In late January, just before my weeks of non-stop travel began, a Very Bad Thing happened. My phone died.
About seven months earlier, Jim and I upgraded our cell phones when we combined them onto a single family plan. (It's one of those things that's part of combining two modern households... Figuring out how to merge your cell phone coverage onto one plan.)
We both got these sweet little Tilt phones; cool features, full keyboards, and since they were both refurbs, we didn't spend a lot out of pocket.
But in January - a month after the refurb warranty expired - mine went kaplooey. The battery went dead. You'd plug it in to charge, and you'd get no juice. Put in a new battery, connect the charger, and it would rapidly drain - like the polarity had been reversed or something.
Repair was going to be as expensive as getting a new phone. And I wasn't eligible for equipment discounts (thank you, AT&T) for another year.
So while I traveled, I used my work Blackberry as my primary phone. That worked okay for a while, and I didn't feel bad about using it for personal use since a new company policy has us paying $20 a month out of our paycheck to cover "incidental personal use".
Funny... I never used it got personal calls until they started making me pay for it. But suddenly, I was using it for ALL my calls. (I'll admit to a bit of a pissy attitude: you're gonna make me pay for it? Then, by God, I'm going to use it!)
My boss actually asked me why I wasn't just using my Blackberry as my sole phone - I think that's what he does -and while that's nice in theory, it wasn't practical. You see, our IT team has them locked down so you can't SMS and you can't surf sites they deem "non-work related" ... so no updating FaceBook via Blackberry. You know ... the important stuff.
So for the last four months, I've been on a tear about needing a new phone. Poor Jim... I went from sly hints to loving suggestions to outright browbeating.
You see, I decided that if I had to buy a new phone anyway, and I wasn't going to be eligible for an upgrade discount, I might as well get the device I REALLY wanted: an iPhone.
Oh, yeah....!
I'm a rabid PC user, not quite anti-Mac, but decidedly PC-preferring ... however, when it comes to MP3 players and mobile devices, I'm a huge Apple fan. After years of using Creative Labs devices, I finally bought an iPod Nano a couple years ago, and fell in love with everything about it. When it came time to upgrade it, I went to a high-capacity video iPod, which has been my constant companion for the last year. And as my frustration grew with lugging multiple devices - my purse laden with a phone, iPod, point-and-shoot camera, Blackberry, and more - the attraction of a single device to "do it all" became overwhelming.
Last night, my sweet husband acquiesced to my pleas. He made me one very, VERY happy Angie with a trip to the Apple store at Willow Bend Mall...
...and 30 minutes later, I walked out with my new 16GB iPhone in hand.
To say I'm fascinated with my new toy - excuse me, TOOL - would be a massive understatement. This morning, on the way to drop Jim off at DFW airport (he's in San Francisco this weekend for another Toastmasters conference) I sat in the passenger seat, utterly engrossed. "New Twitter post - I got an iPhone - send! Here's a picture of Jim I just took with my iPhone - post to TwitPic - send! And here's an email I just sent with the picture I just took, all with my iPhone - send!"
Yes, I know I'm being ridiculous. But the novelty will wear off soon and I'll stop posting pictures of my car keys. (I think...)
After months of waiting, and researching, and talking to friends, getting opinions and really thinking through what I wanted and how I'd actually use it... I was pretty darn sure I was making a solid, informed decision. So far, no regrets!
The whole "convergence" thing is what I appreciate the most. I have, ostensibly, half a dozen devices all in one. Just one thing to clip to my hip, or pop in my purse, and I'm set!
It's been ridiculously easy to set up and get going. It uses iTunes for all sync functions with my PC. I just had to tell it to grab my contacts from Outlook, and suddenly all thousand-plus email addresses, names, and numbers were on my phone. Same thing with my calendar.
16GB isn't enough to store my entire music collection on here, so I just grabbed all my current playlists and dragged them over. And as for video, I decided to put one set of Looney Tunes cartoons on here just in case there's a kid I need to entertain (myself included). My video iPod will still come with me on long trips, at least until the day comes they make an 80GB version of the iPhone.
The keyboard on this is taking some getting used to. My fingertips are bigger than the letter keys, so I'm frequently hitting the wrong letters; however, Apple has a really "smart" auto-correct function on the text entry. I'm learning to just type fast, and about 90% of the time it gets it right. (And the more I use it, I think I'm beginning to get a little more accurate.)
My one complaint about the text entry is the way you have to place the cursor if you need to edit or insert something. With no arrow keys to back up a precise number of spaces, you have to use your finger to "place" the cursor. It's like using a big, fat Bingo ink dotter to try and dot the i on your signature. But I'm getting better at that, too, albeit slowly.
The plethora of applications available for the iPhone is, quite frankly, overwhelming. Like the commercial says, "there's an app for that." Rather than blowing a bunch of cash on downloads, I decided to start with just a few tools I knew I'd use, and then add to my collection slowly, over time.
I installed the tools for Facebook,Twitter, and TypePad (which I'm using, incidentally, to compose this post). Next came a couple of games - Sudoku, Tetris, and Myst. And I also picked up a Tip Calculator for dining out that'll even help you split the bill.
I'm looking at a couple list-making programs for grocery lists and the like... and I figure I'll continue collecting apps over time. (If you're an iPhone user, be sure to post a comment about the apps you can't live without - I'd love to check 'em out!)
The verdict after my first 24 hours of iPhone ownership: it was worth the wait. I'm discovering all sorts of new things I love as I play with it - like the incredible control it gives you over your voicemail with it's sweet button-based menu interface... the way it pauses your song or video or game automatically when a call comes in... how easy it is to install apps or ringtones or photos or just about anything with the sync interface in iTunes...
I have no doubt I'll have more to blog about my newfound love for the iPhone on days to come. For now, I'll say wholeheartedly: convergence is a beautiful thing!


She bought herself a new point-and-shoot recently, and I knew that she'd done a bunch of research before making her final decision. She's the genius when it comes to photography, so I entirely trust her opinion. She recommended the 


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