My Pursuit of iPhone Happiness

For those of you that know me, you know of my tireless pursuit of the iPhone living here in Fargo. The road has been long and fraught with frustration and anger. I have been living with my iPhone for almost 18 months now, and I'm here to report on few things.

If you are interested in seeing how I acquired my iPhone, you can see other posts on this blog, or read this blog. My fingerprints are all over the comments section. What this blog doesn't cover is my overall happiness with the iPhone. That is what I'm hoping to discuss here.

The iPhone is a marvelous piece of hardware. The ease of use, the smooth response, the way "it just works". As far as smartphones go, I personally think they don't get any better. The "There's an app for that" campaign could not be any more right. Unless you are buying the iPhone for p0rn, in which case, there are mobile websites for that. When I travel to cities that have AT&T's fabled "3G" coverage, my love for the iPhone is renewed once again.

My main issue with the iPhone isn't even so much the phone itself. It goes much deeper than the phone. Without a carrier, your phone isn't really a phone now is it? Which brings me to my rub with the iPhone. As of today, AT&T does not have native coverage in Fargo. I have heard rumors of service as early as October 2010, but then again, I heard rumors they were supposed to be here already. I am the eternal optimist. There is now coverage in Bismarck, Minot, and Dickinson, so I am optimistic that Fargo will eventually follow suit.

Relying on "partner" towers for my roaming service has put me at odds with my iPhone. While on one hand, it works perfectly around the house connected to WiFi. On the other, the 60-80 hours I spend away from my house on a weekly basis leaves something to be desired. A tattered mix of Edge and GPRS coverage with some No Service sprinkled in for good measure. I find myself longing for the days of Verizon's EVDO network and their almost unrivaled coverage in these parts of the world. Having a phone that can surf and play the way it was designed.

At the end of the day, I still look back to my iPhone with a fond look. I know there are no other phones out there for me. I keep telling myself, they will have service here one day, you'll see. I have no doubt that day will come. My optimistic side says sooner, my realistic side says later. Be that as it may, I still have my iPhone, for better or for worse.

Too long...

My, my, my. Has it really been almost a year since my last blog post. And a shameless post at that. I didn't win by the way. Or I might have blogged about it.

I would like to tell you a lot has happened in the last year since I posted. I can't. Nothing has really changed my life over the last year. I released a free app on the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iTouch. For a free app, and one that I put almost no thought into, it has been downloaded quite a bit. Makes me wish I had done more with the last year. I have about 2 months left on my paid developer license, so I better get crackin.

The kids are a year older, I'm a year older. Not much has changed. Work is fine, home is fine. I'm not sure if I should be impressed or dismayed at my situation. Given the tough economic times, I guess I should be thankful that I can report on the lack of change. If things weren't bad before, no reason to think they are bad now.

I hope that more changes between now and this time next year. I do have a trip coming up to Puerto Rico. My good friend is getting married. The family won't be traveling with me, so it won't be quite as much fun. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited. But it is still technically American soil. So I guess I can still say I have never traveled abroad. This will be about as far from home as I have ever been. So I guess that much will change.

Bill