So I walked in off the street and bought an iPhone 4 yesterday Thursday. From parking the car to paying for my purchase, I spent a total of 28 minutes on the effort.

I was the third person in line. It was 10 am.

I made sure to check the news before I hit the store, though. And the only reason any of the above is notable is because tech news sources were frothing and bubbling over 8 hour lines and incredible demand at Apple retail stores across the country (still are!). There were brawls (or nearly). People were selling their spots in line — just the CHANCE to buy a phone — for hundreds of dollars. I mean, seriously. Things were looking kind of ridiculous. Sure, I’d like an iPhone, but I wasn’t going to wait more than 5 minutes for one. It’s just a phone. (A super freaking awesome one, OK, but let’s keep our panties on.)

I went to Best Buy just intending to do a little cell phone comparison shopping, since my current Verizon contract expires on the fourth of July. I was no longer tied to Verizon! (I’ve been with them for 10  years). I knew I wanted a new phone (I currently have a two-year-old Samsung Alias and no data plan). I knew I had to keep my monthly plan low (I have a job now, but let’s not go nuts). But I also knew i wanted to be able to send occasional texts, update Facebook from the road now and then, and have a good camera for picture messages. I was interested in the Droid, but I wanted to see what phones AT&T offered.

I figured I’d bop in around 10, nose around in the mobile department, and maybe walk out with a refurb’d iPhone 3Gs (which they had for $99), avoiding the iPhone 4 section altogether. Judging by news reports, a regular Midwestern Joe like me wouldn’t be able to get an iPhone until Mid-July, and I needed (OK, wanted) something before then.

What I didn’t figure on is that I live in Midwestern Joe Central. The kind of people who queue for an iPhone are not the kind of people who live here. These kind of people don’t queue for shit unless it involves the Steelers.

WOOHOO!

Long story short, only four other people were there. The store didn’t even open until 10 a.m. There were plenty of iPhones to hand out. And once I saw I had the chance to get the very latest and awesomest Apple gadget on the day it came out with no waiting? Well HELL. No-brainer. Worst case scenario, I could sell it on eBay.

But I’m not selling anything. It’s a great phone. I love the camera. I never got the point of the appallingly abbreviated notion of “apps” until I downloaded a few (Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook).

I even got proficient at thumb-typing on that super sensitive touch screen within a few hours. In fact, the entire first half of this post was typed on my iPhone with the Wordpress app.

Mackie loves the phone; he likes to type letters in the Notes app and then watch them “blow away” when he taps the trash can. He also likes the dual-camera feature; he can take videos of himself and see his face, or switch cameras and take one of his brother.

Frankly, I don’t like the self-portrait camera; why in God’s name I’d want to see my own face in cruel high definition is beyond me. (You know? Like Liz Lemon in HD. Look like Gollum).

Not too much like a fat pregnant Gollum here

But the phone works very well; calls sound clear; I haven’t had that “iPhone Death Grip” problem (especially since I know where not to touch).

I got a good monthly plan through AT&T. I have text, voice and data for $60; at Verizon, it would cost almost $100 for the closest comparable plan, because they don’t offer metered data plans like AT&T does. A regular voice-only plan is already $39.

$200 is more than I would comfortably pay for a cell phone in most situations,  I admit. I typically take the Verizon “New Every Two” $50 credit and try to find a $50 phone. But Apple recently came through with a reimbursement for a hinge problem we’ve been having with our Macbook Air for the last year or so, and being the diehard (though usually skint) Apple fan that I am, I decided to put a little of it toward something that Iain could feasibly pass off as a Mother’s Day/birthday/push present. Brilliant, eh? Frankly, I thought it was win-win all around.

So on the whole, I’m very happy with the iPhone 4. I had wanted to get an iPhone two years ago, when my Verizon contract was up the last time, but went the cost-saving measure instead. But I’m glad I waited until now. Not only was I able to see over the last two years whether I’d really use one (I would), but I could also save up some money in the meantime and get a great phone after Apple worked most of the kinks out. Good deal.

WOOHOO! Thanks, Steelers fans.

So last month a friendly chick named Kate contacted me from Womworld/Nokia, offering me one of their smart phones (the e71x) to try out for a few weeks. I don’t usually respond to unsolicited pitches, but my inner gadget geek  was excited to mess around with someone else’s phone and see what this 3G talk was all about. Since there were no strings attached, no money offered, and no review demanded, I decided this was a pitch I’d relent on.

People who know me in real life, especially my family, will tell you about two of my annoying habits: Picking up, and subsequently getting lost in, any magazine lying about the premises; and picking up, and subsequently screwing around with, your new cell phone. It’s just a thing I do. Give it here, lemme look. Same applies to cameras, Kindles, and laptops. I’m very careful, and I like to think I’m considerate, but put it away if you don’t want my paws all over it.

So I put my paws on this e71x, which is like a smartphone for business people. It has a camera and e-mail and messaging and GPS: everything most phones have these days. It’s cute, a good palm size. I liked the camera (practically double the pixels of my Samsung Alias) and how clicky the keyboard was. I liked the shift key on the Qwerty keyboard.

But actually using it made me feel like a Neanderthal. I couldn’t figure out where to find where my phone number was, or how many minutes I’d used, or how much data I’d consumed. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last *counts on fingers* 12+ years using Macs. Or it could be the five years I spent organizing, designing, and presenting information to readers. But in terms of usability, I thought the user interface was clunky, that navigating the menus was awkward and weird, and that the icons had gross names like “App. Mgr.”

Admittedly, my experience with anything other than Samsung/Verizon phones is limited to the point of nonexistent, so maybe this is de rigeur. Maybe I’m being too fussy. But I hope maybe in the next iteration the software can match the hardware.

(p.s. my working title was “It’s not an iPhone, but …”.)

That said, I’m glad Nokia gave me the chance to try it out. My first cell phone — in 1999, I think it was? was a Nokia, and I have very fond memories of it.

Photo by Splityarn.

Splityarn is one of the flickr users whose account I stalked last winter when I was getting all knitty again. Then my knitting obsession faded (as all my obsessions do: they wax and wane and wax again) and I did a massive contact purge and I fell out of that loop. (Knitting pun? YOU TELL ME.)

But I have been building up my newsreader and flickr contacts again, and I noticed Splityarn had a new blog AND a new shop. When I clicked over to see who did the pretty site design, I saw they had a featurette describing the process of taking Splityarn to the next level. (And also read that Caro has a book on the way!)

Fascinating.

» Stalelife Showcase: Splityarn Logo, Site & Store | The Sweetspot.

Then I started another one. I don’t know why. Stop asking me questions. Let’s go look at pretty pictures.

(Do you tumble? Tell me your handle and I’ll follow you.)

From what I can tell, you get to choose a new number, then have your home and/or cell phone forwarded to that number. It takes voicemail and transcribes it for you and you can send and receive SMS from the web. I think. You can call out for free, too, though I’m not sure if your phone co. still charges you for the call. The interface looks pretty much just like Gmail, which I’m comfortable with.

Anyway, I claimed a number and am wading through the blog for tips and ideas of why this makes more sense than just giving everyone my cell number.

If you’ve got a GV account and have figured it out, let me know what I’m missing. And if I decide to keep with it, I’ll let you* know the new number.

*Well, not the whole internet, although there are widgets that would let you call me right from the blog, which, WEIRD, but also NEAT.

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back to the old theme for now. I was doing an awesome header in PS and my fucking laptop shut down. Power issues, wonky cord. All that jazz. I’m trying not to be angry but dudes, I DIDN’T SAVE.

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Autosave saves the day!