My loyalty to all things Apple all started a few years back when I first wanted a MP3 player. Like iPhones today, iPods were the craze. Of course, I knew back then that the only reason people had iPods was to be cool and show off how much money they had. So in my quest to be unpopular and cheap, I decided to take the path less traveled by getting a Creative mp3 player. With great joy, I spent my first 10 hours with the device trying to sync it with my computer. Crap! Creative had forgotten to install some software on the device before selling it and it didn’t work out of the box. With some hacking around my computer, I downloaded it myself, installed it, and then was ready to enjoy.

The journey didn’t improve though. Music stores did not always want to work with the device and whenever I showed my friends how unique I was they just laughed. I realized having something simple to use was worth it and an iPod really was cool. I caved, boxed up my device in the basement to hopefully sell to a museum of bad inventions one day, and bought myself an iPod. Life was good.

Back to modern day. iPods are now as common as shoes and technology has moved on. Smart- (or super-) phones are the in thing. It’s amazing to see how we’ve gone from Zack Morris gigantour phones to beepers then back to cell phones but smaller then to even smaller phones with buttons you can barely press and finally to phones with no buttons at all. As phones got more and more complex, we all got overwhelmed. They no longer just call, but they text, surf the web, and brush our teeth (well not yet). Sad thing is, all these features are hard to use just like my Creative mp3 player. Lo and behold, Apple has saved the day with the iPhone which does everything and does it well.

To me, the iPhone is a great device. No longer do I need cargo pants to carry around all my toys (iPod, cell phone, camera, GPS, etc.); I have one device that does it all. I must admit the price tag is a little steep. Upfront it’s comparable to any other phone or even an iPod which I can stomach, but then there are the monthly internet fees and extra texting costs. So is it all worth it? Glad you asked.

While potentially dangerous to anyone suffering in piles of debt, I really do believe the iPhone is worth it. I just can’t imagine going back to a life where I didn’t have every bit of information at my fingertips. More pragmatically, the iPhone allows you to easily stay in touch with friends even when they can’t talk (texting), allows you to watch funny videos during meetings if you’re bored (YouTube), helps you find the right bus (Maps/GPS), tells you what to wear (Weather), and even allows you to impress friends when they can’t remember your college football team’s head coach’s record when he coached Division II back in the day (Wikipedia). Better yet, my desire helped me conquer the costs by motivating me to save 15% on car insurance, call Comcast and ask them to lower my cable bill (they did!), and start reading books from the library.

With all this said, I must warn you to be careful. As much fun and utility the iPhone has given me, I have had to learn when to give it a break. The iPhone should never keep you from hanging out with friends/family or enjoying the great outdoors. Like a lot of technology, it’s a tool. A tool to help you out when you’re on the go especially and a great one at that. If you have the discipline to use it wisely and the budget room to cover the costs I highly recommend giving it a try. Once you’ve developed your own opinion let me know what you think or if you’ve found something better.