All of the cool kids got an iPhone a while back. They were willing to fork over the usurious price tag and the silly AT&T data package fees to get the thing, while I had employers who were providing me with BlackBerry phones and Verizon service for free.
I mocked the iPhoners.
I was wrong.
My current employer, who slipped me a BlackBerry when I came to work 10 months ago, just let me have an iPhone on a “two-month trial basis.” That what my employer likes to call it. I call it a “there is no way in hell you are getting this back basis.”
The iPhone is a game-changer. Sure, it still has stupid/annoying Apple non-features such as a lack of a removable battery and no memory expansion slot (the better to soak your wallet with, my dear, by charging you another $100 for a device that contains another $10 worth of memory), but it runs so well, does so many things and does them so effortlessly that it changes the way people use computers and portable devices.
From the many smooth-running portable apps to the reasonably decent phone (certainly it’s as good as my BlackBerry as a phone) to its iTunes music player underpinnings, the iPhone is a beautiful thing. It’s really impossible to appreciate until you get one in your hands, and then it becomes a creative extension of you — much more so than a personal computer.
Try one for five minutes and you’ll see. I haven’t been this excited about the potential of computing since the first time I started using the Web.
Randy,
I would like for you to elaborat more on why iPhone leaves Blackberry in the dust.
I was just about to spring for a Blackberry, mainly because I have my mobile telephone service through Verizon. Plus, they are offering two Blackberrys for the price of one.
My sister has an iPhone and, of course, swears by it. But she also has an Apple laptop.
Further, when my son upgraded to a smart phone, he skipped the iPhone because he prefers a keyboard to text. [He is 16.] Cynthia and I only text when we have to talk to Brendan and so texting is not a big deal.
Anyway, you have given me pause for thought.
Noel
‘elaborat’ should be ‘elaborate.’ Sorry.
They’re really different animals. The iPhone is much more flexible/powerful/fun and has all sorts of apps, many free, that do all sorts of things. The BlackBerry is a better tool for dealing with e-mail (although not by much). The keyboard is very useful. You can futz a BlackBerry to do a lot of iPhone things (music, video) but the iPhone is far more flexible. The apps run much, much faster, too on an iPhone — in part because they’ll also sync up with wireless Internet connections, saving you lots of time and money over using a 3G wireless cell connection.
It’s a really fun game machine, too, with high-res graphics.
iPhones sync up fine with PCs. I’ve never owned an Apple desktop/laptop because I think the cost of Apple PCs is indefensible, especially now that they share 90% of parts with the typical Windows PC. There’s no issue there.
The iPhone is really the first highly useful/flexible handheld computer. I’d go so far as to say it’s becoming my primary non-work computing device. My wife is already getting sick of me playing with it.
well that just bums me out. I was hoping it was just a hip toy. To find out it is actually good and worth it is depressing. I was hoping I could pass on it, but maybe not…
Randy,
Thanks for your insight.
Noel