First 6 Months as an iDevice Owner

This rules. I drafted this post when I was sitting in a portable photography hide last night, watching some bait, hoping for a Common Buzzard to come visiting. This wasn’t a realistic option 6 months ago when I could lug along a heavy laptop with 3G access or my useless Windows Mobile 6 phone.

I lost it with that phone last year when trying to set the alarm to wake me up for an early flight. The LG shell would cause the interface to “bounce” whenever you pressed a putting with the stylus. No button press s recognised. As a result, the screen broke with a stylus point shaped impact point.

I blogged before that I chose the iPhone after trying it and a Samsung Android phone. I quickly found myself hooked on a few apps and web access. I was commuting on the train every day for 3 hours a day so I installed the then available VLC viewer and then started watching TechEd presentations,movies, and TV shows. Stuff I was missing because I was busy now filled in that dead time on the train.

Then last January I found myself in a hide in Norway, sitting there 7 hours a day, waiting for those few minutes when a Golden Eagle would land at the bait before my lens. I had no Internet access up in the mountains and the data roaming fees would have killed me. But I had installed the Kindle app on the phone and was reading books all day long while spying out the tiny window of the hide. Now I had a new use for the phone. I could quickly get books and read when I found myself with some spare time.

I was staying in Bellevue WA for the MVP summit in March. I decided to wander over to the Microsoft and Apple stores to have a look. I’d decided that I’d repeat this process with tablets. Here’s why.

In December I was at a MVP get together in Reading UK and was taking notes on my netbook. The batter dies half way through the event and I had to fall back to pen and paper. Let’s be honest … Those notes would go nowhere. My neighbour, fellow VM MVP Mark Wilson, counted tapping away on his iPad with batter to spare by the end of the day. Damn!

So I had a quick look at the demo iPads and bought one. The process was a dream. My credit card was associated with my iTunes account. They swiped it and activated the iPad in the store. They disposed of the trash for me. I walked out with my iPad in my laptop bag and was using it in a bar 10 minutes later. The following day I had Evernote installed for note taking and worked away all day without concern for battery life. Sweet!

The second day was funny. The iPad2 was being launched. And Ben Armstrong, Hyper-V PM and fellow geek, had a good time laughing at me for buying an iPad 1 that week. But I did save quite a bit by buying in the USA instead of Ireland, and the 2 would be out when I was over there.

I returned home. The iPad became my primary easy of reading books. Games were installed. It replaced my iPhone for viewing movies and TV shows using VLC. It also became my “couch computer” … A way to browse and read online without lugging a laptop around.

Now I found myself in the car quite a bit. I’m also facing increased time on the road. Radio is tiresome, always moaning about the same things or playing the same 10 songs over and over. I discovered podcasts. I have an FM transmitter for my iPhone and have the car radio tuned into it. I have a smart playlist set up for everything and another set up for NFL news. Now those hour long drives fly by while listening to ESPN Mike and Mike or Paul Thurrot. Yes, I have a MSFT podcast subscription but it’s a little light for my tastes.

I also now use the iPad as my portable portfolio. I have a “best of” photo folder that syncs with both it and the iPhone so I can quickly show people my best photography.

Everything is not perfect of course. I’d like more openness for data transfer and clean up. I’m used to that on the PC. And spell checking can be a nightmare too. As can accurately placing a cursor while correcting typos.

The recent update to IOS gives me the ability to tether the iPad to the iPhone to access the Internet. That useful because I maintain my single account and have access on the bigger device when required using the personal hotspot. So I write this, in a wasteland area, waiting for a bird of prey to land, making use of my down time.

I’ve just installed an app for a photography magazine. My first issue is downloading now. I can read that magazine as soon as it is published, without travelling to a newsagents, and without having to consume paper. Not to mention that it will reduce the cost of purchasing it. This is handy; I’ll be spending a lot more time going to meetings soon and I like to be early. I tend to read if I am early and I can pick up a magazine or read something on Kindle at the drop of a hat while sitting in the car or a nearby cafe.

Technology rocks!