Goodbye iPod…hello iPhone

It lasted three weeks. My willpower, that is. Three weeks was all it took after the iPhone launched before my willpower broke down, and I found a convincing argument that would work on my wife, and I purchased an eight gigabyte iPhone.

Now, this was not my first “i” product from Apple. As a publisher of a Macintosh publication since 1995, I own pretty much every major product Apple has created over the last two decades. So while I sat in the Moscone Center watching Steve Jobs demonstrate the iPhone in person last January during the Macworld Expo, I decided that I would skip this product. Or at least wait until my cell phone company at the time carried it.

Three weeks. I am surprised that I lasted that long. I have a fifth generation iPod. (with video!) It is my workhorse, the device that goes with me every time I get into the car. It holds (barely) all my music. Whatever my mood, my iPod would have the music to match. Feeling reminiscent? Crank up my 80′s playlist. Angry? Time for some Metallica. Adventurous? Plenty of tunes for that!

So I did not need the iPhone. It did not fit into my digital portable music lifestyle. It only holds eight gigabytes! How would I ever decide which songs to put on it? I would have to break my contract with Alltel, and claim I actually wanted the plan that gave me two hundred minutes a month less for the same price. And the iPhone, curses, would cost me $599!

No way was I buying one.
For three weeks.

Now, over two months later, a strange thing has happened. It took me completely by surprise, and I did not see it coming. I did not even notice when it did happen, or why it happened. My iPhone became my iPod.
There sat my lonely 60GB iPod, resting on the iPod Dock connected to the Mac, waiting for me to pluck him out and jam out. Waiting to venture out, to connect with my Harman Kardon Drive + Play in my car, and feel me a constant stream of Podcasts and Playlists. There it sat, for two and a half weeks, before I finally noticed.

My iPod was now a phone. The iPhone.

I had decided to put only my four star-plus rated music on the iPhone. (five gigabytes worth). I picked the best podcasts, and then only those I had not yet listened to. No videos, unless it was a video podcast (only two.) And that’s all. And, honestly, I found out that was all I really needed most of the time.

Rather than carry around a cell phone and an iPod, the iPhone took the place of both. It was always with me, being my cell phone, and it worked after a fashion with the Drive + Play. There was really no reason for the iPod to be with me, short of a long car drive.
My poor iPod. He still works great and keeps a long battery charge (better than the iPhone.) He holds much more music. He can even play videos. But, alas, he has become redundant. Second string. The backup quarterback. But it’s still nice to know he is there, just in case.

In the meantime, life with the iPhone is all roses and baby kisses. She is seductive (yes, the iPod is a boy, the iPhone a girl. No idea why, just worked out that way.) She is easy (to use!) She promises that I will never miss a phone call due to the music being too loud. She attracts attention. And she holds everything I need most of the time.

My iPhone has become my iPod, and I really don’t see going back. Just don’t tell my iPod!

story by Tim Robertson, Publisher of MyMac.com