I’ve been following The Path Less Pedaled for a while and Russ has raved about the iPhone and how handy it is. I’ve been dying to purchase an iPhone but I can’t bring myself to follow through.
from Apple.com
I love gadgets but the expense of the iPhone makes my wallet hurt. On the other hand, it’s been fun to see the iPhone photography. I could see myself doing similar photography and I could blog on the go for work and RowdyKittens.
What do you think? Should I continue resisting the urge to purchase the iPhone? Or do I stick with my cute little Sprint phone?
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I think the largest point against buying an iPhone is the crazy service that AT&T provides. Besides being large funders of conservative groups and the Bush administration, they are also trying to buy up and privatize the internet. That’s right: privatize the internet (say goodbye to blogging without paying for the right). I refuse to buy an iPhone so long as the only option is AT&T.
Besides, the iPod Touch has all the features (minus the phone part). You can get online via wireless internet networks, download all the cool apps, listen to your music, et cetera. Then your phone could be (gasp) just used for calls!
I say forgo the tech lust. Keeping the phone you have now until it dies is prudent and completely keeping in the simple lifestyle way of thought. I also find that once I succumb to upgrading my gadgets, my thirst for the latest and greatest is never quenched. My other thought is that every purchase you make is keeping you that much further from your tiny house dream. I know that the required data plans with the iPhone are expensive enough to make me say no, and that’s without the initial cost of the phone!
And one more thing: I’m a photographer, too, and I used to think that if only I had a good, portable camera I would take more photos. My mom bought me a point and shoot for Christmas, because I was of the mind that the reason I didn’t take more photos when I was out and about was that my big DSLR was too heavy to tote with me. Guess what? The point and shoot sat in my purse for months, unused. Lesson learned: I take more photos when and only when I actually make the effort to take more photos. No gadget will do it for me.
Just my two (or three or four) cents.
I’m a huge fan of the iPhone, owning them since generation one. In a world of de-cluttering and being frugal it fits well. The iPhone is many devices in one. Phone, text messages, picture camera, video camera, internet, email, calendar, alarm clock, music player, tv show viewer, movie viewer and much much more. These days, having phone service is a given. If you can move other technologies or appliances to the iphone, you can slim down. Some folks require only the best, but the iPhone does very well in most situations. I say go get one and reduce in other areas. =)
@shane @chesapeake @Joshua – Thanks for all the thoughtful tips and suggestions. I’m going to think hard about this purchase. I love the multi-use purpose of the iPhone, but I don’t like a lot of AT&T’s policies. So we will see. I’ll keep all of you updated on my decision.
Thanks for reading the blog!
AT&T’s exclusivity contract for the iPhone runs out in 2010, and word on the street is that Apple is shopping around other “devices” to the other carriers. Seeing that Verizon Wireless pays my mortgage via my husband’s paycheck, I’m a VZW girl. I have an AT&T phone for work and it seems to work fine, but folks with the iPhone complain mercilessly in larger cities because AT&T doesn’t have enough bandwidth to support the mass quantity of iPhones and the network drain they cause. Hopefully this has been a lesson to the other providers who, no doubt, are beefing up their networks in anticipation for more data intensive smart phones like the iPhone. Although I must admit, I just got a new Blackberry Tour and love it. I find I use my computer less now that I have this phone.
You could do what I’ve done recently which is buy a second-hand iphone from ebay and jailbreak it, thus using it with whichever provider you prefer. Over here in the UK, O2 is the iphone network and their customer service is appalling and the data costs sky high. I have a great text/call/data package from Vodafone, who’s customer service is unbelievably good (see justinpeer.com/blog) and use a jailbroken iphone 3G. Costs much, much less than an equivalent deal on the O2 network, but I get all the iphone advantages.
For photography, I don’t think the camera’s a patch on the nokis N95 8Gb that I had before, the 3g version I have doesn’t natively do video (although there is an app for jailbroken phones that does) but overall I’m impressed with the phone, even though there are things about it that exasperate me.
So, there’s at least another option for you to explore.
J.
Hi Tammy
If you haven’t already been here: http://www.lastyearsmodel.org You might find it helpful in assessing your tech lust.
I love your blog!
Hello Tammy
My iPhone 18 month contract with O2 here in the UK comes to an end in January and I won’t be renewing it. It costs £40.00 (pounds sterling) per month ($65.64 at today’s rate) and has been a lot of fun, but now I am over it. In ‘simple life’ terms, this is not good value. Everywhere I go I am checking Twitter, receiving email, checking the weather, taking photos, listening to podcasts; at face value, these are all handy things to do with one gadget. But, they are distractions when you try to go about your daily tasks putting your life in ‘always on’ mode. It has been fun but it is another service drawing on my financial resources. How much of my working week is dedicated to supporting this toy? I can do without it in my new simple life as it easily represents 4-6 family meals on the table.
I am really enjoying your blog.
Neil
Neil – Thanks so much for the advice! I’ve decided to stay with sprint. My little green phone might die soon, but I don’t want to buy anything new until it bites the dust.
I just started doing hot yoga and feel like my money is better spent on my monthly yoga fee. I love gadgets, but I don’t like the idea that I’d be locked into a 2 year contract with At&t. Plus the companies politics are bad news.
Thanks so much for reading! I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog.
Be well and do good…
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