A lot of my friends think I’m way more technologically savvy than they are, so they were always shocked when I would tell them I didn’t have an iPhone. The reason was pretty simple, I’m a diehard Verizon fan. I got my first Verizon mobile phone before I had kids, when my job required me to be on a plane every week traveling to big cities, tiny towns, and very remote locations nationwide. My regular, full-time, salaried job is designing wastewater treatment plants and those are everywhere and often placed as far away from the population of a town as reasonably possible. I needed a phone that worked, that got service everywhere, that didn’t drop calls left and right. If there was anyone that truly tested Verizon’s network, it was I.
When we founded my company in 2004, my two partners and I were using Verizon and at the time we could make unlimited calls to each other and given our budget that was important. Of course competition has changed all that and now with affordable unlimited plans it doesn’t matter that we stay on the same network, but I have seen how bad the service is for both AT&T and Sprint at my house. I can even remember standing in the middle of downtown Houston on more than one occasion, talking, texting and tweeting with my Verizon Blackberry while all around me AT&T iPhone users ranted about not having service. Calling is still the most important thing to me when it comes to my cell phone and I can’t remember the last time a call dropped from my end.
Of course I was envious of all the cool stuff my iPhone using friends could do with their phones. Angry Birds? Words with Friends? Easy to navigate driving directions? Not to mention the inspiring iPhone photography from Chase Jarvis, author of The Best Camera Is the One That’s With You. My phone camera sucked, and as a photog that was a big deal to me. Plus my husband complained about the sound quality of my Blackberry. When my time came to upgrade my phone last June I seriously considered getting a Droid Incredible or X. But I kept hearing more substantial rumors that the Verizon iPhone was coming, so I waited. Last week I was handsomely rewarded.
Let me shout it from the rooftops, I LOVE THIS PHONE. The network is still incredible and the sound quality is WAY better than my Blackberry. So far I’ve downloaded the Twitter and Facebook apps, the Best Camera app and Instagram, which I am totally loving. I thought typing would be hard, but it has rapidly adapted to my typos to correct them instantly. I love the way texts are set up in little bubbles, shown as a conversation! Most of all I love the camera. The things I can do with it are mind blowing to me. So check out what I’ve got in just the past couple of days.
