I walked in for a Shuffle…

Hubby and I had a long weekend with President’s Day and we decided to spend Saturday afternoon shopping in Grand Rapids (Michigan) to get me an early birthday present. Our first stop was the Apple Store. I’ve never been in an Apple Store before.

The place was a zoo. Packed wall to wall. But the staff was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable.  They actually made the place seem calm. At first I wandered around the tables, comparing the shuffle to the nano to the iPod touch. The white cases. The fat, white cords. Really I was just shopping for something that I could take to work that would provide some background music. I was pretty sure I was going to get a 2 GB shuffle. $49. Modest. Affordable. Reasonable. Then I saw the nano and I was pretty sure I was going to get a nano.

But then I got to playing with the iPod touch. At first the keyboard was awkward and I wasn’t happy about it. I started exploring the mobile apps for some of my favorite sites and I wasn’t happy with those either. I wanted the robustness of the Web site versions. I was impatient. But after a while of standing and playing, the sheer magnitude of usefulness of carrying around an Internet connection began to overwhelm me. My laptop is bulky and I don’t take it out of the house much. I overheard Hubby talking with one of the store employees, Mason,  about VoiceOver, which meant that he would be able to use whatever we buy also. Regardless of what we bought, this was going to be a “couple’s device.” He was telling Mason that he was trying to convince me to get an iPod touch.

Lately I’ve been saying over and over, “I don’t want to be connected all the time.” I don’t want content pushed to me every second. And I don’t play games. I’ve barely been using my own phone lately. The battery is dying and having to plug it in every other day has been a real drag.  iPods don’t carry all that much battery life themselves so I wasn’t hip to buying into something new I’d have to plug in every other day. I’ve been a bit burned out on technology lately. Ignoring my feeds. AWOL from Facebook. Tuning out.

Finally,  however, standing in the Apple store, I started getting realistic about the power of an iPod touch.  It felt like the sound thing to do. “I’ll take an iPod touch,” I tell Mason. Great. He rings it up.

But I’m still standing there thinking. Our phone contract has expired so we’re free as birds to do as we like. And an iPod touch is everything but the phone? And my phone is 6 years old and the battery is dying yet again? Do I really want to replace a battery on a 6-year-old candy bar phone that doesn’t even have a number “1” for texting purposes?

We return the iPod on the spot and get a 32 GB iPhone 4.

Mason carries through the transaction without blinking an eye. He was introduced to us when an Apple manager noticed that Hubby is blind and would be needing VoiceOver, the screen reading software inherent to Apple products. He was very knowledgeable and patient. And when I say knowledgeable and patient I don’t mean run of the mill knowledgeable and patient. The guy grooved on our questions and my product vacillations. He went into the back and googled some accessory information for us that Apple doesn’t even carry. He was Apple Zen incarnate. I told him he made Apple look like just what everyone said it was.

Walking out of the store I wasn’t feeling real hip on the learning curve. Menu upon menu upon menu. I should have been thrilled, right? Really, by the time we left we’d spent almost 2 1/2 hours in the store and I was just tired. We stopped at a kiosk and I got a hot-pink-bordering-on-red case and a privacy screen. We went to a very nice and quiet dinner during which I emailed my brother, an iPhone devotee.

My first task was to sync up with iTunes. I wanted my music on my phone – the trip was for a Shuffle originally after all. And so I start touching things. At first I was slightly impatient. I didn’t know how to work everything and it irritated me. I tend to swallow new technologies whole and not being able to perform basic tasks rankles.

Slowly, I made my way through all of the basic apps. I began playing with my iTunes collection and added 800 songs to my phone. I set up weather (but I’m not happy with either weather app I’m using). I added Aberystwyth, Wales – that’s one of my favorite places, so I could at least always know the temp there. I set up voicemail. I started downloading free apps. I bought my first ebook of all time – the Koran. I got set up with Weight Watchers.  The next morning I got up at 6 and was on the thing for a couple of hours. The usefulness just continues to multiply. In a matter of a few hours I felt completely comfortable with the device. Now, almost a week later, I’m practically attached to the thing.

In short, I love my new iPhone. And we [heart] Mason as well. Thanks, Apple!