I’ve been back with T-mobile for almost a month now. I’m a happy camper once again. Who wouldn’t be with an employee plan, compliments of my partner Chris and T-mobiles Domestic Partner benefits. My iPhone has been lying fallow for that long too. I did bring it back to NJ with me, for my Mom’s surprise 80th birthday party. But it was odd to pack the iPhone, which I loaded with pictures to show all my long lost relatives moments of their lives … and my Motorola Product(Red) SLVR. I knew there would be much “shock and awe” from the iPhone. Most of them never saw the mythical iPhone in person before. But most of them were amazed that I could have these old picture on such a newfangled device. I got a lot of … “how did you do that?”

If a picture is worth a thousand words. Then I’ll say no more.

But we both know that’s not going to happen.

I thought long and hard. Hard and long. And it’s time to say … so long iPhone & AT&T. In past posts you saw how I agonized. Rationalized. Quantified & qualified my decision to procure this object of electronic lust. But lust is not enough. Nor is the iPhone.

In my previous post I was talking about the ‘unholy union’ of the ‘A-twins’ …. Apple & AT&T. This is also a MAJOR deciding factor to lighten my load. I’m sorry but no object is worth over $100.00 per month to have. I don’t mind putting cash into the pockets of Apple & it’s stockholders. But AT&T? A man just has to draw a line in the sand … at some point. Even if that line is after the fact. I just can not stomach the idea of shelling that kind of money out to a corporate behemoth like the Death Star … AT&T. Sometimes you DO have to go ‘through’ something to get to the other side. And now that I’m there …. I really don’t think there’s any turning back.

I’m not quite sure how it happened. Maybe it was a moment of somber realization. Maybe it was a moment of wretched clarity. Maybe I’m the literal fool … soon parted with his money. Sadly that moment has arrived and this fool’s money will be going to AT&T.

I got my first bill yesterday. Or at least the cost was posted … sans invoice. That I might have to wait ten days for, or so the disclaimer said. Imagine my astonishment when the amount before my eyes read …. $229.36!!!!! What the f%*$k!!!! Now I have no reason to complain. There were lasses and chaps out there who’s first iPhone/AT&T bills were in the THOUSANDS of dollars. Adam Aronson for one got a $5,000.00 bill from the Death Star …. AT&T. So I guess I’m lucky?

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I got this thing. I can’t believe I tried to start writing this on my iPhone. I first tried to write it in Safari. That didn’t work too well. For some reason Safari wasn’t auto-suggesting anything in WordPress edit/post mode. Hmmm. Then I figured … okay I’ll try in iPhone mail and post via mail. That didn’t work too well either. No keyboard action in the horizontal mode. Even in the verticle mode I had ‘issues.’ Though that was more my shortcomings than iPhone’s. I’m still not to accomplished on the iPhone keyboard … yet. Unlike JoeyGadget A.K.A. Joe Hutsko, who wrote his most recently published feature article for MSNBC, about iPhone, on his iPhone. The first draft at least. I say kudos to that man and his presti-digital dexterity! You go Joe! I feel humbled and shamed. Oh well this too shall pass. Practice. Practice. Practice. But if someone was paying me to write an article … I’d hunker down too, and become accomplished in the presti-digital arts.

Now I can’t blame this issue on iPhone. Let me say this at the beginning. This issue actually started several weeks ago. I had to do a reset on my Motorola SLVR … was having problems. Went to use iSync to re-sync Address Book & iCal. But no matter what did … I could not sync my phone with iCal. Went through a whole litany of steps to try to fix it. Thought it was a problem with particular calendars in iCal. Had had that issue when I first got my SLVR. Nope … nothing I tried worked. So I just left off my calendar dates. That was a drag.

So the first time I went to sync iPhone. Imagine my surprise when iTunes got to syncing my calendar … and it choked. I was getting bizarre errors. Checking the AppleMobileSync log I was seeing this:

Okay. It only took seven days for me to break down & bite the silverish bullet that is the iPhone. I ranted. I raved. I kvetched. Then I broke down and bought one. Told you I was only human!

Dale from Crow’s Nest has that ‘extra’ one still kicking around … and I convinced myself … with a little help from Edie. She’s the office manager at the Seattle office. It had gotten to the point where so many people were asking me how to do ‘something’ on the iPhone that I figured it was ‘my duty’ as an informed Apple consultant to have one of these babies to call my own. Of course I made this purchase solely in the name of research. Yeah research. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

So yes …. Mr eMac Consulting now HAS an iPhone. Woo hoo!

Now that I have one let the research begin!

Wow. Six whole days have come & gone and I still don’t have an iPhone. But there certainly are a lot of folks out there that do have them.

One of them is a writer for MSNBC. Joe Hutsko … he’s getting lambasted in “comment hell” on his blog JOEyGADGET for writing a story about his failed iPhone and his experience getting a replacement. I wrote a little blurb yesterday about a client of mine that had ‘his precious’ overheat. Jilted Joe is a writer for a company that partners with Microsoft (MSNBC) and he wrote about his experience with AT&T and Apple support. No matter what this guy wrote short of slagging Steve Jobs or his mother personally … um … let’s cut Joey boy some slack!

We all know the iPhone has been another ‘hot’ product for Apple. From reports flying around the web, some 700,000 iPhones sold in just a few days. Pretty impressive. But we’ll leave it up to Mr Jobs to colorfully ‘interpret’ that data for us all in his next keynote … whenever that might be.

Had a client call me today to tell me how HOT his iPhone was. And I don’t mean in a Paris Hilton (retching) kind of way, but a degrees Fahrenheit kind of way. Seems he was carrying ‘his precious’ in his pocket. Now Dan’s a stylin’ kind of guy …. so I can’t imagine him wearing wool knickers, or insulated shorts even on a cool Seattle summer day. No. Just pulled it out (the iPhone that is) to make a call. Let his fingers do the dialing/tapping. Just as he was leaving a message the iPhone froze. There was the button to let him end this call … but tap tap tap as he might … nothing. So here’s Dan … expletives flying … trying to figure out how to hard reboot his iPhone. I’d hate to have been the person on the other end getting that message! =:o

It’s day four of “My So-Called Life Without iPhone.”

On this 3rd day of July in the year of (my atheist) Lord two thousand and seven … I am on the cusp of independence. No. Not that kind of independence … iPhone independence.

It took an entire list of rationalizations … one even larger than my last post … to see I CAN be a whole person & not own an iPhone. My whole existence is not defined by the objects that I communicate with. That my fingers are more than mere pointing, dragging, & pinching implements. They … and I are so much more than that!

Okay. It’s been only three days since the launch of the iPhone & I’m ready to cave in. Am I on crack you ask? That very well could be.

I’m a Macintosh consultant. So today I got a call from Dale @ Crow’s Nest Yachts. “Hey Joe … can you come set up my iPhone for me?” Hmm. Without skipping a beat I blurted out … “I’ll be there by noon.”

When I walked in the door there were two people in his office drooling over his mondo-boy-toy. When I walked in the sea of bodies parted & I got right to work. I couldn’t allow anyone to see I was just as excited … IF NOT MORE … than they might be. I asked Dale, “So where is mine?” He replied, “well you ‘ll need to set up Dan’s tomorrow. So between the two of us … you’re on your way to owning one. Hmmm.

No … I didn’t stand on line. No … I didn’t brave the crowds. No … I didn’t have the money. No I didn’t have ‘room’ on any of my credit cards … they’re ALL maxed out. (But that’s another story for another day.) Does that make me less a man? Less a consumer? Less an American? Less an Apple evangelist? Less a Macintosh consultant? These are the tough questions I will be asking myself over the next few days … months …. years?

This is the first day of the rest of my life without an iPhone. There. I said it. Out of the mouth of babes (or at least this 50 year old man) and into the ears of an atheist god & for all that “feel me” (cough cough) on this one.