Well that didn’t take very long. My iPhone recently broke and I just figured I’d do without a phone until the new iPhone came out (probably sometime in June). It seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t actually use the phone part of my iPhone alot, but rather use it as a mobile internet device. So I figured it should be no problem, right? Apparently not so.

I lasted for about 4 days without any type of phone. It turns out that even when you rarely use a phone, those times when you do use it are pretty important. This is definitely one of those moments where I thought to myself, how did people do it before cell phones? But don’t worry, I can remember a time when people didn’t use cell phones, I just didn’t really make plans with people during those times. Anyways, thanks to a friend (thanks Mike!) I was able to get a Motorola Razr to hold me over until the new iPhone came out.

But man was that difficult. It’s just a phone. Oh sure, it has text messages and a couple of games but that’s it. But that’s ok, I was going to be fine with that. The whole problem was that since my iPhone was out of warranty, I needed to pay $200 to get a replacement. And I didn’t want to pay that much since I was planning on getting the new one in June.

There were so many things that I’ve learned to take for granted with a smart phone that you don’t get with a normal phone. One of the biggest for me was the contacts. The Razr had no way to know who all my contacts were. When someone would call me, it would just show me the number with no name. I have no idea who uses what phone number, it’s something I’ve totally forgetting since my last couple of phones could just use my GMail contacts. And even worse, I couldn’t call anyone since I didn’t know what their number was.

So the other day I went back to the Apple Store and picked up a replacement iPhone. I think I made if 4 days with no phone at all and about 2 weeks without a smart phone. Now I’ve got my GPS unit, MP3 player, phone, mobile internet and all around helpful device back. This isn’t really a iPhone versus other phones type of thing, this is really a smart phone versus normal phone argument. If all you want is to make phone calls and get text messages then a normal phone would be fine, but smart phones can do so much more now and I guess I kinda or forgot that since I’ve had one for so long now.