C-Mac Gets An iPhone (Finally)

• Posted: September 14, 2009
• |
• Author: Christina
• |
• Filed under: about me, mac, technology
• |
• Tags: about me, apple, blackberry, cellular stuff, iphone

Yeah, I caved. Fuck the carrier, I NEEDED an iPhone.

It turns out that signing a two-year contract to save $50 WAS stupid. Despite my misgivings over AT&T, my early BlackBerry allegiance and my overall satisfaction with T-Mobile, I caved. Fuck the carrier. I NEEDED an iPhone.

I've written so much about the iPhone and its platform over the last two years that it is pretty laughable that I haven't had one as my primary device until now. I mean, I've had an iPod touch 2G 32GB and played with more apps than I care to recall (like, it makes managing the shit in iTunes difficult -- even with the new features of iTunes 9), but now I FINALLY, FINALLY have one as my primary device.

Bye, Bye BlackBerry

After a nice honeymoon period, all was not love and sunshine with my BlackBerry Curve. See, the phone either had some sort of major malfunction or I just expected too much out of it. While I was at TUAW and DownloadSquad, my e-mail count was pretty high, like, I'd often get over 100 messages a day. If I wasn't constantly deleting them from my phone, the damn thing would run out of memory reading a newsfeed or loading a webpage and I'd have to do the whole three-finger BlackBerry salute (where you restart the phone by pressing three buttons) and wait 5-minutes for the phone to restart.

Then there was the whole issue of fucking crashing while a call was trying to come through. This started to get more and more frequent and because I often do interview or calls with PR people, that's embarrassing. And inconvenient.

The abysmal amount of on-phone memory allocated for the OS and the data really is to the device's detriment. I'm sure that newer BlackBerry devices have addressed that issue, but from where I'm standing, the fact that I have to make sure my cache, e-mail, and other little areas are all clear just so I can install an application from the shitty BlackBerry App World is just unacceptable.

Even when I had almost NO third-party apps on the phone, the crashing and freezing and lockup issues didn't go away. Again, I could have dealt with this if it didn't have this great tendency to do it while trying to receive calls.

Now, I might have still considered getting a new BlackBerry, except at this point it's not longer really financially advantageous to do so. When I got my Curve 8320, I paid a lot for the phone, even with the two-year contract, but I got what I still consider one of the BEST data/minute plans out there. 1000 minutes, unlimited BlackBerry data, unlimited text messages -- $60 a month.

It was a great, great plan. Unfortunately, T-Mobile in its infinite wisdom decided to get rid of it. Now, the replacement plan is not a bad deal still -- it's 1000 minutes, plus unlimited night and weekend, plus the unlimited data and texting for $85 a month. That's not a bad deal, however, if you don't consider that the voice minutes (which I rarely use that many of) are the only difference, that's $25 more a month -- or $300 a year -- so $600 over two years. Why do I mention this?

Well, had I gone with a new phone, I wouldn't have been able to keep the old plan. I would have been forced to move to one of the new plans. When I first started seriously doing the calculations back in June, the current offering with unlimited night/weekend/mobile-to-mobile in addition to the base 1000 minutes wasn't even an option.

Plus, even if I waited for my upgrade date, I would still end up paying as much for a new BlackBerry as I would for a new 16GB iPhone.

So here was my thought process, part of my rationale for not getting the iPhone 2G was that I couldn't see paying nearly $1000 more over two years. As I said then, "that's a new MacBook."

However, if I'm going to have to pay that money anyway, I'd rather get the phone I really want: the iPhone.

Hello, iPhone 3GS

It's interesting to look back at how much the mobile landscape has changed in the last two years. I would challenge even the most ardent-iPhone hater to seriously argue that the bulk of that innovation hasn't been because of or in direct-response to the iPhone. As I said on the TUAW Talkcast at the end of the year in both 2007 and 2008, the iPhone continues to be the biggest story not just in the Apple-sphere, but in technology in general.

The first iPhone, though revolutionary for its interface and industrial design, was not an overly innovative phone. Sure, the web browsing was really, really nice -- but that was just about the only feature that wasn't already out there. Again, the interface and industrial design are revolutionary in their own right, but if you are a gadget freak and a reformed smartphone junkie like myself, the actual featureset wasn't really any better than the competition.

That all changed in July of 2008. The App Store, has quite frankly, changed everything. It has taken the iPhone from the sexy device that you want, but maybe can't justify the expense of -- especially with the shittier carrier and the options available elsewhere -- to the phone that nothing else comes close to touching. The apps are just amazing. They changed everything.

I got my iPod touch 2G 32GB last year and have loved it. As a gaming device, as a pocket computer, as a reference list, as a just general fun machine -- the device is just the tops.

So even before I'd reached the end of the first year with my Berry, I was having some misgivings about continuing on the BB course. Because Grant had a G1 (and now a MyTouch 3G), I've been in the unique position of using the iPhone OS, the BlackBerry OS and Android all at the same time. Having compared them all back to back, it just isn't a question, the iPhone wins. It's not just the number of apps (though that is impressive), the quality of the apps is just unbelievable. Look at the Facebook App for iPhone. Now look at the newly-released Facebook for Android. No comparison. None. I'll give you that Android is capable of much more, but almost nothing compelling has been done with the platform.

So after realizing I needed to get a new phone -- to stop the freezing insanity if nothing else -- and after realizing that I'm going to be paying between $70 and $90 a month for my cell phone anyway, I put my AT&T hate aside and got an iPhone 3GS.

First Impressions

Well, as I said, I have an iPod touch. So the device isn't anything new to get used to -- other than the larger size (the 32GB iPhone 3GS is way thicker than the absolutely svelte iPod touch -- but I'm actually totally OK with that -- it feels more secure that way). Still, the whole thing is class.

And I have to give both AT&T and my beloved T-Mobile some credit -- my number was ported super, super fast. As in, I finished checking out at the Apple Store -- he went an activated my phone in iTunes. I went to the car with Grant. I picked up my phone while we were driving home and got instantly got a text message saying my number had been ported over. Like 5 minutes. Or less. Not bad.

I got the new Marware SportShell Convertible for iPhone 3G, 3G S (Black) as a case and I highly recommend it for 3G/3GS users looking for versatility.

I've had several Marware cases over the years (the SportSuit Convertible for the iPod -- for several iPods actually) and quite like them, but I really like the SportShell. It's a really solid quality plastic casing, with the option of either a belt clip or just a smooth back -- and it can also connect to an armband (which I'll never use -- that's why I also got a new iPod nano at the same time as my iPhone -- for a new workout iPod). Plus it came with screen protectors, which saved me having to get some cut to fit the iPod 3GS. You can also just get the case without the armband for less cash (Marware SportShell for iPhone 3G, 3G S (Black)
) and Amazon has them for way less than the Apple Store (though overpaying for accessories is just part of the Apple Store experience and I wanted to leave with a case).

Call quality is great, I haven't had any crashes (knock on wood) like with the Berry and obviously, it does without saying that the Mac compatibility is in another league.

Yes, yes, BlackBerry Desktop for Mac is very, very spiffy -- and it is much needed -- but it was still too little, too late for my needs. Because I couldn't export a straight CSV or log of VCF files from the Mac version (thanks for the leak CrackBerry!), I still had to result to Windows Vista VM hell, as my Twitter followers are all too familiar.

We All Knew This Would Happen....

I'm not surprised that I caved to AT&T, and indeed, the fact that I waited until I could get out of my contract by having to pay as little money as possible is a credit to my own resolve (a resolve I often don't have), but it always seemed like a foregone conclusion that I would get an iPhone. Come on, I'm completely Apple's bitch. This is fact.

Hey T-Mobile -- thanks for almost 9-years of pretty decent phone service and great customer support!

Now I'm off to do some work and play with my toy!

• (14) Comments
• Permalink
• RSS 2.0
•