Total Number of Ratings: 10
A Boy and his first iPhone
Monday, June 29, 2009 11:12 PM
When the iPhone was first announced on January 9, 2007 I was a young man of 26 who was just starting a new love affair with Apple and all their sleek and sexy toys. I saw the iPhone and lusted for it like I've never lusted for any inanimate object in my entire life, I wanted this more than I wanted an NES when I was 6.
Unfortunately I live in the barren wasteland that is Canada, where even though I live less than an hour from the great state of New York and have things like running water and electricity we can't get an iPhone at the same time because of, well, no one seems to really know why. So I waited and waited and my desire grew and grew. I saw the first gen iPhone come and go and then they announced the 3G and HUZZAH! it would be available in Canada through both Rogers and Fido. Unfortunately I was stuck with another provider, Bell, and my contract wasn't up until April 2009.
Now as much as I wanted this, I'm also a freelancer on a fairly tight budget, I can't afford to spend the hundreds of dollars to break my Bell contract and then a few hundred more on the actual phone, this was just not something a sensible man would do, and I tend to fancy myself as relatively sensible. So I looked at all my friends getting iPhones, got to touch them, fondle them, enjoy the vibration features, but I couldn't have one of my own.
April 2009 came and went and I had begun hearing buzz about a 3rd generation iPhone, possibly to be announced at WWDC in June. I, being the sensible man that I am, waited just a few more months hoping against hope that this new and glorious device would be announced. Turns out for all my waiting I got all the goodies of an iPhone with the 3.0 software plus a video camera, a compass, voice control, a speed bump and smudge-resistant glass. Oh and since I'm in Canada I get MMS and tethering. Eat it AT&T users.
I make an appointment to go to the Apple Store first thing on June 19th, I get there, get in line, and wait... and wait... and wait... turns out that since this is the first time the Apple Stores in Canada will be doing actual iPhone sales there are some major hiccups in the activation process with both Rogers and Fido, eventually a very nice young woman, whose name I believe is Catalina, brings me in and we go through THREE HOURS of trial and error with Fido to get me activated. Finally we get it all figured out, I pay my $300+ dollars for a gorgeous Black 32GB iPhone 3GS.
I've now had the phone for a little over a week and it's easily the best $300 dollars I've ever spent, here are the things I love about it so far, and yes I know full well that most/all of these aren't iPhone specific
1. Having the Internet in my pocket. It's actually just having Wikipedia and IMDB in my pocket that is the best part. I am now the go-to argument solver when we're out an about.
2. Maps. The day after I got this we used the map function to guide us to a BBQ in the suburban wilds that is Montreal's South Shore, it was invaluable since the streets are poorly marked and everything looks the same.
3. Having an ipod with me again. I had stopped carrying my ipod around because it was annoying having both a phone and ipod in my pockets, now that it's all in one I can walk around listening to music like I used to and I love it.
4. Peggle. Nuff said
5. Twitter. I'm on Twitter all the time, and it used to be that when I was out I couldn't really access it which sort of defeats a lot of the purpose of Twitter, no more! Now I have Tweetie a nice full-featured Twitter client and I can keep annoying people even if I'm away from my laptop
6. Tethering. If I'm bringing my laptop to a meeting or a coffee shop I never have to worry about having a wifi signal again, it works great and I love it.
7. Camera/Video Camera. I haven't really done much with this aside from annoy people, but annoying people can be fun sometimes.
8. Skype. I've got Skype installed on my iphone, so now whenever I have a wifi signal I can make free calls. Take that Fido!
9. Voice Recorder. This fills my head with all sorts of podcasting ideas, hopefully some of which might actually materialize.
10. It's pretty, and I felt I needed a 10th thing.
The iPhone is nowhere near the only smartphone available, and I'm sure some would dispute that it's the best (I'm looking at Murmur Staff member Ron Richards specifically), but I adore it. I think most people see the iPhone (and smartphones) purely as a gadget that lets them keep the internet in their pocket. When I look at my iPhone I see a gateway to meeting more people here in town with some app that leverages the GPS technology to introduce you to new people. I see the video camera/youtube integration as a HUGE deal for civilian journalism and activism in general. With the new $99 price point for the 2nd gen version I see it as the ultimate in cheap, portable computing. I look at it and I see a bright new future, and I'm really glad to finally be along for the ride.
Good review.
The cost of the phone is relatively irrelevant for me. The true cost is the contract with AT&T that those of us in the US face. It is my understanding that the monthly bill would be roughly twice what pay now. That means I pay $50 extra a month for 36 months or $1800. I don't want an iPhone enough to pay that much for it. I am glad you are enjoying it and I am certain it is an excellent phone/gadget, but I can't justify buying one until the contract gets cheaper.
I'm ending up spending about $75 (CAD) a month for my plan, which is a little more expensive than I had before but the amount more I can do with my phone and plan MORE than makes up for it.
It is $30 a month more if you ignore any additional fees on top of that. Even if it is just $30, that still comes out to $1,080. I'm not arguing that it isn't worth it for anyone, I'm just stating that it currently isn't worth it for me. I'm thrilled you guys are liking it and I'm also sure it is a great device.
My Verizon contract is up in November...
Really interested in the video features. It's sort of amazing that there's a device out there that lets you record, edit, publish, and share video. Seriously, that's kind of incredible.
The video editing is a tad basic at the moment, but looking to all the music and photo editing apps as an example, I'm sure we're going to see some nice video apps real soon. I know Apple is already looking to update the capabilities so the phone saves a copy before you edit.
Respond
I also got my first iPhone last week, and it truly is a marvel of technology. I can't keep my hands off of it :)