The iPhone Cameth

In recent months, I've found myself using my personal phone for communication with my work. While I didn't mind this too much, part of the hassle was that we only had one family cell phone, which wasn't always in my possession when I was needed. So if work would call me about a server outage or other tech issue, there was no guarantee that I could be easily reached.

This situation led me to request to get a dedicated "work phone" so that I could be available to the staff 24/7. As crazy as it sounds, I wanted to be at reach for these issues. Part of my job is to fix problems, and it is helpful to be able to know about them as soon as possible. The phone would also allow me to help staff with their computer support issues as well. A good investment in school money, in my opinion: tech support at their fingertips with a quick call or text.

When deciding on getting a phone, I noticed that we were on the AT&T plan. I went to the business manager of our school and she told me that I could get any phone that I wanted that is supported by AT&T. I made a joke about the iPhone, which she replied, "Al, if that's what you need to do your job, then I don't see why you shouldn't. We get a good rate through our educational/government program, so get one if you want it." At first, I was hesistant. I didn't want to take advantage of the schools finances, especially in challenging financial times, however, a smart phone with a data plan would prove uber-useful to me in keeping connections to the school at all times. It would also allow me to test wireless access without lugging around my laptop, and eventually, once figured out, I could remote into the school's servers and do basic support and mainentance of our network. So to curb my desire, I began looking at other phone offerings. No luck. I had no idea what I should get. So I called some friends who either had an iPhone or had extensive knowledge of smart phones, and they all said the same thing: "Get an iPhone".

Last Friday, the shiny phone came to the school. My iPhone. I'm already finding myself more productive and reachable to the staff. Having my e-mail, calendar, todo lists, and other features right at my fingertips. Now comes the real challenge: losing the obssessive desire to play with it every minute. :-)