iPhone turns 5: How it changed us

CINCINNATI - Happy Birthday, iPhone!  In case you hadn't set a reminder on your phone, June 29, 2012 is the 5th birthday of the world-changing device.

Do you remember where you were five years ago?

I do.

I was standing outside an AT&T store in Deerfield Township, Ohio, interviewing Apple fans who were lined up outside the store for hours in the heat.
 
It was hard to understand why someone would camp outside a store for a chance to buy a "cellphone" at the time. I thought some of them were a little crazy, to be honest.

Now, it's perfectly understandable.

At the time of the iPhone's 2007 release, the Blackberry was the most advanced phone available. Nokia was the top selling phone and the coolest phone at the time was the Motorola Razr. Remember when so many people wanted that super slim flip phone? Texting was all the rage.

At the time, the iPhone was considered a luxury item for hardcore Apple fans.

Not anymore.

What the iPhone changed

The iPhone took the Internet off our desktop computers and put it in the palm of our hand. This was what critics failed to realize at the time.  It marked the start of the end of "logging in" to our desktop  PC's.

Within two years, smartphones became the hottest devices because they could keep us in touch with the world, through Google, apps, and some new social network called Facebook.

Thanks to the iPhone we now fall asleep with the Internet, wake up to the Internet and check our friend's updates numerous times throughout the day.

Millions of people play games on their phone to fill down time. Before the iPhone, there was no Angry Birds or Minecraft.

It doesn't matter if you have an iPhone, a Droid, or a Windows phone. We are now tethered to the Internet 24 hours a day, and can't imagine it any other way.

And for that reason, those kooky Apple fans standing outside the Deerfield Township AT&T stores five years ago today were not so crazy after all.

As always, don't waste your money.

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