Preparing for the iPhone

So I have been truly out-geeking myself lately. Here's how. At first when it came out, I had several legitimate reasons to not jump on the i-Phone bandwagon:

#1- They were only 8gigs at the biggest and what is the point of having your iPod be your phone as well if it isn't as big as your iPod?
#2- My brothers joined my Verizon family plan when my parents went to South Africa for the Mission and I didn't want to mess them up.
#3- I love Verizon and most of the people I call/text the most are on it, so I don't love the idea of switching to AT&T.

The only one of these issues that really remains at this point is #3, and even that is slightly up in the air. The largest capacity iPhones are now 32gigs and I am sure they will only be getting bigger. As for the family plan thing, my brother Logan got his own family plan when he got married this past June, and my brother Parker will probably go back on with my parents when they get home this coming June. This all happens to be perfect timing, because July 15th is when my Verizon contract is up.

What I have done to prepare for the iPhone (even though I won't be getting it for at least another five months):

1- Picked out the cover I want- this one from Ultra-Case; it comes in four lovely colors, but I think I like this best (to match my red computer, two red external hard drives & my red headphones, you know. There is a theme going on here):

2- I don't carry around a physical calendar because I have Internet available to me most of the time and I set reminders on my phone for important stuff, and the calendar that I have been using is an application on Facebook called 30 Boxes and I have really loved it. In the last couple of weeks, however, I have transferred all of my 30 Boxes calendar information (and mind you this includes recurring and day-to-day events clear through this coming July) to my Google Calendar. Why did I do this? Oh, because you can sync your Google Calendar to your iPhone.

3- As I have mentioned before, I make my own ringtones for my cell phone. I like to be able to set people to specific ringers, I use my phone as my alarm clock, and I like to text funny clips to people. With an iPhone you would assume that since you have all of your music on there you would be able to set people's ringtones to songs from your playlists. Unfortunately, not so. However, there is a way, albeit slightly tedious, to edit your songs into an iPod ringtone accessible format. Here is the simplest tutorial I have found on that, if you are interested. (As in, not the majority of people who actually read this blog, since you rely on me for your ringtone needs ;) The process is a little quicker for me at this point because I already have the songs I want to use cut down to the correct length. The last couple of days, though, I have been switching them over to the proper M4R format and organizing them and saving them into a file in my iTunes.

4- Trying to get others in my family on board. So I am still not thrilled about the idea of switching to AT&T from Verizon. I have always been with Verizon and I have loved it- great coverage- I never drop calls. Apple's exclusive contract with AT&T is up this coming year and so there are a lot of rumors swirling that they may not re-sign with them and that they may allow the iPhone to be open to all carriers (which would be a lucrative thing for them to do, unless AT&T offers them a dollar amount that they can't refuse to keep them exclusive). It would be absolutely ideal if the iPhone came to Verizon, but if there is no official sign of that actually really happening by July, I think it is worth it to me to switch to AT&T just for the iPhone. In talking to my folks, my Dad is sort of thinking iPhone when he gets back, so if several of my most-frequently-called people are going to be on AT&T too, then that will make it more convenient for me. (Please go to Verizon!)

My iTunes and music/video files are already immaculately organized, so it doesn't hurt to have everything else prepared in advance as well, right? Am I completely neurotic? Am I the absolute biggest geek of your life? Sigh. I'm okay with it.