trendpreneur

It’s been nearly two weeks since I acquired my shiny little friend, and I have to say life’s definitely quite exciting on the other side. I’d missed having unmetered, reasonably fast Internet access in my pocket and the iPhone adds layers of convenience to that.

After carefully adding more Gmail filters to make sure it didn’t go off all the time, the regular email-checking is definitely useful, although processing a large amount of email can get quite unwieldy and I leave the bulk of the work to do while at my desktop. The ability to go for a walk, get completely lost and then pull out the iPhone to see a handy dot on the map is pretty amazing; I know it’s not exactly new and unique, but last time I got lost with nowt but a mobile phone on me, it took me about twenty minutes and half my battery to figure out where I meant to be. I look forward to trying the maps and GPS function out in less familiar territory.

One important factor for me is that I feel comfortable using it in public in a way I never did squinting at my Nokia. I’m somehow quite happy to pull up a web browser in a shop and quickly check the online price of something, or grab the web page I was viewing at home for final confirmation of my destination. This doesn’t always work, mind, as some sites redirect you to their mobile versions when the phone could cope perfectly well with the full thing…

There’s a lot of play potential too; I’ve been messing around a bit with a photo-editing application, making music, taking part in a RPG and catching up on some TV shows in bed. I’ve been Twittering and checking Facebook via their custom apps, and recently installed the extremely dangerous eBay application, which I can use to spend even more money. From a consumer point of view, that’s a downside to the micropayment approach the iTunes store offers — it’s oh-so-easy to blow much more money than you intended simply because it’s taken off in smaller chunks. Apple and the developers are laughing, though.

It’s going to be interesting coping abroad without this permanent wire into the ‘net; thank goodness for free wi-fi, something my N95 never really got the hang of. Already I can find myself thinking about things with the iPhone in mind when I’m out and about, whether it’s wondering whether to twitter an event or photographing a funny sign. It’s easier to keep track of things that I might use for inspiration or work later, as I can note them down, take a photo and so on, and I’m still investigating more productivity-based apps (they aren’t necessarily the top 10, but I’m trying an expense tracker that might prove invaluable). 

Buying the iPhone was definitely a purchase decision I commend myself for, although since my old phone was unreliable with slow and expensive Internet access, the leap is predictable; however, I daresay I would have done it even if I’d had a decent phone and provider.