Steve Jobs

My life doesn't revolve around my iPhone (this proven by the fact that I left it on the seat of my car in a MBTA parking lot one day this week). I don't own a Mac or an iPad. I never really thought about my iPhone or iPod on any emotional level.

But..Steve Jobs died yesterday..and the emotional tributes to him on everything from Design*Sponge to Nightline to I Love Charts got me thinking: how do I *feel* about my iPhone? Do I even have feelings about it?

Truth is I do. When it comes down to it, I love the thing. I will never.ever.ever go back to anything else. I rock an iPhone 3GS that I bought for $49 when the iPhone 4 came out. Did I think it would be a life-changing purchase. Not particularly. But has this piece of technology revolutionized the way I do things? Actually, yes. How?
Where do I even start?

My iPhone is my alarm clock, my meteorologist. When I'm away from home, I can get the score of the Patriots/Bruins/Celtic/Sox in the snap. My iPhone is my bird book, my GPS. It has my to do list, grocery list, countless photos. I have apps that tell me how far away my bus or train is, apps that count knitting rows for me, a kindle app that lets me read a book on the train when I've finished my library book and have nothing else to read (yes, library book, I am old-fashioned that way). I can play scrabble with friends, I can chuck angry birds at brick walls, I can take hipster picture, I have all of Shakespeare and the Louvre at the tips of my fingers. I have coupons, TV Guide, my library network, all on my phone. I could seriously go on and on and on.

Yeah, I know Steve Jobs didn't create any of these apps himself. But he envisioned and created the mechanism that delivered these things to our fingertips, and for that, I am so grateful. Sure, life was "simpler" before the iPhone, but for me, even though having that kind of accessibility makes things complicated sometimes, life is definitely better with it. Thank you.