Sour Apples

[bill_sheehan]

The word “recession” has an actual technical definition: the reduction of a country’s Gross Domestic Product for at least two successive quarters. “Depression” is harder to define. It’s usually described as a rare, severe recession

Comments

[rowantwig]

I bought a new macbook a couple of months ago and gave my old ibook to my son. Although the new one is splendid, the ibook seems to be plugging away without any problems, which is kind of depressing. Equally healthy is the old imac (with the bubble bottom) I recently sold on craigslist and the lime green one in our attic. The damned things never die so we can have an excuse to buy another.

This did not stop my husband from buying two iphones recently, for which there will never be a reasonable excuse.

[bill_sheehan]

Excuse me, but there certainly IS a reasonable excuse for iPhones. Do not dare blaspheme against His Steveness! The day they went on sale, my unindicted co-conspirator and I stood in line for one. I asked her if she'd like one too, but she demurred: she hardly used her current mobile phone, she didn't need all those features, et cetera. By the time we got home with my new iPhone, she realized she'd made a terrible mistake, and we were back to the Apple store the next morning.

The iPhone is the single most useful piece of technology we have ever used. Just you wait. If (Cthulhu forfend!) we leave home without our respective iPhones, it's as though we've lost the use of one hand.

[rowantwig]

What are the most indispensable features of your iPhone for you?

My husband spends time researching new apps and downloads all the cool ones, but to me it seems like all play. I can't even access one of my email accounts through its mail app because I won't pay a higher monthly fee with that host. Plus I'm not happy with how tiny the calendar shows the monthly view and haven't gotten used to seeing my dates in a list.

I AM enjoying it, but it's not an appendage yet.

[bill_sheehan]

The indispensable feature of the iPhone is how well everything works together. The "killer app" varies by person. Me, I use every program on the first screen on a daily basis except the YouTube viewer and Maps, which I use less frequently. I have added programs to manage my passwords and licenses, my shopping list, my Things To Do, unit conversion, SSH access to my systems, and some games. These too are used at least weekly. I listen to music, audiobooks, and podcasts every day. And, of course, it's my phone. I snipped the land line both at work and at home.

If you don't want to pay for mail, there are free services that are accessible to the iPhone. My iPhone tracks four different mail accounts: Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, GMail, and MobileMe. Personally, I find MobileMe to be worth it, but I have multiple Macs.