From Blackberry to Iphone?

My phone contract comes up for renewal later this year and that means that I will get to pick a new phone around July/ August. I am currently using a 1st gen Blackberry Storm and love it. But I have a bit of a dilemma. See I’m not only up for a new phone, but I’m also in semi-desparate need for a new MP3-player. I’m still using my bulky, yet trusty Iriver H340, but since I have had it for about 5,5 years now, it is really starting to show some wear and tear. The only thing that comes even close in specs etc to replacing my well-loved H340 is Apple’s Ipod. So I was thinking: maybe, I can kill two birds with one stone?

So here’s the deal. I was thinking, that if I get an Iphone with 32 GB of storage space I should be able to combine the two: phone & player in one. I’ve been scouting out Ipods ever since I decided that I may have to replace my H340 some time sooner or later. I don’t really want to replace it, as it still works just fine, it’s just that some of the accessoires are starting to fall apart. The clip on my remote broke off a few months ago and now my docking station is starting to act up. Of course, these things are not made anymore, so getting my hands on new ones is going to be a nightmare.

When I replace it, I would either want to get an Ipod Touch with at least 32 GB of space. 64 GB would be nice, but I’ve decided that may not be necessary as I always keep about 16 – 20 GB worth of music on my current player because I’ve found that having more on it, just makes it play songs that I do not always want to hear. My second option would be the Ipod Classic, but the only advantage that has for me is that it has 160 GB of storage, but like I said above, the amount of storage space doesn’t matter, as long as I can fit 16 – 20 GB of data on it. And I could do that, with an 32 GB Iphone of course.

I’ve also been looking at Blackberries, but the only thing similar to the Storm is the Torch, but this has a retractable QWERTY key board, which looks so dinky, I just know I wouldn’t want to use that. I’ve also considered to just change my phone contract and keep my current Blackberry Storm, because it works just fine,but with myself being rather gadgetminded I actually do want to try to get a new phone. I may as well keep is as a back up.

But now I still haven’t told you WHY I think I can combine the two replacements into one nifty device. See, the thing is, that a new Ipod Touch with 32 GB of space will set me back about €300. If I get the 32 GB Iphone when I renew my contract, it will cost me €200. So I would get a new phone + a new MP3-player all in one, and it would be cheaper than actually buying a extremely similar device which main difference is the lack of a phone function. That is why I’m interested in this.

However, so far, I have strayed far aways from everything Ipod/ Iphone as I have a severe disliking for all things Itunes and I am totally not feeling the monopoly Apple is having/ trying to have. I have seen Itunes at a friend’s place, even installed it myself once or twice, but every single time I just wanted to run away screaming. So maybe some of you can ease my mine a bit and tell me about tips and tricks that would make Itunes work for me. My main fear is having to recategorize/ rename all of my music files since I would have to categorize everything in Itunes for it to show up on my Iphone. I now use WinAmp to do that and all I have to do is switch off some tags, which takes literally seconds.

Another fear of mine is that I listen to music on my player at least 3 hours a day. Now, I am clueless when it comes to battery lives on Iphones & Ipods, but I’m pretty sure that if I’m listening to 3 hours of music + it’s got its Internet switched on AND I make the occasional phone call that the battery won’t even last me half a day. My Blackberry lasts about a day on a full charge with the Internet turned on and e-mails coming in at regular intervals.  So for those of you Iphone experts: I need your advice. How long does the battery last? How user-friendly do you think Itunes is? And is there a way to go around having to redo everything in Itunes so the information about songs will show up correctly on the device?