottles of cleaner and chamois cloths and maniacally cleaning these things. The other drawback Pogue mentions in the best and most straightforward quote from his review: “you can get online in a wireless wifi hotspot, which is fast and satisfying, or via AT&T’s cellular internet network, which is slow and horrible.” My current phone has 3G and a very decent web browser, and I’ve adapted pretty well to doing most everything I need to with it.

On that note, despite having bought nearly every major Mac product of the past few years as soon as they came out — the Newton, the iMac, the original iPod, every Powerbook / MacBook since the G3, the Apple TV, even the Cube (boy, did I love the Cube) — I’m going to be sitting this one out for a little while. Why? I can’t bear right now the compromises I know will come of this being a first generation product. Despite the beauty of the interface and OS, it’s just bound to have some major limitations that are going to become apparent to me in the first few days of heavy use, and I just can’t bear to think of the iPhone as anything less than perfect. I’d rather wait a little longer until it truly is perfect, like my beloved iPod and Nano both are (in my opinion).

That doesn’t mean I won’t drool and make smudges all over my business partner Emil’s iPhone, as I’m sure he’ll get one this week.

Here’s Mossberg’s review. It’s great, also — I just don’t have much more to say.

WWSJD | Cupertino, CA, originally uploaded by ldandersen.

(Great photo our friend Buzz took in the One Infinite Loop parking lot… Apple management philosophy boiled down to a five-letter acronym.)