I have a problem. I want it all, and I want it now.

I have an iTunes library with over 80 gigabytes of music, videos, podcasts, movies, and TV shows (and a few PDF files). As you may know, there is no iPod with enough capacity to accommodate my library in its entirety. What to do? Well, I thought a great solution would be to “fork” my library and create a smaller more portable library that I could then sync in it to my iPod without worrying about not having a certain piece of media when I needed it.

It worked fine for a few months until I started wanting to listen to the tracks that were effectively put in suspended animation in the main library. So, last weekend I made the decision to re-consolidate my libraries into one main library. Great.. now I have consistency, but I’m back to square one — can’t fit my stuff on my iPod… not to mention my somewhat space challenged iPhone.

For now, my solution is to get even more intimate with the Smart Playlist feature in iTunes. Essentially, Smart Playlists allow you to define rules and parameters that govern what is included in the list. This way I can essentially “data-mine” my library and have it populate my Playlists with genre-based fresh music, un-listened to podcasts, and un-watched movies. I always have the freshest media on my devices, and I shift the work of creating compelling playlists over to the Mac. And I’m constantly hearing music that I had no idea I owned.

Christopher Breen has published an excellent article containing tons of tips and tricks for creating your own brilliantly smart playlists. Once you spend a little time in advance defining what parameters you want your Smart Playlist to be built with, the Mac does an amazing job of dee-jaying your iPod.

They say you never really know someone until you’ve gone to battle with them — or on a road trip. I can say this was really the case over the past few days as it was my first time traveling with iPhone. It performed like a champ… the battery life was outstanding, and I had no real problems with staying connected with AT&T. It’s still amazing to me how it continually (and aggressively) presents me with wi-fi networks to jump onto.

One jewel that came out of the trip was another use of my Airport Express. I stayed at the excellent Moorpark Hotel in San Jose. When I checked in, the very “proper” clerk bragged about just having installed free high-speed wi-fi for all the guests. Once I got into my room however, it was a different story. My connection was fluctuating between one and zero bars. I guess I was in a room with spotty coverage. Luckily I had brought along my trusty Airport Express.Following my own advice (from my Global Mobile book) I created my own little network by ignoring the weak (and free) hotel wi-fi and instead plugging their “wired” (also free) network into my Airport Express. This of course gave me full-strength wireless to both my MacBook Pro and my iPhone. I was able to roam around the hotel (+/- 300ft) with my iPhone surfing Digg and my favorite blogs.

I really recommend bringing along an Airport Express whenever you travel. If you are traveling with other people, make sure you get adjacent rooms that way everyone can share the same connection. And if you’re in one of those places that still charges for net access, you can save a few bucks and stick it to them for charging you for something that should be free… but I wouldn’t bring this up to the hotel management.

OK, so I’ve had the iPhone in my possession for a full week now. And I have patiently resisted posting anything about it — until now. I wanted to actually use the phone for a while before spouting off about it (imagine that!).

I’ve been reading review after review praising the device, and for the most part they’re all absolutely correct. The iPhone is pure techno-sex. Put it this way, for the first time in my life I felt compelled to go sit in line for HOURS to get my hands a product. Why did I do this?

a) I didn’t want to be on a waiting list while everyone else enjoyed their shiny new toys. Neither Apple nor AT&T gave any information about how many phones would be available at launch. So standing in line was “better safe than sorry”.

b) Let’s face it, people have been waiting for Apple to put out a phone for years. I’ve been wanting one ever since I saw how well the iPod worked. One of the main reasons I wanted a combination iPod/Phone device was to eliminate the necessity to carry around two devices. Leading up to iPhones launch, the anticipation was palpable, and last Friday (June 29 aka iDay) was the climax. In geek terms, the launch event was of biblical proportions.

So, what do I think about the device? Like I said above, I love it… the reviews are correct. They say it’s “revolutionary”, the “best phone ever made”, “a miracle of engineering”, etc… If you want to read a great comprehensive review by MacInTouch.com about the device, click here.

This post is not a review however, but rather confessions of what I’d like to see added in subsequent revisions of the iPhone platform. Here goes:

1. External indicator light

Maybe I’m too used to my old Treo 650, but the thing had a blinking LED on it that would let me know at a glance if I had missed any calls, or if I had any messages waiting. With my iPhone I have to wake it, unlock it, etc.. I would love to see one of those MacBook style slowly pulsating lights on my iPhone.

2. Spotlight Search

This thing is running a mobile version of Mac OS X, but a search feature is no where to be found. I would like the ability to search through my contacts, calendar appointments, notes, etc. It’d be great if this was a system-wide feature that could be accessed from anywhere.

3. MMS (Picture) Messaging

I know not many people are using MMS at this point, but I have come to rely on it for many things. Posting images to blogs, sending photos of things to friends and family, etc. Omitting MMS seems like an oversight on such an advanced device. My guess is that it is on a long list of things that Apple may have not implemented because they wanted to do it better on the iPhone than anyone else. I’m sure we’ll see MMS in a subsequent software revision.

4. Sharing Bookmarks

Now that I have the web in my pocket, I’ve found myself surfing more than ever before. It’s great!! But a side-effect is that I keep finding great pages that I’d like to share with friends. With the current implementation of Safari on the iPhone there is no way to just send a link to someone. You actually have to open the mail or SMS applications and type it in manually. Not having Copy/Paste capabilities really exacerbates this issue.

5. iChat

This again feels like a huge oversight, but knowing Apple I’m sure we’ll see a slick implementation of iChat in the near future. But when it comes the fact that there is no user-facing video camera may become a point of debate. Wouldn’t it be great to conduct a video iChat from where ever you happen to be? Total Star Trek.

6. Wireless Sync

There are THREE wireless antennas in this thing. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GSM. It seems really weird that I can’t sync to my Mac via Bluetooth. But, to tell you the truth… I would rather have AppleTV style syncing. Meaning it should just “work”. When ever my iPhone sees a certain Mac on the network it should just sync all changed content in the background. Just like AppleTV does for music, podcasts, movies, and TV shows.

Those are the items that I am hoping will make it in to subsequent revisions of the software. A few things like the iChat camera issue will of course need to wait until iPhone 2.

If you have an iPhone, I’d love to hear your comments both good and bad.