iPhone - don't leave home without it

It's been a couple of weeks since I picked up the new iPhone 3G. It had been on my shopping list for quite a while but being a bit of a cheapskate, I decided to wait and defer the purchase for as long as possible. The good thing about holding out on your technology purchases is that the gadgets only continue to get better (of course this is traded-off against the cost of going without).

Unfortunately, or fortunately whichever way you look at it, my RAZR finally packed up while on vacation in Kiawah, S.C. I happened to be passing the Apple store in nearby Charleston and decided to pop in and just see if by chance they had any iPhones in stock. To my delight and surprise they had and so I picked one up.

I immediately put it to use to help me find the car park - using it as a GPS locator if you will (although I don't think it doesn't actually uses GPS - I believe it locates via triangulation with cell towers correction - it does actually use GPS and cell tower location technology).

Immediately, I found the user interface very intuitive. This is a major improvement over the cell phones I have used in the past. The RAZR phone had a terrible user interface. After using it for over two years, I could not identify the correct buttons to press to switch between silence/vibrate and loud ringtone. I ended up just pushing the buttons on the side until the display told me I'd finally reached my desired setting.

I have to hand it to Apple. They have created a very powerful capable device in the iPhone and have yet managed to make it's operation easier to use than less capable devices.

This past weekend, I ended up taking my Dad to an urgent care facility in Nashville to get a prescription for Diabetes meds he left back in Atlanta. After waiting 4 hours to see the doctor (we could have driven back to Atlanta in only 3.5 hours), we learned that the doctor had not heard of the medication. I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing. Out comes the iPhone and off I trot over to Google. It turns out the drug in question is not FDA approved (although it is approved in the UK). The doctor confirmed my findings after talking to a pharmacist.

Also, this past weekend we bought a new car. I did some preliminary research by tapping into edmunds.com when the salesman wasn't looking proved useful in figuring out if I had a good deal or not.

Finally, I have a terrible short term memory. I'm not very good at remembering things like where I parked the car or shopping lists. I use SpeakEasy which I use to record voice notes and reminders. Invaluable little tool.

I'm also experimenting with Evernote too as a way to organize some of the chaos - or at least make it accessible when I need it. I used it to compile and collect research for the recent car purchase. Good stuff.

The one down-side is that the battery, particularly when using 3G doesn't seem to last too long. Also, not quite sure why iTunes Store only works when connected over WiFi.

The touch-screen device seems to have just the right level of sensitivity.

All in all though, it's a very useful device.