Courtesy of geniusgeeks.com
Just like my hopes of ever partaking in a ménage à trois or seeing a unicorn, I had long given up on the dream that was the Verizon iPhone.
Maybe Steve Jobs felt the need to test the faith of Verizon customers. Would they buy those silly Droid phones? Would they buy iPods and cell phones and be slaves to two devices? How long would it take before they found out that other phones could probably do most of the same things?
While Apple loyalty blinds many, I’ve never been a branch on that tree. I don’t like Macs, and I was one of the last people to switch from a CD player to those new-fangled iPods.
But sometimes there comes along a device that crosses even the hardest lines of “geekdom” and makes even nonbelievers convert. If you had told me a while ago that I would pass on a phone that looked like R2D2 for something made by Apple, well, I would have called you crazy.
I still don’t know why — maybe it was just because Apple had kept the device from me for so long — but I just really, really had to have it. There is no rational explanation for why I felt I needed it, but I don’t think there was a day over the past few months I haven’t searched for some hint of when the fabled device would finally fall from the sky.
And boy, oh boy, is it sexy. It always feels good opening up a new Apple product. I can’t imagine how much time and thought goes into the smallest details of their packaging protocols, but from just looking at the box to opening it, Apple is in complete control of the experience.
As for the phone itself: crystal clear sailing so far on the calls, and that’s even without me having taken off the screen protector covering up the speaker. That’s some good quality.
The other great thing is that I can finally ditch this two-device system that I’ve9 had to manage. And, given that my iPod touch “synced” itself in my bathtub a few months ago, the timing could not have been any better.
No longer do I have to carry a cell phone and my iPod. And no more do I have to sit and wonder why my cell phone just won’t organize music as well as iTunes does.
The redesigned Verizon model also does what Nixon couldn’t: It makes “Antennagate” a thing of the past. The dropped calls problem that plagued the iPhone 4 has all been fixed, meaning that while I don’t get a free bumper, I can hold my phone while talking on it any way I want.
Apple spent a long time hammering away about the brand new Retina display, and I was certainly skeptical.
But I’ll be damned if it isn’t the prettiest screen I have ever held in my hand. All of my album art just looks good — better-than-it-looks-on-my-laptop good.
There are a few small problems, not necessarily with the phone, but with the operating system, that have struck me as odd. The inability to set custom text tones, which Apple lets you do with ringtones, just seems like a silly excuse for me to keep listening to “Sherwood Forest” every time somebody texts me.
The lack of simultaneous voice and date may upset a small minority, but again, it’s a small concession that most people probably won’t even notice.
But the biggest problem with the device is telling: whether my iPhone should go into my right pocket, previously held for my cell phone, or my left pocket, prior the home of my iPod.
Clark is a member of the class of 2012.
