Smartphones.

Granted, smartphones are not the leader in the market overall. Most people still tend to use rather basic phones. Well, basic by today's standards anyway. Capable of texting, making/receiving phone calls perhaps a touch of email or limited web surfing, but not fully integrated and made for these tasks. They are a phone. Smartphones are a hybrid cross of a phone and PDA. We may not all have one, but everyone knows someone who does.

I can't speak for everyone, but most people I talk to (and how I felt before I made the switch) seem to find these smart phones as cool devices but not really practical for the money unless you are a professional that requires something like that. It's not true. While we may not "require" one, neither does that professional either. It might suck, but he could get away with only have a laptop and finding Wi-Fi spots or using a more basic phone as a modem for the laptop. It just makes things easier.

It is the same for the every day person who just thinks of it as another expense that is just cool and not something that would benefit them enough to pay the price for it. Well, you are wrong (depending on how tight your budget is, of course). I would have never believed it until I made the switch either. Let me give you a good example of how useful and helpful my iPhone really has been.

A few days ago, I was heading to a job fair. I didn't know the time that it opened and I was already out in the world. So, I pulled out my iPhone, surfed over to my local newspaper's website and found the information for the job fair. I was already a little bit late for the opening (about 5 minutes) and I wasn't entirely sure where the building was, so I used google maps. Gave me a quick route through a couple back roads and I was there in about 15 minutes.

So I'm there, and there is a huge line, even though they started letting people in 30 minutes ago. I take a picture of the line using my phone, and post it on twitter with a comment like "There is too many people at this job fair. This is 30 min after they started letting people in!" just to kill some time while in line. Almost as soon as I get in the building, I receive a text from a friend. He's got a job opening that I should look at. I pop open my email, click the link and find the information on the job right then. I now know I need to head by this place once I leave the job fair.

There isn't a lot of Tech jobs in this fair, so after I'm there for a few minutes and have talked to everyone I need to, I pile into a corner to collect myself for the trek through the crowd, which is quite dense. I decide to look at twitter while I'm in a corner not being slammed around and catching my breath. I have 2 people telling me about job openings in my area in response to my comments about the job fair. I have now added 3 places to talk to and/or go about a job today. And it would not have been possible if I didn't have a smartphone.

It may seem like the phone isn't worth that money, but it's not entirely true. It can pay off in ways you don't expect. I'm not saying "run out and buy a smartphone now," but if you can afford one and want one, stop making excuses to not get one. They really are worth it.