In which a
smartworker continues his relationship...
I’ve been living with my iPhone for a couple of months now and I can’t imagine how I could go back to a ‘normal’ mobile phone again. Every now and then someone asks me about it and I have to remember why I like it, what makes it different, and why they (the person asking the question) might find it useful. Why do I forget? Because the iPhone does everything so elegantly that it feels like phones were always meant to be like this. The iPhone is so good at what it does it feels normal while everything else is archaic. This is partly down to the excellent touch screen interface but also because of the excellent interface design – everything feels so natural.
So what are the highpoints?
The calendar is wonderful and syncs beautifully with Outlook. Texting on an iPhone is a joy (my partner can’t keep up with my messages and I’m a guy). The e-mail works really well but I generally leave it off (most of the time I don’t need e-mails on my phone) – the ability to use multiple e-mail accounts and turn them on/off easily is also a really great feature of the iPhone. The GPS and Google maps and satellite photos are amazing. One slight problem is that sometimes you can get one but not the other. On a walk on Dartmoor I got great GPS but no map. In some very built up areas you can get the maps but not always good GPS. However the iPhone has been brilliant at getting me to new client meetings in a wide range of UK cities. Coverage in London is great and the iPhone is excellent for street level navigation once you emerge from the tube station.
The downloadable applications really extend the functionality of the iPhone – providing you choose apps that are ‘smart’ not a complete waste of time. I am currently using:
Evernote – Great online synchronised note taking app which also runs on all my PCs.
Mecrets – Secure vault for all that confidential data (especially useful for web logins).
Things – A to do list manager that works with David Allen’s GTD system (full review in another article on Smartworking).
SpeakEasy – Really intuitive voice recorder (great for note taking while driving).
Entertainment wise the iPhone is also pretty impressive. I’m not a gamer but have downloaded some simple but excellent games including:
Snowboard – Whizz down a slope getting air on the jumps.
Fastlane – An arcade style car racing game with excellent graphics.
VirualPool – Makes great use of the touch screen gesture interface.
Flick Bowling – Also makes great use of the touch screen gesture interface.
Labyrinth – Navigate a metal ball around a wood maze (hi-tech ape’s low tech).
The following story illustrates nicely how useful the iPhone can be.
“I was in Central London between meetings and decided to see if I could get some special tea that my partner likes. While sat in Carluccio’s restaurant in Kensington I searched for Tea Pigs on the phone’s Safari browser. I found a shop that sold the tea on the Tea Pigs web site. I then entered the postcode into the Maps application. The shop was about a mile away. I decided to walk since it was a crisp but sunny Winter’s day. Once I was outside the restaurant I turned on the GPS and selected ‘guidance for walking’. Fifteen minutes later I had the Tea Pigs teabags. Was my partner pleased – of course she was but not so impressed by the iPhone aided search as I was!”
