The gadget we just can’t seem to live without, a cell phone. I’ve never been a fan of cell phones but that has more to do with some of the folks who use them and the network providers behind them I suppose. I’ve never figured out why some people are so adamant that I hear their entire conversation. I can appreciate the technology behind the direct connect feature but it really loses it’s luster when I’m in a restaurant with half a dozen people around me are having conversations on their Push To Talk gadgets. Having to deal with the “phone company”, well, that’s another story entirely.
I’ve used lots of cell phones from lots of manufacturers on lots of networks and never really got very excited about any of it. On the other hand, going without my laptop and a WiFi connection has been know to cause heart palpitations at times. Then I got my iPhone.
Now admittedly, I’m a fan of Apple and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the disruptive effect it had on the market long before it was released. And, yes, I bought mine on day one after standing in line but even that was an interesting experience in and of itself. It was great fun to enjoy the release such an anticipated product but at the end of the day it was still a cell phone.
I’m not going to try and convince the world that everyone needs an iPhone but I though I’d take a few minutes and share a bit of my experience with one. First of all, and perhaps I’ve been somewhat lucky, but I’ve found mine to be a pretty good phone. The calls are clear and it’s as good, if not better, than any other handset I’ve had so as far a phone goes, it’s fine. What’s more interesting to me, however, is the things I do now because of my iPhone that I never used to.
My children are like many 20, 30, and yes even 40 somethings who are big on social networking, be it MySpace, Facebook or whatever the flavor is this week they spend a lot of time online. They put lots of family pictures out there including my grand children and they email lots of family photos. Since they all live about 4000 miles away we don’t get to see them very often so to me this is a big deal. I, like most fathers and grand fathers, always carried pictures of everyone I could but this is much nicer. I was waiting for an appointment the other day when I got an email from my youngest daughter. It contained a number of links to her latest postings of baby pictures and I got to see my latest grand daughter online immediately. I immediately crated a new icon on the main screen so I could show people easily. Now, instead of a few photos in a wallet, I am able to show off, as well as stay in touch with, my kids and grand kids in a much better way.
I was always a huge music fan and have lots of music around, be it on vinyl, CD or just stored on my laptop and desktop. Oddly enough though, I have never owned an iPod or any other MP3 player. They just never really suited my life style or maybe I was just too old to care but at any rate I’ve never had much use for one. Once i got my iPhone, however, that changed rather quickly. I have to carry the phone anyway so one day I plugged in the earbuds and hit the iPod icon just for fun and it was great. I listen to music while driving, waiting in airports and pretty much anywhere I have a few minutes to kill. I will still never buy a MP3 player, the last thing I need is another electronic gadget to carry, but I will always have an iPhone.
There are many more things I like about the iPhone but just these two features make it worthwhile and fun for me.
