iphone

This past Saturday was both very familiar and life changing for me. It followed the normal pattern of collegiate Saturdays: wake up far too early, labor at a service project for about 3 hours, have a filling meal, take a shower, laze away the afternoon, and then drink heavily. Nothing all together out of the ordinary.

The life-changing part fell between the getting up too early and the manual labor. The hour of waking was about 6:30 (with a snooze or two, it actually became 6:42, but you get the idea) and the purpose was to get in line to purchase Cupertino Orchards' latest incarnation of the revolutionary iPhone, the iPhone 3G.

Now, I am the first to admit my admiration for gadgets, gizmos, and generally all things electronic. Spending hours walking around the aisles of Best Buy or their virtual counterparts on newegg.com is not a waste of time for me, but rather a necessary means for me to catch up on what is the latest and greatest in the world of technology. If this sounds weird at all, just replace 'Best Buy' with 'Nine West', 'newegg.com' with 'Steve Madden', and 'technology' with 'shoe fashion' and see if that doesn't sound like any woman you know.

But as a matter of principle I reject waiting in line for hours for the newest technology to go on sale. No, no you will never find me camped out in front of Wal Mart for that first shipment of PS3s, nor for that matter will you see me decked out in full Jedi attire for the midnight showing of a Star Wars prequel/sequel/animated movie (I am also way into movies, especially movies that incorporate sweet high tech things, hence Star Wars as an example). The whole notion of lines is distasteful to me, as standing still for hours on end is very boring and wasteful, as it could be spend lying still for hours (sleeping) or sitting (watching entertaining tv). To this point in my life, lines were to be avoided at all costs.

Not so with the iPhone. For some reason, whether it be iPhone envy (Jeff and Mike have enjoyed the iPhone for months now) or dissatisfaction with my old phone (it doesn't really slide open anymore), I found myself more than willing to wake up at the crack of dawn and park myself outside of the local AT&T store and wait for the latest shipment to go on sale. And wait I did.

The scene at the store was quite a mess, as some folks who were snubbed after waiting in line on Friday morning made sure not to repeat the mistake by arriving extra early and truly camping out. One fellow claimed that he didn't go to sleep after bar hopping on the Corner Friday night, merely making the store the last leg of his Friday night exploits. Another chap was liveblogging (on his MacBook of course) about the experience while in line. Yet another dude, the king among all, made an event out of it by bringing the whole family along: he unloaded a passenger van full of his offspring (about 6 in number, none over the age of 10) and had them accompany him in line, well-equipped with juiceboxes, board games, and Hannah Montana accessories abound. The cynical among us thought that it was all a ploy to hoard iPhones (each person in line was entitled to one phone), but it turned out just be a very ill-advised parenting move (as each kid wreaked havoc in the store once they were let in, much to the dismay of the already on-edge sales reps).

I was the average, sensible enthusiast with my book and light breakfast (an apple, how apropos) with me in line. The two hour wait wasn't too bad, and when all was said and done was well worth it. How so? Of the past 52 hours I have had the phone, I have used it in some fashion for 8 of them, which is rather impressive when you factor out sleeping, eating, and all of the other essentials that take up one's life. Waiting for, using, and loving the iPhone, I am sure it is all time well spent.