But secondly, it has these ‘apps’ the value of which I confess to not understanding. Ok, I can check movie times, I can keep a list of todo items, I have access to my contacts … but I get all that on the web or laptop anyway. Why would I pay extra — what is it, like 40$ a month for data — just to have access to the web for the 20 minutes a day I don’t have a computer open? I accept that not everyone has a laptop in front of them as much as I do, of course.

Finally, at this point in my life I am trying to NOT be online as much. I get the feeling my main use for an iPhone or Blackberry would just be to kill time or surf the web. Not things I need to be doing more of (this piece bears witness to that!).

BTW my current phone is a Motorola V66 (c. 2001). But it’s a little hard to type SMS messages on a phone that clearly never anticipated that being a the major use for cell phones.