AK Tech Girl : iPhone Envy

iPhone Envy

Posted by techgirl

Posted: August 8, 2008 - 12:06 pm

iPhone by AppleI don't have an iPhone. I know what you're thinking: "If anyone is going to have an iPhone, AK Tech Girl would be the one." My only excuse is that I still have my cellular service through Verizon, and if I were to switch to AT&T now, the penalty would be too huge to be able to actually enjoy my iPhone.

So instead, I experience constant iPhone envy. I sat next to a colleague over coffee the other day as she looked things up on her iPhone. As I watched her, the words "so cool" and "so organized" came to mind. Then I pulled out my laptop that I've been lugging around just to get online in places where I can get free wifi. And then pulled out my calendar book (yes, paper) and my mobile phone. I was starting to feel...antiquated.

I do have an iPod Touch, and I think it is an amazing piece of computer hardware. But the one thing it lacks - cellular phone service - renders it less useful than I had hoped. I had visions that just about every place I'd be would be totally wired with free wifi these days so I wouldn't miss the ubiquitous connection. But I was wrong.

Sure I can get free wifi at my local Carrs grocery store, in the parking lot across from the Clarion Hotel downtown, and in some of my favorite "satellite home offices" such as the Middleway Cafe , Coffee Cats, Superstar Pastry Design and Cafe del Mundo. But too often I find myself without the Internet connection I need at the exact moment I need it.

Then I wonder: "Is it possible to be too connected?" Is the fact that I cannot connect to the Internet at the moment I would like to do a Google search or check my email a good thing that my warped sense of connectivity is making into a bad thing? I'm afraid what the answer to that question might be so we won't go there.

Back to my iPod Touch. Just so you don't think that it is completely useless, here is how I have been using it:

1. To play podcasts when I'm driving around town. My favorites are CC Chapman's Managing the Gray and Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation for social media ideas and Grammar Girl and Get It Done Guy for helpful tips.

2. To play kids music that I download from iTunes when I'm driving my 2-year-old to daycare. She loves singing in the car so I've downloaded all the classic kids songs I can remember like "Bingo" and "The Wheels on the Bus." I even have four different versions of the "ABC" song.

3. To play video for my 2-year-old to avoid a meltdown in the car. When she gets really cranky, I play a Backyardigans or Dora the Explorer episodes that I downloaded for $1.99 apiece from iTunes or even some free Sesame Street video podcasts. She holds the iPod in her hands and is mesmerized for a little while. The soundtrack plays through my car radio using an iTrip attachment.

4. To remind me of things I need to do. I use the iCal calendar feature to set reminders so my iPod Touch buzzes 15 to 30 minutes before my next task or event.

5. To take notes. I have started typing in notes like names of books I hear about that I'd like to read or web site addresses I see somewhere when I don't have a piece of paper to jot them down.

6. To better manage my contacts. It has been years since I've used a contact database, but I've started adding in addresses and numbers for friends and family so they are literally at my fingertips.

7. To look at photos of my family. When I'm on the road - or anytime I'm thinking of my husband and daughter and am not with them, I can pull out my iPod Touch and scan through hundreds of photographs of our travels and our day-to-day life. Priceless.

All-in-all, I am getting great value from my iPod Touch. I just cringe when I realize the place where I'm at doesn't have free wifi or when all the wifi connections are password protected. It makes me feel so...disconnected.

AK Tech Girl

About me

Archive

iPhone Envy

Comments