Within the span of the weeks since I last wrote about the iPhone, its ubiquity has grown even more. Sales are through the roof. iPhones and PDAs have been used in jury trials or should I say mistrials. Half of all web mobile device traffic is conducted on iPhones. Applications are blossoming. More goodies such as the 3.0 OS are in the pipeline. Even my die-hard Verizon holdout friends have made the switch to the network that constantly drops calls.
I've settled into a comfort, perhaps even complacency, with the iPhone of late. I used to be a worrier about not being contactable. When I used to travel I used to fret about not having my laptop along. Now I could care less; I still have access to my email, news and AIM/Gtalk via the iPhone. In fact, my laptop's power supply has been broken since November and I am only now getting around to replacing it. The comfort of being enabled and connected by pulling out this amalgam of plastic, silicon, metal and glass is both a blessing and curse. Good in that you can be contacted almost always, but bad because you can almost always be contacted!
But more practical concern is that iPhone has become increasingly valuable as a repository of, well you and your information. Losing it could be costly in terms of personal information in the hands of a stranger and it can be costly in real money terms. Being a risk averse lawyer I've taken the step of having a passcode on my iPhone. At least I have a fighting chance at protecting my information. But, if an iPhone is lost or is stolen, it would cost $500 to replace it. Neither AT&T or Apple sell insurance or has a non-warranty replacement plan. Also, iPhones are not typically covered under your homeowner's insurance unless it is subject to theft or fire. So when ill befalls your iPhone who do we look to?
Recently, thanks to a targeted Facebook ad, I switched to State Farm for my car (the Good Neighbors slogan people) and found out that there is such a thing as iPhone insurance against loss or theft. Praise be State Farm.
So the logistics: State Farm sells iPhone insurance so long as it is tied to a personal effect like a laptop or something like a musical instruments (bicycles do not count sadly, but furs do apparently). The premium for my laptop and my iPhone (16 GB) was $35 a year. It makes sense that someone is finally selling iPhone insurance because they are everywhere. It must also be a good market sector to get into - the moral hazard is relatively low now because of people are used to safeguarding their iPhones, lest they have to bear the costs of replacing it. Now, there's one less thing to worry about. Hope I'll never have to use it.
One of the inherent risks of having an iPhone will necessarily mean that you will become a de facto sales rep for Apple.
It's not uncommon for co-workers, non-iPhone-laden friends or strangers asking to 'see' your iPhone. "See?" Is that the right word? No, perhaps play and fool around with your iPhone is a better description as you can plainly see an iPhone, but these people clearly want to touch it to believe it as the Apple ads direct them to do. It happens to me enough to make me feel like a roving iPhone sales rep. Steve Jobs should cut me a check! (Note: store credits will not suffice!)
Anyway, I typically oblige and don't mind showing people the iPhone. My first thought usually focuses around potential theft: it's not like they're going to run off with it, and if they do, I'm pretty sure I can catch them. But, my second thought I have as soon as the iPhone actually leaves my hand, is: what is exactly pulled up on my iPhone? What was that site was I just looking at? What was that last SMS text message I just got? What if that message was from that special somebody (or somebodies?) What was the last picture I just took? What was that email I just got? Not realizing what these may be, I usually quickly exclaim to people not to look at my SMS text messages and/or email. But these are the touted features of the dang thing, so usually, I'm a little more tactful about it and offer to give the would-be gawker a "guided tour" of the iPhone and its features. If I'm not lucky enough to get the iPhone back I nervously wait.
I suppose this is part and parcel to why having a passcode on your iPhone is a good idea. I've talked about this idea before and, now note, that having the passcode is a pain in the a** sometimes especially if you're listening to the iPhone's iPod and want to change songs, or rapidly respond to a SMS text message. But here, it's a little different. I doubt that you're carrying around state secrets on your iPhone (corporate data may be another matter) and here, you're not worried about your iPhone falling into the wrong hands. But what I'm talking about here is that the "enquiring minds want to know" mentality. My friends with iPhones have observed the same thing too. If we were famous, our iPhones might be a paparazzi partisan's dream. The New York Times even wrote an article about this notion in general in an article about spying spouses snooping on their significant other's computers.
All of this perhaps makes the "restore" function even more appealing. Wiping out the iPhone's memory all away may be nice because of the very public nature of a device like an iPhone containing private personal information that you might want to keep away from would-be looky-loos.
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