Almost part of the 21st Century

Today I purchased an iPhone G3s and can officially count myself among the 'now' generation. Of course purchasing and actually getting are two distinctly different things, and I won't be an owner until Monday... hopefully.

What amazed me was I went into 2 stores to see what was on offer. I am not a huge fan of my mobile phone, but even I can see that having a device which means I can look at emails, look things up and make sure I'm winning at Scrabble as well as make phone calls can be a real advantage. The fact that my old phone is able to make approximately one and a half telephone calls of about 2 minutes each and then has to be juiced up again is something that even I have recognised means that something needs to be done. And if a new one is what I need, then no point in having something that will just 'do', but to get one that will fulfill all my current needs and all my potential future ones, even if I'm not entirely clear what those might be just now.

But the 2 stores, which resided less than 25 meters from each other, couldn't have been more different.

The first store was empty, and yet the two people serving were chatting away to each other and took a while to even see I was there. The guy I spoke to was very nice, but told me not very much about the kind of deal he could do for me. Which gave me the impression that there was only one kind of option... you give them a lot of money per month and depending on how much and for how long, you get an iPhone. But he told me essentially prices had been set by Apple and there was just the one deal and that was it.

The second store was full. To the extent that I went to do a bit of shopping and went back when it was a bit emptier. A delightfully enthusiastic young man couldn't have been more helpful. He explained that there were all kinds of deals, but that the prices had been set by Apple... ok... am I being pedantic here? The same message but said in a totally different way? He then went through options. I chose a white 16g phone that I pay quite a bit per month but get loads of minutes (less money and more minutes than the other store offered), texts and as much internet access as I can use. Apparently after 9 months if I contact O2 I can get my monthly payment reduced by £5 and this goes on every 9 months until my contract is up - but they won't be contacting me about it, I have to contact them - no surprise there.

It's still costing me some, and I don't actually have it, but in a way it was such a pleasure to talk to someone who seemed to want to sell me something, that I don't seem to mind too much. He's also going to show me how to set it all up when I go and pick it up on Monday and give me a wee bit of discount on a leather cover for it.

So the very next pics I take of my ever growing coffee plants will be coming from the latest technology. And apparently I can watch a film at the same time. How great is that?