iphone...

I wanted to make sure I actually kept the thing this time before I wrote about it.
See, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a 16gig iPhone, after I discovered the phone had been updated to work with Exchange servers.
I was saddened to find that it, the concept of WORKING with Exchange servers, right now, only extended as far as giving the phone the capability of PULLING mail from a server. It was not a Blackberry clone. No live mail, no calender syncing, even if my IT department gave the phone access, which they did not.
The end price for the 16gig unit was over 550 dollars. It basically cost the same as my PS3. Yeeks. While it is a very cool thing, it is just not a 550 dollar level cool thing.
So, as I do now and again, especially with Apple products, I brought it back. Without being able to use it as a replacement for the Blackberry, I just couldn't justify the cost. Sitting here now, I have to be honest and say that even if it could directly replace the Blackberry, the 550 dollar price tag was giving me heart palpitations.

Raj, the dude from the non-podcast a couple of posts below, berated me for being spineless. He asked, "Why do you need a Blackberry? Why do you need constant connection to your email? Why do you suck so much?"
These were questions I had been asking myself, but didn't have the gumption to raise myself.
Even though, after returning the iPhone, I was back in Blackberry land, I asked my manager why I was. I sit in front of my machine, in the back of a classroom, 95% of the time. Why depend on email on my phone? How often did I get an email I needed to respond to immediately? In an emergency, who sends an email?
The overwhelming majority of email that comes through my phone has nothing to do with me. But, as the phone keeps vibrating in my pocket, I keep looking at all these mails. Really, is it needed?
He stopped me about halfway through my tirade, just as I was getting good and worked up, by saying, "I don't care if you have a Blackberry or not. If you get the work done that needs to get done, it doesn't matter to me how you do it."
This sucked the steam from my sails. (Can you find the mixed metaphor?)

So, one planet aligned.

Er... That doesn't actually make any sense. One planet cannot align. It's just a planet in a place where it is.
Hold on.

After I found out that I didn't really NEED to have a Blackberry anymore... nothing happened. I still couldn't justify the 550 dollar cost. It was just too much.

Last week, Engadget ran a story about AT+T running a special on refurbished 8gig iPhones. 250 dollars.
250 dollars was a lot more palatable the 550. Even if it was only for 8gigs.
My quest, once, was to find a device that answered all of my tech needs.
I wanted something that was a phone, and an MP3 player, and a camera with both still and video, and a game player, and a full internet experience-er, and a bunch of other unreasonable things.
I've given up on that quest for now. I think in about 5 years, we'll be there, but not now. So I was good with only 8gigs because I wasn't going to even care about carrying ALL my music. I was only going to carry my emergency back-up tunes and was okay with that.

(EDIT- Actually, a company has created a device that answers everything, seemingly. But, it looks like this:




See the full details on Engadget.)

So, now we can see two planets aligning. No need for Blackberry and reasonable price.

However, there was no way I was going to be able to get my hands on a refurb'ed phone. I just wasn't that lucky.
But I figured I'd give it a try to see what happened. I walked into my local AT+T store and asked the dude who worked there if they had any of the refurb'ed iPhones.
He blinked at me a couple of times and said, "Yeah. We have a couple."
I said, "Okay. Can I have one?"
He blinked at me a few more times and said, "Yeah. I'll go get it."

I think I was accidentally using the Jedi Mind Trick on him. I wish I could remember how I did it, because it's really handy.

He said, "I'm not actually supposed to sell this to you. They are supposed to be for new customers only. You're not even supposed to know they exist. That'll be 250 dollars."

So, really, four planets aligned. No Blackberry need, low price, I found one, and the dude let me buy it.
I believe the phone gods wanted me to have one.
So, now I do.

And, get this, for the most part, I am really happy with it.
Of course, there are issues, but there always are. Stay tuned for another post at another time as this is getting wordy.

iBaaaahhhh!