LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

Yesterday morning as I walked the dogs I realized that the home button wasn’t working on my iPhone. I was listening to Buzz out Loud so I didn’t really need that functionality. I just thought it was weird.

When we came inside I plugged the phone in to sync it but the phone wouldn’t recognize the charging cable. Well, the cable did have a few stray fangy chompmarks on it (glares at dogs) so I figured I’d charge it at work.

No dice. I tried to do a soft reset, but that sent the phone into a sad cycle of turning itself off and on. Without the ability to charge it, I knew it’d be gone in hours. (I blame the Farmville app.)

So the decision I was mulling on for a while had to be made. I decided to go for the $99 upgrade to the iPhone 3GS. I went to the mall during lunch and after waiting behind …

1) An elderly couple with limited English skills
2) a guy in a wifebeater shirt whose AmEx gold card would not go through (“call them, they’ll tell you it’s okay”) and
3) A college-age girl who had no idea what phone she wanted.

… I got my brand new iPhone 3GS. I had the old-school $20 unlimited package, which I switched to the $5 for 200 texts and $15 for 200GB of data so my monthly bill won’t change. I bought a snazzy green case so I can find it in my bag.

My concern about not being able to think of a new name for it (iDrink and iSettled being two suggestions) was eliminated upon first sync, when it pulled in all of my old info, including the old iGypsy name. Which is good.

There’s already such a great difference between the 1st gen and the 3GS that I don’t feel behind by not having the 4. And by the time I’m ready for a better phone, maybe the iPhone 5 will be out!

But now, for the matter at hand.

***
Friends, we gather here today to thank iPhone for its years of … mediocre … service as we send its spirit back to Cupertino. (Or China.) Instead of the bad times, let us remember how excited we we were when it first appeared in our lives, full of promise and short on “bars.”

First-gen iPhone opened our eyes to all that could be done with a phone. Games! Internet surfing! Photo-taking! Of course, we could do that all with the prior phone (including video and MMS) but iPhone did it with style, panache, and the added bonus of being able to abruptly end phone calls with only a soft touch from a smiling cheek.

For your final journey, we have given you the case and protectors we used to keep you from shattering at any given moment.

Go, go with Jobs.

(Wandering Minstrel takes aim at the bier with a flaming arrow)

As many of you know, I’m a Farmville nut. I love that stupid game. There’s now a mobile Farmville app! I was really excited to download it. In case you haven’t yet, here is how you run the Farmville app on a 1st-gen iPhone.

Step 1: Touch the app’s icon to start it up. Wait a few sections as the screen loads.

Don't forget to mute the phone unless you want to hear the music.

Step 2: Duck and cover.

Blow up the county? There's an app for that!

I ‘m gonna need a bigger phone.

(Also posted at World of Warcraft Wanderings)

I still have the first-gen iPhone. No MMS, crummy camera, inferior phoning capability, etc. So I was looking forward to the iPhone 4 announcement yesterday.

Hi, I'm Sssssssteve Jobsssssss...you need thisssssss new phone.

Believe it or not, I still have a $100 Visa gift card from Christmas. I was going to get the 3GS for $99, but getting the iPhone 4 for only $99 after gift card is a pretty sweet deal.

All of the “should I upgrade?” articles I’ve read compares iPhone 4 to the 3G or 3GS, not my trusty (not) 1st-gen.

Pros:

>> A better camera. It stings that this iPhone I currently have takes worse pictures than my old beloved Samsung did. I loved posting photos on the go to Flickr and the blog, but my pictures look like mud unless I run them through one of the CameraBag filters first.

>> App-switching. I do like to hop between Safari and TweetDeck and weather and such.

>> 3G. Even though I really only use the phone when Wi-Fi’s availalble, I don’t have this now!

>> Video. Think of how much more of my banal suburban life I could share if I could take video of it!

>> AT&T. I’m already with them (From back when they were AT&T Wireless, then Cingular, now back to AT&T), so I’m used to the level of suck. Plus, no $18 upgrade charge!

Oh AT&T, thy generosity slays me.

>> iTunes. I’ve already bought a boat-load of songs from the iTunes store that work so nicely on the iPhone. I use the iPhone for my MP3 player at work so if I bought another brand of phone that didn’t support Apple’s .mp4 files, I’d have to bring both my iPod and my newPhone around with me.

>> Longer battery life. I can’t blame Apple for this one, this seems to be the case with all older phones. I charge my phone and get the fully green battery indicator. I take it to work and by the time I get there it’s at half. Then if I don’t charge it again, it runs out the NEXT day while I’m at work. I have all pushing and fetching turned off, too.

Cons:

>> Call quality. I’ve had trouble in the past with my phone dropping calls. Will this phone be better? Most of the presentation had to do with the non-phone stuff, but the longer antenna might help, right?

>> No keyboard. I never got used to the touch-screen keyboard. I typo more on the iPhone than I ever did on my late, beloved Samsung. I swore that my next phone would have keys again.

>> Stupid proprietary Apple earphones w/microphone. Although I hear better with these than I do the hardier bluetooth models, I’ve gone through 3 sets of these with just normal usage. They just don’t hold up to being tossed in my purse. If I go with iPhone4, I’m stuck with buying more headphones for the next 2+ years.

>> Stupid proprietary Apple docks/chargers. My current phone works with the charger & dock that my current (read: old) iPod does. WM’s iPhone 3G does not work with the docks. So I’d have to, at the very least, buy a new charging dock for work.

***
Ugh. I’m totally going to end up buying this phone.