iWant

It is that time of year again when the leaves begin to turn orange and brown, the weather cools down, pumpkin spice is everywhere and Apple releases their new iphone. Like Pavlov's dog, our inner consumer cannot help itself and we are eager to buy, buy, buy!

How can one not be impressed though? The iphone is one of our most advanced products and the fact that Apple has been able to get them into so many people's hands is amazing. I remember when having a Gameboy was a big deal and that system was very advanced. But enough of the obvious, we all know technology is advancing at a rapid pace and all we can really do is try and keep up....I'm sure there's an app for that.

My intent with this blog is not to villianize or praise consumerism, nor Apple or its products, but to touch on how advertising affects us and also to talk a bit about the new iphone.

In my opinion, with social media, digital streaming platforms and word of mouth, news of product releases now travels to more people faster than ever. Even for those who couldn't care less that Apple or Samsung or McDonald's released a new product; even those people cannot escape knowing that a new product exists.

I will say that it is nice to hear conversations about technology that are not immediately being tied to politics. Granted, there are still some who will try and connect those dots, but overall, I feel there is mainly excitement in the air with this newest iphone 12 family of smart phones.

I've already had several extensive conversations with colleagues about its features and the various sizes each model comes in. Listening to everyone's opinions has been entertaining and depending on how much folks want to spend, combined with the physical size of the phone seem to be people's driving factors on weather or not they want to upgrade and if they do, which model they want.

I for one want the iphone 12 Pro Max. Yeah, it's a mouth full, but also a handful! The device is quite large, something close to the iphone 7 plus and iphone 8 plus sizes. I currently have the iphone-X so it is smaller that all of the afore mentioned devices, so I am a bit reserved about how I'm going to adjust to having the larger device again. On the flip side, there are so many features that I'm looking forward to on this new phone.

My most anticipated feature is the camera. It's ability to take photos in the dark and low light will be a great advantage for me and frankly, save so many moments that I would have otherwise missed out on. They have also greatly improved the video and stabilization feature when zooming and a time-lapse mode for nighttime shots. All of these are features I will use and cannot wait to try them all out.

How do we get ourselves into this, wrapped up in excitement, or dismay, each fall season. We all know it's coming, perhaps year to year I don't care as much, but once you get past year 3 or 4, then you begin assessing your current phone and wonder, is this the year I upgrade? Then we sit and sip our pumpkin spice latte and watch Tim Cook and the rest of the Apple team tell us about the features, how sustainable they are and when they're coming out and how much it's gonna cost us.

Kudos to Apple though. I recall when GPS was first introduced into a cell phone. I remember thinking how stupid it was. Keep this in context, each MB of data cost you 10 cents, and the screens were small and difficult to see and very pixelated. So for my comment at the time, it really was true in terms of its real life application for the everyday person. Fast forward to today, the screens are large, crystal clear, the data is essentially free since most of us pay for enough in our monthly plans that we're not counting how much we use and the maps themselves are far more accurate than they were 20 years ago.

Apple was not the first company to use GPS, but they definitely improved it and in my opinion own it and the smart phone as a whole, which they were the first to introduce. Our lives have never been the same since then.

I use my phone every single day. Even when at my families cabin where there is no cellular reception, I still use my iphone as a camera or to watch downloaded videos. I play games, pay bills, buy groceries, surf the web, film and talk and text. This device truly is quite special and something to be marveled at. I would venture a guess, that at this point in time, most of us take it for granted, but it is truly an amazing invention; and although the grumpy side of me wants to complain about some aspects of it, I do believe we're better off for having it in our lives. Staying connected is very important and this device checks that box and then some. A pock-sized device that has more computing power than the original computers that NASA used to send a man to the moon....wow!

I think the bite in Apple's logo is not from Adam, but represents all of us. We took the bite, now we're all invested, like it or not.