At your fingertips « Allison Cooke

At your fingertips

23Jun09

Along with EA Sports Active, I asked for an iPod Touch for my birthday. My loving parents, awesome as they are, came together and got me a 32 gig Touch.

When the iPhone first came out I thought it was pretty silly. Who needs all that and why? Thirty bucks a month for a data package??? At this point I was not the Apple convert that I am now and thought most people were buying them just for the name. So yeah, I was skeptical.

Even when the initial hype died down, I wasn’t interested. When everyone was talking about the awesome “apps” (a word I loathe), I waved them off. When my DAD got an iPhone I was bewildered. I told him that he wouldn’t be looking to me for tech support — I don’t have one, don’t know anything about it. But somehow he managed to figure it out.

In December, as preparation (and gift to myself?) for grad school I decided to get a MacBook. Sure my Gateway (yes, Gateway) laptop was fine. Yeah, it was pretty big, but it worked. But I gave in to social pressure and the desire to look cool (yeah, I said it) and took the plunge. And so I loved it. Shoot me. I loved the sleek design, the compact size, it’s general awesomeness.

Once school started and I began hanging out with people from my class, I noticed that pretty much everyone had an iPhone. I was starting to become more convinced that it was a meaningful product with my addiction to Twitter, but with the convenience of my new MacBook, who needed it.

But after a few months the MacBook seemed to be too big. Do I haul it out just to see if one of my friends has tweeted? Then my friend Paul showed me the Touch — it’s the awesomeness of an iPhone without the phone and the pricey data plan — it’s just wireless! I was sold. Now I just had to wait three months until my birthday.

So fast forward to June 6 (the day after my birthday) and I got the Touch. That next day I loaded it up, downloaded a few free apps (grrr!) and then used it for a full day that Monday. So what did I decided Monday evening? That I needed an iPhone. Yeah, that’s right, I want an iPhone.

Sure the Touch is great, but what if I am stuck in traffic or just got out of the gym and want to see if people are getting together for dinner? Do I drive to the Panera parking lot and see if I can steal their wi-fi?? No, you don’t do that, you get an iPhone (or you just call people, but come on, who does that anymore??).

The deal I have made with myself is that if I get an awesome raise this year, I will treat myself to an iPhone. That’s the plan.

And what to do with this practically brand new iPod touch? Well, turns out my boyfriend (definitely not a “Mac person”) took an immediate liking to it — especially to Falling Gems (a fun free game I recommend). So maybe I’ll make him buy it from me!