21st Century Technology

A year and a half ago I wrote a post about the adventure I had purchasing a new laptop, after having broken my old one in spectacularly retarded fashion. My old laptop had a decent operating system but it was about two generations older than what was (and still is) on the market. Getting a new laptop was an adventure both in shopping and beyond because it took me at least a month to become acclimated to a new operating system and to all the bells and whistles my computer came with. And the post I wrote about it all sort of demonstrates my feelings on technology; it's nice, I'm blown away by some of the things it is able to do now (especially having been present when all this interwebs and cell phone business first took off), but I don't feel the need to own every new gadget that comes on the market. Of course, part of that last reason is that all the new technology can be damn pricey and I have a kid to take care of. If I were a rich man, we'd probably both have all kinds of tech toys to play with because I do love me some gadgets. But as it stands, I am one to upgrade to new technology as needed, not as wanted or as released. The saddest part of this is that as a kid I relentlessly teased one of my uncles for refusing to hop on the CD bandwagon. "It's a phase," he said, remaining faithful to his records and eight track as my mom showed off her fancy new CD-playing machine. When he finally did get a CD player, in the year 2000, he said he hoped at least one of us ended up being like him in terms of embracing the latest fads. I, my friends, have turned out to be like him...*sigh*.
While I usually buy a ticket on the last train to the latest technology out of necessity, I find myself hopping on an earlier train this time around. Yes, the rumors are true - I have purchased an iPhone. What is the reason I have decided to enter the 21st century, you ask? Well, I've been month to month for a few years now since my last contract expired and have had very little need or desire to upgrade. My phone is at least three years old but it does its job and has never given me any trouble. The past year, however, it's become increasingly difficult to text on it because I have to flip it open to get to the keyboard to text. I can text without opening it but then I have to use the keypad and click until I get the right letter like back in the olden days of texting. And I hated having to do that, which is the whole reason I upgraded my phone the last time. I've been considering a new phone for a few months now but was leaning toward getting a Droid since they were far less expensive than iPhones. My mom works a company that is affiliated with one of the major cell providers and predicted a few weeks ago that prices would drop on iPhones in anticipation of the new one coming out next month. She was right, my carrier dropped the price down to $20 and I figured why the hell not. (My best friend also hopped on the bandwagon, and more of my crew may soon follow so watch out world.)
My phone arrived a few hours ago (I've yet to activate it and probably won't for awhile, I'm in the middle of a billing period and refuse to pay for two plans at once), and my first observation is that the box it came in is midget small. Awfully spiffy though. I already knew I was going to get a case for it but upon seeing it close up, I am definitely getting a good one. I've already done some research but I think I'll go out to a couple stores this weekend and see what they have. At this point I'm not sure who is gonna be more in danger of breaking it, my 4-year-old or myself. Although I'm generally very careful for my stuff so I'm not overly concerned about that (*knocks on wood for good measure*). When I finally do start using it, it will be a whole new world, I'm told. We'll see how that works out. Generally, I just need my phone to make calls and text but it will be nice to have one that can hold more of my music. And I'm a bit excited about some apps. It might not be terrible to have a new phone. The rest of the world should be concerned though. I swore up and down I would never own an iPhone and now I'm looking at one I purchased. The end is probably actually here.