Camping with the iPhone 3G

Jack Kerouac wrote the book "On The Road" in the 1950s that made the idea of exploring America and yourself by driving cross country seem romantic.

He had a big American car, route 66, AM radio, independent motels, local restaurants, small-town country sheriffs, nicer, kinder, country people and everybody had a slower pace of life.

He did not have credit cards, fast food, a well-built and efficient interstate highway system, GPS, cell phones, XM satellite radio, extremely reliable Japanese cars, mp3 players, podcasts, email, texting or Apple iPhones.

Kerouac didn't know what he was missing but I do. Thirty plus years of newer and better technology has trained me like a dog to think that for every problem there's surely some gadget to help solve it. But I'm a romantic and I like the simplicity of Kerouac's times so I try my best to avoid gadgets for the sake of gadgets, new for the sake of new.

But with this trip I convinced myself that it was time to ditch the four year old aging cell phone with an Apple iPhone because it would overcome obstacles on this trip and truly solve problems. Not just the iPhone, but a heavy duty case, two backup batteries, and an external warranty that anticipates a racoon chewing on it or something. It was a lot of money and a bet that it would pay off.

So last night camping out under the stars in relatively rural South Carolina I put it to the test. Could I chat online with a friend several states away, from a tent, from the woods? Absolutely!

It took a little effort at first: ditching the Facebook chat app for AOL's AIM app for the iPhone and then all was well. As my battery went down, I plugged in the external battery pack I'd bought and it let me keep on chatting. No power outlet needed, thanks. And while speed typing on the iPhone's touchscreen was no where near as enjoyable as speed typing on a good keyboard, the iPhone's automatic correcting of my typing errors worked out for the best, most of the time.

Each week I find a reason to love the iPhone more. "Surprise and delight" was called "awesome!!!" when I was a teen in the 80s exploring home computers. This kind of feeling for a new product in my life is something I haven't felt in a long, long time.