Was a bit disappointed a few weeks ago when Apple announced the iPad. Was a bit underwhelmed. I have an iMac that is my primary email, web surfing, twitter, and hulu.com machine. I also have an iPod Touch (or an iTouchMyself as a friend calls it). So I am somewhat of a Mac fan (I am also a huge Microsoft and Windows fan - my work is on Windows machines, plus I think Windows 7 is great). I was hoping to hear from Apple that they were opening up the iPhone to different carriers (in particular, Verizon Wireless) but that didn't happen. So I am stuck with my Verizon cheapo phone and my iTouchMyself on WiFi which works for me.

Have had the cheapest phone that Verizon sold for a couple of years. My contract was up for renewal. Verizon reminded me almost daily via emails and snail mailings that I should renew my contract and get a new phone for free or really cheap. My old phone could take pictures but I couldn't transfer them to my Mac/PC (no USB port). So I went into the local Verizon store to ask about cheapo phones with cameras and USB port. I explicitly asked and re-asked if the camera phone supported downloading pictures to my PC via USB cable - the salesguy repeatedly answered "yes". Of course they tried to upsale me, but I stuck to my guns and bought a LG VX5500 which with the contract renewal rebate I will get for free. The LG VX5500 is a no-frills phone with a 1 mexapixel camera with a mini-USB port. They tried to also sell me a USB cable but it was like $20. I declined. I went on Amazon and bought a set that included USB cable, wall charger, car charger, and protective case for $5 including shipping (isn't Amazon just grand?).

Then the problems started. And the frustration level started to rise. I could connect the LG VX5500 to my Mac and had visibility of the phone through the System Profiler utility. But it wasn't accessible through Finder. I mistakenly thought that it would behave like an SD card and allow me to download photos. Definite frustration. Did research on web. On LG's site. On Verizon's site. On the plethora of cell phone sites. Vented at friends. Contacted customer service. Nothing helped solve problem. Made decision to return phone, go back to old phone, cancel new contract, and go back to month to month.

Then I took a chill pill. I realized that I wasn't the only person experiencing this frustration. A phone with a mini-USB port. A phone that I can see on my Mac in System Profiler. There are some smart people in this world. There has got to be a piece of software out there that solves this problem. Fairly quickly I found a solution: DataPilot. I bought the Mac version, downloaded and installed the software, downloaded and installed the update, and tested. Works great! Can easily move photos from phone to Mac. Slow and photo quality is not great but I am happy!

I am probably violating Verizon's agreement is some way... whatever. Verizon's salesperson shouldn't have told me that I could download photos to my PC/Mac. I really like Verizon's service. I really like Verizon's customer service - usually. If you guys get the iPhone, I am there! I recommend Verizon Wireless to anyone.