Some things are just critical for life on tour. For me, my iPhone is one of them. One night in Cincinnati I plugged my iPhone into a socket, but it wouldn’t charge. I plugged it into my netbook—nothing. I tried a different cable—still nothing. To my dismay, I discovered it was refusing to charge because several pin connectors in the iPhone were bent, and all hope seemed lost.

Panic set in as I began to worry about surviving the rest of tour without an iPhone. “What's going to wake me up in the morning? Where am I going to store all my notes? It's gonna be over for me during long bus rides...” As if to spite me, my iPhone sneered: “10% battery remaining.”

That's when I realised I had developed IDS, or iPhone Dependency Syndrome. I relied on it for so many things—even simple things like checking the date and time. It's become so useful that it's almost indispensable. Losing it now seemed to throw everything into disarray.

Why was I so dependent? Pondering this question, I found that the main reason was convenience. I used to think how great it would be if I had an all-in-one device for listening to music, watching videos, and reading books. The advent of the iPod Touch made that possible, and the birth of the iPhone and App Store opened many more possibilities. 

We’re often seen wearing earphones, iPod/iPhone in hand, dancing to music or mimicking movements from dance videos. We fill up our devices with videos from various dance competitions so we can watch them over and over again. iDevices have become indispensible companions for us dancers, I think Seron would agree.

Convenience, portability and versatility make iDevices ideal for tour. For example:

• It's an on-hand currency and measurement converter, which is essential when we’re country-hopping.

• It's my bedside alarm clock. A bonus is that I can choose to wake up to gentle music instead of the loud and annoying BEEP BEEP BEEP of traditional alarm clocks.

• I use an app that records all my expenses during tour. Feeling bad about overspending = motivation to be thrifty.

• It's an all-in-one reference tool. I have a Chinese dictionary, an English dictionary, a Chinese-English dictionary, a translator for everything else, and an offline version of Wikipedia.

• It's handy for quick photos, and the LED light doubles as an emergency flashlight.

• It stores my news feeds, such as The Epoch Times' coverage on our performances and audience reviews.

• I compose most of my blogs on the iPhone during all-day bus rides.

The only thing that I can't do is make phone calls. Yes, I know what you're thinking. I decided iPhone plans were too expensive, so I got myself a dumbphone—just a simple cell phone—for making calls. Consequently, I was left with a fat iPod Touch with bigger speakers. And those bigger speakers have proved to be useful for dance.

Losing my iPhone in the middle of tour seemed disastrous. In an act of desperation, I grabbed a pair of tweezers and tried to straighten the mangled pins in the connector. I broke two of the fragile things, but managed to straighten one. Hoping against all hope, I slowly plugged the iPhone cable in. The iPhone responded with a “beep!” followed by a battery icon. I wiped the sweat off my brow—I was saved.

Thinking back to my operation makes me wonder: what if it didn't work? Would I have survived without an iPhone? Probably, though it would've been highly inconvenient. But at least I'd still be able to make phone calls.

March 7, 2012