H.I.T.S.
Well, July 11 came and went — and with it, Doren drove early to Pittsburgh to get his beloved iPhone. He sent me a text message at about 7 a.m., describing the event. That morning, I’d noticed the Apple store online was unavailable, and the page said that they were updating the store.
I supposed that meant that they were putting all their resources into dealing with the anticipated huge demand for the new iPhone.
The demand is so great because:
– You can buy one a lot cheaper.
– The new one uses a different, faster technology to surf the Internet, one called 3G.
I’ve recently explained to a few students how 3G doesn’t describe how much data you can store on the phone (as in three gigs of info). Actually, the cheapest one has eight gigs, like my iPod Touch.
Anyway, back to Doren.
He sent a few more text messages on that Friday morning, one of which said that he was having problems getting the iPhone to sync. If you’re wondering what that means, take a look at a href=”http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386 end
.
You can get the iPhone to communicate with your Apple computer and it will take items like the bookmarks of sites that you visit, your e-mail and phone contacts and put them on your phone.
Let’s face it — it’s a big deal when you change phones. I’ve heard numerous people express disgust when changing phones and losing all of their phone numbers and other info.
This is very fresh in my own mind as I, too, just got a new phone. No, it’s not an iPhone or a cutting-edge smart phone, mainly because I just can’t justify paying an arm and a leg for service every month.
Initially, the rates I’d seen for the iPhone were quoted at about $100 a month for unlimited Internet plus phone calls and 200 text messages. That, however, was the old technology. The new 3G rates seem to be about $140 a month plus taxes. I mention this because Mrs. Schulze always reminded me as I quoted prices of plans that “taxes” can sometimes end up adding $10 to $15 a month to your bill.
I decided to look at some phones locally and try to pick a model that looked sturdy, which, of course, was a bit futile, as all the recent phones tend to look like one drop would ruin them. I dragged Mrs. Schulze into the Scion, despite her protests of, “This had better not take long, as Basil will miss us!”
We shot off to the mall to try to just lay eyes on something I’d be happy with (which, according to Mrs. Schulze, is just not possible). She rubs it in even more by adding, “You know how you are.”
After peering at a few models there, we sped off to Target, where I ogled some more and endured a comment of, “Eww, no! That’s like the horrible one you had before, the one that looked like a little kid’s phone!”
Finally, after a last try, at Wal-Mart, I decided to look again online at my carrier, T-Mobile, which was my original plan.
As we returned home, my wife remarked to our dog as we entered, “It’s only us, Basil, and it was a waste of time, as usual. Daddy’s going to buy a phone from the computer, after all.”
Thankfully, the little dog was just happy to see us, and he never takes sides. At this point, I have to add that all this is tongue-in-cheek, in case you think I’m crazy.
Anyway, I got back on the computer and looked yet again at my choices. Because my current contract doesn’t expire until December, they were a bit limited. I decided that instead of plunging myself into a two- year extension of my current deal, I’d just flat-out buy another phone because the savings would have only been about $45 and I’d be stuck if I didn’t like the new phone.
That was my reasoning, as explained to the wise cynic known as Mrs. Schulze, who agreed because it’s apparent that the best deals only come with a spanking-new agreement.
I decided on a blue RIZR Z3. It has a better camera than my old phone and the ability to hold a micro SD memory card. This means that I’ll no longer get “memory is running low” warning after receiving a lot of text messages from students trying to reschedule their lessons. It also has an MP3 player, which I doubt I’ll use, as I have my laptop plus iPod to play music.
The speakerphone sounds great, and, since it’s been out for awhile, I checked out lots of reviews of the phone.
Next week, I’ll fill you in on what happened after it arrived.
Stay tuned.
Until then, happy surfing!