iPHone Madness

So, I got an iPhone. It was not an easy task. My first attempt was thwarted because AT&T won't send a phone to a P.O. Box and my address, while being less than 200 yards from the post office, doesn't show up in the AT&T system. This is the reason that I have a P.O. Box, but AT&T was sticking to their policy. One helpful customer service person recommended that I have it sent to a neighbor, however, the iPhone is so damned special your billing address must be the same as your shipping address. I went around and around and around with the folks at AT&T until i was ready to pull out my hair. Finally, I gave in. I had to drive to Grand Junction for something else, so I just went to the AT&T store and bought my phone.

After wrestling with AT&T for so long, I just wanted the iPhone to be just a phone, but alas, it isn't. It is quite a nice piece of technology. I have my "phone" synced with my email and calendar. I can browse the web on a real web browser, not just the hokey little wireless browser that most phone use. We have all seen the Apple commercials "Theres an app for that", well there is. Not only that, but my phone has a gps.

One might ask "Why do I need a gps in my phone?" That is a good question. I will give you a couple of example of how I have used it. On Monday, Adriane and I went back to Junction to pick up a friend at the airport. Now, I know how to get directly to the airport from the Paonia, but not from downtown Junction. If any of you have been to Junction, you will know where I am coming from. The town is a total kludge. You think you are going in the right direction and BAM! you are somewhere else. So, I pulled out the phone, clicked on the map app, it automatically located where I was and I typed in Grand Junction airport as my destination and, lo and behold, it plotted a course for me and updated the course as I drove. We were only a minute or two late picking up Geoff.

Again, I was out wandering around the outskirts of Paonia and was convinced that the road I was on would link up with the trail that I wanted to be on. I walked down the road until it started to veer in the wrong direction. I poppped out my phone and opened the map app and there I was and there was the trail. I had to backtrack a bit and take a little side road, but after a moment or two I was on my way.

I won't go into all the apps, but there are thousands of them. Some are really complexed and will tie into map, camera, accelerometer (yes, the phone has an accelerometer in it, three, actually). Some are really simple. The idiot that made the fart noise app sold 80,000 at ninety-nine cents apiece.

So, I am hooked. I have always been a fan of Apple and this device only increases that "Apple love". So, get on board and buy yourself a sweet new phone/toy/organizer/gps/an oh so much more.