Ramblings of a Mobile Mama: I Almost Bought An iPhone

I almost bought an iPhone…..seriously….I did.  My husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year and without hesitation, I answered.   We visited the Mac store…read internet reviews and talked to all of my trusty mom friends who bubbled and gushed about the functionality of the phone that does ‘everything.’  I read Twitter tweets from mompreneurs who  had turned the ‘trapped in the car with sleeping children’ scenario into a prime work opportunity.  Now when the kids fell asleep, they simply pulled out their handy dandy phones–answered emails, wrote blog posts and caught up on social networks. 

As a naptime activist (….and Chief Mom Officer here at MOMbo) I routinely find myself working at odd hours.  Late nights….early mornings.  Like most children, my two munchkins often fall asleep in the car. The thought of parking it…rolling down the window, pulling out my iPhone for two hours of uninterrupted work was enough for me take off running to the Mac store….or at least it should have been.

For some reason, though, there was a hesitation that I couldn’t shake. Was it the ‘cutting and pasting thing’….the lure of the Blackberry Storm..or was it something else entirely.  My husband loves talking on the phone….I hate it….hmmm…maybe that was it.  Whatever it was, was enough to make me hold off on purchasing an iPhone.

A couple of weeks went by……

Then……

The kids took another long nap in the car. There was work to be done…emails to answer…and there I was.  Laptop—at home….no wireless internet connection.

That was it!  I was SO getting an iPhone. 

The next day, we drove to the store.  My husband circled and circled, trying to find a parking space. We couldn’t find one.  Ha! Everyone wanted an iPhone.

Now the next bit is somewhat fuzzy….I can’t even tell you how it happened.  My husband somehow ended up talking to a friend of ours—a friend who just happens to be an amazing technophile. He mentioned something about taking me to get a phone so that I could get more work done without having to carry around kids and a laptop. He said something about an iPhone..twitter….emails….and then there was silence…..

‘Uh huh….Uh huh….yeah…Well no, not really….’

More silence….

‘Well, watching video clips….reading articles….’

Yup, more silence.

‘A netbook, eh? So, how big are they?’

And it  all just sort of went from there.

We drove away from the phone store without getting out of the car and set out to find a netbook. 

Netbooks are fully functioning laptop computers that allow you to connect to the internet anytime…anywhere. What is so incredibly ‘cool’ about them is that they are small enough to fit inside of a purse. With a 10 inch screen and normal keyboard you can literally bring your office with you….anywhere. The netbook that I ended up purchasing came with microsoft office, a media player, a built in webcam and the ability to connect to 3G or wireless. Needless to say…It had everything that I needed.  I did not have to get a new phone or change my existing mobile number.  No applications that I wouldn’t use.

So far, I am loving the ease of my new netbook. It weighs almost nothing, but performs just like our larger (and heavier) laptop. Now when the kids fall asleep in the car, I can roll down the window, pull my office out of my purse and do something productive.

 Kemi Ingram is the Creator of MOMbo TV.  She lives in California with her husband Chris and two daughters Abigail and Anna.