I recently experienced a momentous event in my tech life. After several decades of hard work in the PC world, I went out and bought an Apple iPhone!

You have to understand the depth of my hatred for all things Apple. It probably comes from the early days of the PC when Steve Jobs and Bill Gates squabbled over the future of the personal computer. Yes, I was there, deep down. I never thought I would, but low and lo and behold I did my due diligence and came to the conclusion that an iPhone could cost a little less than my Blackberry and would have more apps that could improve my life (or so I told you myself when justifying the purchase). The monthly cost plus the enterprise data plan (required on both phones) was a few dollars less for the iPhone.

So on Friday I picked up the iPhone, charged it up, and started learning a whole new operating system and way of doing things. As I’ve always heard, the Apple device was very intuitive and I was able to move through the standard apps in no time.

One of the biggest challenges I feared was linking my email to my work email account. I assumed I would be without an attached email system for the weekend. I had told our email guru in my IT department that I would bring it in on Monday to set up my linked email. In the meantime, I googled some instructions and decided to try setting it up on my own. It took me about 5 minutes and I had my Exchange email, calendars, and contacts loading onto my new iPhone. I was dumbfounded, it was too easy. The only information I needed for the configuration was the same information that I used for Microsoft Outlook Web Access.

The next challenge was getting iTunes. I had downloaded it to my PC at home, but had never signed up for the service. I also refused to take the iTunes updates that seemed to arrive every week. IPhone uses iTunes to manage firmware, operating system, and other basic iPhone updates. At the same time, Apple wraps this simple update utility in a nifty marketing scheme to sell me music and videos. So now I am hooked on iTunes. I haven’t bought any music yet, but it’s only a matter of time until they suck me in with their greedy little grip. The only bummer I’ve seen so far is that your Calendar app doesn’t have a weekly view (daily and monthly only).

iTunes is also used to offer free and paid applications for the iPhone. Another clever marketing idea. Those Apple folks never miss a chance to take some of your money. I started downloading some of the free apps that I had heard of and was very impressed with the methodology and speed of delivery.

I downloaded several of the apps starting with Urbanspoon, a strange little app that uses GPS coordinates (from the iPhone, a standard feature) to list restaurants and eating establishments near me. If you’re like me and my wife, we can never figure out where we want to eat out. With Urbanspoon I can shake the iPhone (yes, shake it, like shaking it with my fist) and the wheels on the screen spin like a slot machine and stop at a restaurant near us. Something like Russian roulette for food. I know it’s weird, but I like it and it works great.

The next app I downloaded (also free) was a Kindle book reader for iPhone. I have a Kindle that I use for technical reading and other books, so I found it interesting. The screen is a bit small compared to the Kindle, but it was very readable in landscape mode. If you download the same book you have on your Kindle, the good news is that the Kindle app on your iPhone tracks with your Amazon Kindle device which page you are reading. An amazing new use of new technology.

I could go on and on about the apps I’ve downloaded so far, like iHandy Level, which places a spirit level on the iPhone to help hang photos, a banking app that helps find the closest ATM and allows me to bank online. on the move, and TV.com, an application that allows you to watch CBS videos (both shorts such as David Letterman’s monologue and full reports from CSI Miami). Some of the videos have a fee associated with them. I think I see what’s going on here, everyone wants my money.

So now, here I am extolling the virtues of an Apple iPhone to millions of readers (well, maybe a couple of readers) who think Apple has been around forever.