Conrad's iPhone and iPad blog

First, the iPhone. Sometimes it's little things that make you hang on to a product. In my case, I was stupid enough not to get a case for my 3Gs because I just love the sleek feel of it. But then it dropped out of my pocket as I got out of my car and fell flat on its screen onto concrete. It didn't break, but there are a couple of chips, which means I really can't sell it. So there. Else, I'd love to upgrade to the iPhone 4, but I am also just about done with my 2-year AT&T contract, and the prospect of being a captive AT&T customer for another two years, whether I like it or not, is unpleasant. Should I just ditch AT&T and go with Verizon? Verizon's reputation is a bit better and I really don't care whether I can talk and look up stuff at the same time, but then it's another 2-year contract and so it's perhaps a "better the devil you know than the devil you don't" kind of thing. Overall, I love and adore the iPhone, but not its voice quality and not those infuriating 2-year contracts.

As for the iPad, I watched Steve Job do the introduction of the iPad 2 and would have ordered two right that day, had they been available for order. They weren't, and though the iPad 2 looks like a wonderful device, the one I have is already wonderful. More speed is always better, but the original iPad is already pretty fast, and while I'd like to have the cameras of the iPad 2, I really don't miss them on the old iPad. I actually use the camera in the iPhone a lot, mostly to document stuff, but I know I wouldn't use the iPad 2 camera nearly as much because you can't stick an iPad into your pocket, and I already have a bunch of dedicated cameras.

So right now I am in limbo; my old iPhone and iPad still work well enough, but they'll get older and new apps built for newer hardware will soon make my gear too slow to run them properly. I know my loathing of the telco 2-year contracts is in part irrational, but it just irks me that they do that. And every time I think how I can't even take my AT&T gear out of the country without special services and risking giant bills, I feel like the less I need to deal with AT&T, the better. On the other hand, the lure of new and better technology is great, and so I wonder how long it'll be until I give in.