Must Have This: Poll

We must, first and foremost, apologize for our less than regular attention to this blog in the past few days. A number of large, schedule-altering changes occurred in very short order and, combined, presented us with very little time and energy to do much other than those particular obligations and sleep. We express our gratitude with your patience.

Another major event of the last few days (aside from, say, President Obama's State of the Union address (go here for the complete speech with some marvelous graphics to illustrate the President's points) on Tuesday) was the unfortunate demise of our device, a mostly-reliable but occasionally belligerent iPhone by the name of Ian.

Whilst watching the State of the Union, we set Ian on the arm of the sofa upon which we were sitting (and eating pizza and drinking beer, we'll have you know- we do appreciate the simple pleasures). Unfortunately for Ian, we tend to fidgit on occasion, and on such an occasion, our hand brushed against said arm of said sofa. Or rather, the device sitting on the arm of said sofa. Down, down went Ian where it crashed into the very cold, very hard tile floor.

Now at this point, we should mention that, while we do generally avoid throwing them, phones in our possession are, shall we say, well used. We take our phone everywhere- gym, work, bars, concerts, markets, you name it- and as a natural result, they occasionally get dropped. Occasionally. As in, not frequently.

So when Ian quite veritably leapt off the sofa, we were irritated, but unconcerned. Until we picked it up and flipped it over. Spidering across the touch-screen surface was a huge crack. Splinters of the surface had come out and the technologic guts of the thing were visible beneath. The device still had power, but when a button was pressed, the screen went white. Ian was, essentially, in a coma after it's swan dive. (We would love to offer a picture of the damage- something sensational that we would encourage you to shield from children and those faint of heart- but unfortunately, Ian was our sole picture taking device)

And now, we are left sans technology. When we first were faced with this fact, we felt more shock than anything else. We were having a very hard time comprehending life without a smartphone.. But as the time passed and we began to realize all of the functions Ian had fulfilled, we became quite depressed.

Shaking ourself out of the depression was difficult (requiring a good dose of the Scissor Sisters and a cardio machine) but we managed some how. And now, our attention has turned to the future. More specifically, to Ian's replacement.

We must find a new device. We were pleased enough with the iphone, but the new models are so expensive, and we have no need/desire to extend our contract for another 2 years, putting it's termination sometime in the 2020's.

What should we get? What should we try? We look to you, our readers, for inspiration and guidance. We have limited knowledge of matters technological, and would love input from as many as have opinions.

We thank you in advance, and will return to our regularly-semi-scheduled posts of fantastic Must Haves shortly.