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)

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)

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.

(image from sxc.hu)

WM’s iPhone decided to kill itself on Monday.

Its case flipped off of his belt and plummeted into the dogs’ water dish.

Ugh.

It was in there for less than 10 seconds, but it was enough for the water (and dog spit) to damage the external speaker. Which, you know, is where the RING comes from. Your phone can run a million apps, but if you don’t hear it ring, it’s just a PDA.

Bad, bad timing.

Panicked, I searched online for what to do and found this strange article on cnet: What to do if your iPhone gets wet. It suggested putting your iPhone in a plastic container with some packets of silica gel (that “DO NOT EAT” packet in your shoe boxes) or uncooked rice.

I was initially skeptical, but there were four pages of comments on how this really worked!

So I filled a small container with rice, buried the phone in it and covered it with plastic wrap. The container went in the oven with the oven light on, following one of the suggestions I read. That provides a dry environment.

Because I’m a brainless ninny, I taped big signs that said NO on the oven door and the oven’s temperature knob. I didn’t want to accidentally cremate the thing.

We left the phone in for about 6 hours. When we took it out (and blew off the rice dust) the speaker was back to normal!!

Obviously, the longer your iPhone’s been in the drink, the longer you need to leave it buried. Some of the comments on cNet detail leaving the phone in its ricey coffin for a week and the phone coming out perfect!

We also got rid of almost half a bag of the generic brand uncooked rice that we hated. So, win-win!

You should really read What to do if your iPhone gets wet just for the stories of how people have accidentally soaked their phones.

It is the original iPhone, and about six months later, the iPhone 3G came out. A bunch of the movers & shakers jumped to that model. The 3GS came out this June, and a lot of people made that jump as well.

Me? I still have the original, which is fine except…

It doesn’t really work as a phone well anymore. I’m missing calls and voicemails and getting late texts, which is seriously bugging me because it makes me look like I’m blowing people off.

My signal is rarely strong anymore. I can be in Applebees with Mom, who’s also AT&T (regular cellphone) and she’ll get 5 bars and I have 2. I can be standing next to WM and his iPhone (3G) and he’ll have 4 bars and I’ll have 1.

I can’t help but think of my sweet little Samsung phone which worked like a champ for over 3 years and took much better photos.

Anyway, the purpose of this whine is that I’m wondering with all the hype over the 3G and the 3GS if Apple knew all along that the regular model was wonky.

I’m doing a system restore this morning. I hope it helps because I’m THISCLOSE to giving up the apps and geek cred and going back to a regular old cell phone.

I dashed out and he pointed at the computer screen. Our cellphone bill is automatically deducted from my account on the 22nd of each month. And on Thursday, October 22nd, AT&T deducted over $900.

Luckily, I was paid on Wednesday and was starting to save up for rent so the money was in there to begin with.

I stammered and shook while WM got on the phone with AT&T. He’s very good with situations like that. Turns out, when WM got his iPhone in September, the data plan wasn’t added to his account. So once he went over the 1MB limit that his old plan offered, we were billed approximately $10 per MB transferred.

The representative was very kind on the telephone and understood that it was a big mistake. She arranged for the extra monies (over $770) to be credited to our wireless account. And it was.

Trouble is…that was RENT money. And weekend money. And grocery money*. I logged into ING and moved $1000 into the checking account. That’ll take effect on Monday.

So I called AT&T Friday afternoon and asked for my money back. The representative was, again, very nice and put in a request to have the money returned to my account. She said she would request it to be immediately transferred back, but it might have to come back to me via check. In any case, I’ll have a resolution by 11/3.

AT&T could have been assy about the whole deal, and blame us for not checking our account online a week or so after the iPhone purchase to make sure it was properly set up. They could have blamed me for not looking at the paper statement that arrives a week before the money is taken. (I never do, because it comes out of my account.) But they didn’t. And I appreciate that.

Edited on 10/27 to add: AT&T will be sending the extra $700+ back to my checking account within the next 48 hours. Yay!

*Even with coupons, in-store sales, and Wegmans brand products, we cannot spend less than $70 a week on groceries anymore. We’re eating more home-cooked things, which is better overall but I think it would be cheaper if we ate at Taco Bell & McDonald’s every day.

1). Misty is completely fine and her usual cantankerous self again. I think Ollie must have ran into/over her and hurt her a bit. He landed on my stomach hard this morning when I was still in bed and I’m surprised he didn’t break my pelvis.

2). I’m using the WordPress iPhone app to blog this from the comfort of my own bed. It was a breeze to set up. Note: if you have a linksys wireless router, take the time to change the default password. Otherwise, you’re enabling lazy people like me to blog from the confort of their own beds

3). If you do have an iPhone, spend the extra money in a good screen guard. I picked up the Power Support anti-glare film set from the Apple Store and it is such an improvement over the cheap stuff I was using. No smudges!

That’s all for now. Nothing cool or notable has happened lately which is fine with me!