Hi, Wanna Run! Congratulations on your iPhone. It was something I didn't know I wanted, either, until I got mine. Now I can't bear the thought of not having one! My land lines were constantly out of service, and they would send out repairmen over and over, only to have them go down in two weeks. I had a basic cell phone, too. Finally, I got mad and decided I was going to cancel the land lines and go get a GOOD cell phone, and that would just be IT. I already had AT&T cell phone service, so I stopped by their kiosk at the mall...and fell in LUUUUV. I adore all the ringtones you can download, and I've learned how to make my own from snippets of favorite CD's. My default ringtone is the opening music from the HBO series, True Blood. ("Bad Things," by Jace Everett...it's so cool.) I found tutorials on how to make my own and spent a whole afternoon getting different ones to personalize for certain callers. I don't have nearly as many apps as Kate, though I do have a lot of the ones she mentioned. Since I'm back on Weight Watchers, I couldn't do without iWatcher. I also found the best birding field guide, EVER. (iBird South) It cost me $10 and was worth every penny. It not only has tons of info on each species, range maps, line drawings AND photos, but it plays their bird calls, too. It's so cool to always have my bird ID info with me when I'm out anywhere. That is the only app I paid more than $.99 for, I think. I don't do many games, but I do like Card Shark. (Everyone needs a game of solitaire for killing time now and then.) I also have a little game called Ant Hill. When I'm really mad at the fire ants in the yard, I come in, pull that up and spend fifteen minutes or so dropping land mines on them, just to hear 'em squeal. Unlike Kate, I don't care for audio books, but I do read all the time, so I got Classics, which she mentioned. (I'm finally reading Call Of The Wild, which I somehow missed in school). I read regular books at home, but in the waiting room or in line, I pull that up and read another chapter or two in it. And there are several others in there I plan to read, as well. I have another book one called Stanza, and I can download books from from several different bookstores into that, at a price. You pay for the books, of course, but not as much as a "real" book. I haven't used it yet, but I plan to. I found a free wildflower ID book called iPlant. It's not REAL comprehensive, but it was free, and I HAVE used it a few times with success. I like Nightstand, which is a great travel clock with several options, and free. I like Just Light, which is a terrific little flashlight. There is an app called iStat which lets you free up memory when things start to slow down a bit. It shows a pie chart of how much free memory you have available and with one click it dumps stuff (from a cache file, probably) and improves performance. It's free, too. I have a good dictionary and iWiki, Showtimes for local movie times, completely with synopsis of the film and reviews, and a real favorite, iTranslate. In that one, you can pick your From language and your To language, type in a phrase and it translates it for you. There are 42 languages to choose from. (If you want to call someone a jerk in Swahili, it's there!) We are AAA members, and I found a Discounts program that does a bunch of stuff, including tracking where you are and telling you what hotels, etc, in that area offer AAA discounts. But it also has a one touch button to call for your AAA roadside assistance, and because of the GPS feature, it can send a tow truck, etc, straight to you, from the nearest garage. Cool!! I love changing my wallpaper daily, and have an app that has hundreds of scenic photos to choose from, plus I use my own photos, as well. The camera is actually pretty darn good, too. It's a feature I just love, because I don't have to remember to take my regular camera along with me. There is a Voice Memo app that I didn't download, but that wasn't on the phone when I got it, so I'm guessing they have upgraded to include it, and it was installed automatically the last time I synched the phone. You can leave messages for yourself there, and it's a lot faster than typing on the tiny keyboard. Oh, yeah...synching...they did NOT explain that to me when I got it, and it was a couple of days before I found out you need to do that regularly. And that's how you add everything. They never even told me I NEEDED to have iTunes installed on my computer to make everything work properly. But I blundered my way along until I figured it all out. There is an app called Wallpaper Maker that lets you add text to your phone's wallpaper. You can put a contact number on there if you want, in case you lose it, and someone HONEST actually finds it. I'm nervous about doing that, but it is fun to add captions to family photos, etc, and use those as wallpapers. I made one with my dogs and a saying under them. Have2Eat is a restaurant finder that will give you a list of restaurants in your area, with info on them, wherever you happen to be. And I forgot, the Showtimes movie finder does that, too. So if you are out of town and want to go to a movie, it will tell you what's playing THERE. Another useful one is WhitePages. It's a phone directory, and saves you the charge of calling 411 for a number. Plus, it gives you a location map of the business or person you are searching for. This device is so amazing, I can't believe it. It's an entire computer in your pocket. I hope you love yours as much as I love mine. Nicki's says I'm obnoxious about it! Hahaha. So I downloaded a ringtone that has a girl with a really obnoxious voice saying, "Look, Everybody. I have an iPhone...and someone is CALLING me on it!" Hahaha. I set it to say that when SHE calls me! Have fun! Hugs, Marcia

I found the Blackberry very straight forward. You could be reading your mail, click a link and read the web page and return to your mail without having to close the web page and return to the home screen. The I phone does not have a back button which I find so frustrating. My son has an Android and I find it more comfortable to use. It does have a back button. I like the screen better, seems clearer/sharper than Iphone. Iphone brags about their retina display. Sons, Samsung is brighter and colors seem better. Iphone is a data hog. You must remember to constantly close programs or they continue to run. There is no 'xing' off anything. You have to leave a page by returning to the home screen. There are so many things I dislike about the Iphone I won't bother taking the time to list. My guess is, if Iphone is your first smart phone, you'll love it because it's all you know. I also think it is appealing to younger people because of the Apple status symbol. Blackberrys were more 'business' orientated. They operated more like a computer. You could work from multiple screens and pages. Can't do that with the Iphone. Snidely, I've been following Blackberry over the past year hoping the company would come out with a new phone. I thought it was going under. I hoped Microsoft might buy them out. Now it seems they will release their new phone in the next few weeks. The tech reviews were very good. Blackberry will not have a physical keyboard but the testers report loving how well their new touch keypads work. The reports loved the ability to have multiple windows working at once without losing your place. I know many professional people who gave up on Blackberry and upgraded to Iphones. Not one of them thinks Iphone is better than their old phones. Many state they might switch back and are waiting for the release. If I can't get a Blackberry, I'd get an Android. I think its a better phone. Jane

It has nothing to do with those of us that are using the Internet Elephant (by choice in my case) as you call it nor does it have anything to do with garden web or the antivirus or spybot or whatever everyone is using. I have firefox and other browsers. They are all doing the same thing. Cnet is reporting that AGV is experiencing a problem and it is not just at Garden Web. a quote from them........."It is not infected. This is a problem with AVG and it is happening on other sites as well. AVG is notorious for false positives"

I dropped mine in the toilet as well. Had it in the jacket pocket, and it flipped out when adjusting clothing. What a shock! They say not to try to start it (I did). Put it in a container surrounded by rice for a period of time. Then DS took some part out (not the battery). I set the phone on the counter and turned on my hair dryer about 6' from the phone and let it run about 20 minutes. Then I put it on the TV cable box which is warm for 1-2 days. The phone worked after all that. Then I took the phone to Apple so they could look inside. Apple guy said he saw corrosion in it but I should continue to use it as long as it works. It never did stop working and would probably still be working but I replaced it with a newer model. The above practices to dry a phone are not recommended by the manufacturers (except maybe rice).