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I have a terrible sense of direction, so being able to have a map that can figure out where I am and how to get where I am going is a huge benefit. I use it all the time. Once to the point of frostbite, but never mind.
And I like the apps. There are some really handy ones. I can check the weather really quickly, dial someone up by name, keep up with my fb friends, all that’s very handy.
I love being able to plug my phone into my car stereo on the rare occasions that I drive, and listen to music I actually like.
But the best, the biggest thing about getting an iPhone: I NEVER TURN ON MY LAPTOP ANYMORE.
Well, not never. Rarely. Once or twice in the last week. For years I’ve struggled to kick the habit of getting home, firing up the internet, and wasting hours flipping aimlessly from website to website. I’d go on to check email and next thing I knew it was 7:30 and time for PP to go to bed and I’d feel like a heel again because we hadn’t interacted the way I wanted or that she needed. Now?
I never turn it on! Or hardly ever! It’s so great! My email is on a little while box that I can just flip on, check quickly, and flip off.
I really noticed it during our vacation, when I know normally I would have had the computer on practically all day in case I got an email from the Trader or a friend or a lead on a freelance gig or whatever, and I basically never turned it on at all. What a sense of freedom, not to mention lessening the mother-guilt. PP and I do talk together and interact more now.
iPhone: internet addiction* buster. I never would have guessed, but I’m so, so happy.
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*note: No, it was not ever any kind of actual addiction. But it was a bad habit I tried to shake for a long long time, and it’s odd and maybe not the best that it was an electronic gadget that reconnected me more with my real life–but there you go.
I’ve noticed this too, with my iPod touch. I can quickly check home email and work email, and then it goes back in my pocket, because the tiny screen is too unpleasant for major web surfing.
I’ve got serious iPhone envy.