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Courtney broke the story first, I recently bought an iPhone. After months of listening to podcasts that ranted and raved about the phone my gadget-aquiring-sensors freaked out and I couldn’t live without it. I bought it a week ago today and I can say that it’s worth every penny I paid for it.

Here’s what I got for my money:

1. Courtney can actually use the phone. I’ve had some crazy phones over the years. With the iPhone being more than just a dedicated phone, Courtney had her reservations about how well it worked as an actual phone. Within 5 minutes she was comfortable with the interface.  I don’t think either of us knew exactly how to dial on my MDA.

2. A new, working iPod. My old 4th generation iPod has been dying a slow death. It’s hard drive developed the “click-of-death”, which could be fixed with a swift whack on any hard surface. While I am grateful that there is a fix for the “click-of-death” I don’t believe it was extending my iPod’s life much longer. The new interface is slick and fun. It’s quicker too, when navigating to shuffle songs.

3. A GPS-esque map system. Google Maps I think is the killer app on the iPhone. While not quite a GPS, as long as I have a data connection through the cell provider I can find where I’m at and where I’m going to. This weekend we were out and about in Green Bay, WI visiting friends and family. Google Maps came in handy when navigating the streets of Kaukauna, WI.

4. A 80% normal web browser. Safari is awesome on the phone. But it’s still short of a full web browser. it chokes a bit when it comes to AJAX. Also, the touch interface gets in the way a little bit when trying to navigate the actual http://maps.google.com . But all in all, it’s the best mobile browser I have used.

Courtney was well aware of my intentions with the iPhone. I wasn’t about to pony up for AT&T service. I’m a very happy T-Mobile customer.  Courtney knew what it was going to take for me to use the iPhone. We were standing in the mall and I was damn-near pleading to get one. She looked at me and said, “You’re sure you can hack it?” “Oh yeah,” I assured her. When we got home I went to town and started researching how to get the phone unlocked and onto T-Mobile.

After an hour I wasn’t having much luck. Court asked me how it was going and I gave her the straight scoop. “You didn’t know how to hack itbefore you bought the phone?” “uh, no.” She called my bluff, I hadn’t done my appropriate research before I bought the phone. I wasn’t sure how easy or hard it was to actually unlock it. It took some time and some alternate instructions but at the end of the day I got it fully working.

So Christmas came early for me. I’m 400 bones down but at least I have traffic conditions in my pocket now.

After replacing the battery in my phone I was back online. Unfortunately I let that battery run out. The MDA phone that I have is notorious for battery drain. When the battery goes dead the phone doesn’t turn on again. The phone needs the battery to function. So much so that I can’t even charge the battery if it’s dead because the phone requires the battery to boot. See the conundrum? If I don’t have batter power then how is the phone going to boot so I can charge the battery? Also, the new battery didn’t solve the problem of the MDA holding a charge for at most 36 hours. I’m not the most careful person in the world. I need more time to plan to charge my phone.

Long story short – my phone is dead again.

Off to E-Bay I go! We recently had a decent experience when purchasing a phone for Courtney. Her Samsung spent a day in the rain and had to be promptly replaced. We purchased a refurbished replacement from a seller on E-Bay. The phone came to us slowly but in excellent quality.

My first stop was back to the same seller for my phone. I’ve decided to go back to a traditional phone…for now. Depending on how my E-Bay experience goes I’ll either get a Motorola PEBL or the Samsung T629. I just want a phone that works well and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

So I have to wait, now 13 more hours to know if I won an auction. E-Bay is so addicting. It’s like winning your own personal lottery. Except you’re paying to win.

“I’m supposed to give you this, ” he said with a thrust of an object.

“Oh, okay, is there anything I should know about it?”

“Yeah, i didn’t charge it last night so you’re gonna want to plug it in.” With those kinds of instructions, I knew I was in for trouble.

I managed to avoid “on-call” duty at work for my first 2 months of my new job. I knew I couldn’t avoid it much longer. My day had come.

My co-worker had handed me a Blackberry with no instructions on how to use it or how I go about answering support issues. I took the phone with little regard, nervous about what could happen with it in my possession. I checked to make sure I knew how to turn it on, check the contact list, and check out the Bricks game everyone was raving about. I put it on the charger as suggested and waited.

I took my new found nemesis home with me. I checked the call logs on the phone to glean any type of information I could about call frequency, duration, and especially time. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. In fact, over the course of the previous shift my co-worker had only one issue during work hours. I could handle that. I put the phone on my dresser and we went to bed.

Buzz, buzz, BEEP BEEP BEEP!

11pm, the cell rings. I literally fall out of bed running to answer the thing. “Oh great, just must luck,” I think. I grab the phone and run out of the bedroom so I don’t disturb Courtney. There’s a message on the phone. “I didn’t even hear it ring!” I mutter. I fall into the kitchen and turn on some lights to help me concentrate.

Scroll, scroll, push button, scroll, push…”What the hell?” From what I can tell the Blackberry had received an email, not a phone call. I read through the email and it’s a server check telling me that a server fell offline and came back online a minute later (for the uninitiated, that’s quite common). Whew, no major issue, no action required. I head back to bed.

Buzz, buzz, BEEP BEEP BEEP!

“JESUS!” 5 minutes later the phone starts humming again. I repeat the same process: grab phone, run out to kitchen, check messages. Again, it’s just more server checks. “Godammit…” I go back to bed.

Buzz, buzz, BEEP BEEP BEEP!

“For F’s SAKE!” I shout in my quiet voice. The phone marches across the dresser again at 2am. By this point I have already lost about an hours worth of sleep. I was just getting back into the swing of things when it started ringing. I quickly check. More server checks. I’m going to throw this thing across the room at any moment.

Buzz, buzz, BEEP BEEP BEEP!

“Oh, this is just plain ridiculous, ” I tell Court, who is also awake. “They’re just emails! Not even messages!”

“Can’t you turn off the message notifications?” She asks.

“NO!” I say and go back to bed. The real answer to her question is “Yes, just not at 2:30am when I’m drowsy and pissed off.”

I think it buzzed one last time at 4:30am. By that time I had been awake more than asleep that it didn’t really phase me. I compared my late night experience with the previous week on call. Sure enough it was my shift that received the most over night notifications.

When I got into work I asked my co-worker about the server checks. He said, “Well, if it’s REALLY important, someone will end up calling you anyway.” That’s what I thought.

Night 1 down, 6 more to go.