A dead iPhone is better than an iPod Touch

Liz is an iPhone addict, or she would be an iPhone addict if she had an iPhone of her own. She’s the child most likely to stand beside of my desk playing with the apps. She’s the child most likely to dial @LisaStone’s phone number by mistake because she’s trying to figure out how all of the features work. She’s the child who is dying for an iPod Touch because she loves my iPhone so much.

We almost bought her one last Christmas. We thought about buying her one for her birthday. We probably would have bought her one this Christmas but she said she was saving her money to buy one of her own so… more power to her, we could support that.

But fate stepped in and presented @thatwoman with a broken iPhone. Broken just enough that she needs a replacement phone but not enough that she should just throw the old one away. The only thing wrong with TW’s phone is that the touchscreen doesn’t work in one pretty important area.

Picture the iPhone’s keypad. Picture yourself dialing into a conference call and being asked to type in the passcode followed by the # sign. Oops – can’t dial the #. Or the * or the 0. That entire strip of the phone is a dead zone. It either doesn’t DO anything if you tap it or it gives an error.

So, TW has a new iPhone 3gs (hey! North is that way! has been heard several times in the last 24 hours) and Liz has something much better than an iPod Touch. She has a de-activated iPhone. Which means she has everything that the iPod Touch has except she also has a camera – and of course she has a wee bit of a deadzone in the touchscreen but she’s come up with interesting ways around that. She’s smart – and she’s thrilled with her new toy. (I’m also thrilled because she has not walked away with my iPhone all day. And my iPhone screen is much, muich cleaner than it usually is.)