Smartphones. iPhones. Can't live with 'em; can't kill 'em. Actually there are plenty of stories about people "killing" smartphones. I heard a stat the other day that something like 20% of people had dropped their phone in the toilet! That begs many other questions that I am just going to leave well enough alone. I've been sporting a jailbroken iPhone with 500MB data/mo for about 5 months now and have really gotten sucked into counting on it the last month or so. I had avoided smartphones in the USA like the plague because I hated both the idea of committing to higher charges per month for years and the thought of crashing my mountain bike and simultaneously bruising my ego and breaking $400 worth of phone. My cousin secretly enjoyed his "upgrade crash" that ruined his nano but convinced him to buy an iPhone the next day to replace it. The last phone I bought was actually one that a fall in a toilet or MTB crash couldn't kill anyhow, check out the YouTube reviews of the Samsung B2100. Definitely my goto phone for camping/outdoors and extended battery life needs. I may not be able to swap a fresh battery into my iPhone but at least I can swap my SIM card into a fresh phone.
Like I said, only recently have I begun to count on features of my iPhone. The GPS has got to be one of the best features. I used to leave my handheld GPS on while taking photos so that I would have location data-enter integrated geotagging with iPhone! I went through my app settings after reading a tip on saving battery life by blocking location access for most apps. But in practicality, I only blocked one of my apps as I realized how important location was for the best functionality of the apps. I don't like to tag my facebook updates, but I do like to check in sometimes which also requires location. Yelp, transit apps, tripadvisor, etc. all benefit by customizing content to your location.
So in the last two weeks I have made several small online purchases, checked balances, transferred money, skyped, booked a hotel, booked olympic soccer tickets, and almost booked airline tickets. I was a little disappointed with the failed ticket transaction, and that's in fact when I realized the extent to which I had begun to depend on this (this because I'm writing my blog on it) device. In the phone's defense, it turns out that the website was screwy even on my desktop computer so it never really had a chance. So in conclusion, I've finally found a replacement for my palm T|X (my feelings about webOS and Palm's demise and HP could generate several blog entries alone), the iPhone 3GS. Not about to spend $200 plus and commit to a contract by upgrading anytime soon; my £15.50 per month pay as you go is just fine by me (the same guy that. Now if only I could jury-rig my folding IR keyboard for my palm to work with the iPhone...
