Apple

June 29, 2007 8GB version. Lined up at an AT&T store in West LA around 12pm. Doors opened at 6pm. It was a cluster fuck at AT&T to activate the phones. They eventually gave up and we rushed to our little office to activate our phones via iTunes. Switched from T-Mobile coming from the SideKick 3 phone. I remember at that time they passed a law where you could port your number over to another carrier and T-Mobile was the first to allow this. I remember calling them ahead of time and letting them know I would be switching over, but will be back if they ever get the iPhone, which they did eventually and I am on them now. Later that fall of 2007 I got the 16GB iPhone because my co-worker dropped his iPhone in the toilet. Good times.

Every year like clock work I upgrade to the new flagship phone. I've had every model. I buy them outright and sell them for at least half or over half of what I paid which covers most of the new iPhone's cost.

In the early days, except for year one, we pretty much had our iPhones subsided by AT&T. Meaning for the most part beginning with the iPhone 3G, our out of pocket cost was either $200 or $300 an upgrade. I kinda really missed that model, because now I am forking out $1600 to $1800 with Tax and AppleCare. It is nutty how expensive it has gotten. However with rolling over my phone every year and selling my prior iPhone, it isn't that bad and I am usually out of pocket $600 to $800.

The first and second year iPhone I remember I made a lot more money internationally for the iPhone since they were not available outside the USA. I remember selling my used 3G iPhone for $3000 in Norway. Crazy. And for a while you could literally buy as many iPhones as you want and sell them on the grey market like that without having a number tied to it. They pretty much stopped that the following year, but for a while people made a killing on side.

2008 the App Store changed everything for this phone. It built a multi trillion dollar global economy with solutions like Uber/Lyft, to Door Dash or any gig economy, not including the thousands of app solutions, games, productivity. Just endless.

On early iPhones we had Google Maps, but without turn by turn directions. It was still useful because it helped with where you were at least. The first iPhones didn't have GPS but relied on WIFI base stations to find your location. That's crazy innovative. Before the iPhone, I would have to pull up Map Quest and print out directions and before that you had to have a Thomas Guide in the car at all times lol. I was horrible with analogy maps. Apple Maps is a huge life saver. Just that one service is worth it's weight in gold today and I do not take it for granite. IDK how Quentin Tarantino does it without ever having a smart phone, let alone a cell phone. Pretty remarkable, but he has people lol, I don't.

I love the aspect of how it connects with everything, the one downfall of this device and competing devices like it, is social which has been a disaster to society as a whole. It has made empowered fools into entitled bullies. Disinformation over facts. Terrible implementation of th platform and Social should have been moderated from the get go. I have since deleted the worst offenders; all Meta, SnapChat, Twitter completely and I feel so much more freer and nicer as a person. Reddit has mods, but not all communities are controlled the same way but at least for the most part there are mods to step in if it gets bad. Reddit has its faults, but it feels like you join clubs or it is your brain extension and you are feeding it with more knowledge. That is the vibe I get from it.

Overall this phone ignited the world with depend on today. The good, the bad and the ugly. Hopefully more good than bad. Ugly is fine if good.