ryansutter·net

I am not a mobile phone geek.  In fact, I hate phones.  I don’t like talking on phones.  Phones annoy the crap out of me.

Of course, like everybody, I need a phone to function in todays world.  Given the nature of my work, I need a mobile phone, so I have one.  For years I went with the cheapest, clunkiest, freebie phones I could get with my phone service.  I expected nothing of my phone.  Zip.  Zero.  Except, of course, the occasional unwelcome time spent talking on the thing.

Last year I was driving through Apple Valley MN talking on my crappy Seimens A56i cellular phone when the audio cut out.  I shut the phone off and started it up again.  Still no audio.  Turned out, it was broken and I needed a new phone.  I stopped by the closest Cingular store and perused the phones available.  One was the Motorola SLVR L7 iTunes-enabled phone.  I was tempted.  Now, at the time, I was iPod-less, having sold mine on eBay.  I had been considering buying an iPod Nano just for listening to podcasts and stuff and this seemed like something that would allow me to kill two birds with one stone so I bought it.

The SLVR has multiple crippling drawbacks.  You can only have 100 tracks.  The USB connection is 1.1 (read: SLOOOOOOOW).  The camera phone is lousy.  The Bluetooth headset doesn’t support listening to music.  In short, it is far from a perfect device.  I have, however, made it my own.  I have figured out how to put my video podcasts on it via Quicktime exporting, I have figured out how to use it as an eBook reader, I have structured my morning routine in such a way that the speed of the transfer is no problem, I’ve figured out how to use it as a modem for Internet access when camping…  basically I’ve become somewhat addicted to it.  It’s versatile, compact, and a lot of fun.

It’s doomed.

Today, Apple debuted the device that I am constantly pretending the SLVR is, the device I have been wishing I had.  It’s called the iPhone.  Part iPod, part phone, part internet communicator, part mini tablet PC running OS X….  In June, I get one.  End of line.

http://www.apple.com/iphone