Category Archive

I did it, I caved and I got myself an iphone.

Oh how wonderful it always is at the start…our love affair is only 10 days old and already I don’t think I shall be able to live without it. I imagine holidays with just me and my iphone, it suggesting places to eat and things to do (foursquare). I sleep with it and it tells me how rested I am (sleepcycle). It suggests things to watch on tv, what the news of the day is, where I am, where the nearest (insert google map search here) is, and how I can get to it from where I am.  As a friend pointed out last week- “it is like a remote control for life”.

I’m sure the affair will soon turn sour, in time I will hate its presence, wish it ill and covet a newer model, but for now life is good with my iphone 3GS.

I did have an ipod touch for the last year or two, which was brilliant when travelling and was a handy way to get used to some of the apps. I hadn’t wanted an iphone for fear of phone bills on the one hand, but also of being permanently connected. I already live most of my life online so it seemed like a good idea not to have 24/7 access. In the past year I’ve started working for myself though which has changed things. A good portion of the work is with musicians and musical types that don’t keep to the 9-5, so this constant connection is a great thing for managing my time, and for managing my workload while I’m on the road.  I predict iphone free holidays becoming a big thing in the future however…

Most used apps so far:

TweetDeck- same as desktop one, use it many many times a day. Like that you can have as many columns for searches/multiple twitter accounts as you like.

FourSquare - increasingly useful as more people join up and map/leave tips.  Bit of a struggle in Sligo, but handy in Dublin and further afield. Potential for stalker fear is high, but usefulness outweighs that at the mo. Just downloaded new 4sq based kid on the block: kickball.

Google Maps. Found myself witha  flashing petrol light and no clue where the nearest station was. Cue geolocator and search for “petrol station” nearby. Brilliant.

SleepCycle- scarily addictive. Maps your sleep patterns and creates a graph of how time you were in Deep v’s dreaming sleep. Wakes you at a time best suited to your sleep cycle too.  Amazing. I expect to never wake out of a deep sleep feeling groggy ever again.

Hisptomatic - kick ass retro camera for your ipod, with choice of lenses, film and flash. Retrotastic images result. Worth the money.

ENews! - american gossip direct. Would prefer TMZ but can’t get it in the irish store- booo

Facebook- almost forgot this didn’t automatically ship with the phone given how much a fabric of my day-to-day it is.

Dropbox- already a major Dropbox fan on the desktop so this is one step better. Like your own personal shared server on the go. A must for project workers and free free free.

Just downloaded the Soundcloud app….lets you stream playlists and tracks on the go. Reckon it’s going to pretty damn useful, especially with Domino leading the way for full new releases to be made available on this platform- e.g the recent She and Him vol 2

And of course the music, mail, notes and what not are good too, but they’re a given.

Any others I should know about?

Update

A Few more good ‘uns I’ve found of late

AudioBoo (via @jonathangrimes) Great piece of kit for recording short interviews, field recordings, audio samples and uploading them online

Footsteps - new one on me but seems like a good pedometer on the first few tries. You can get a free version to test it out and then upgrade to the paid one for 79c.  It counts steps, distance, walking and running, calories burned etc.  Has a link back to the music player too.

Abikenow – great Dublin bikes app- check what stands have spots/bikes on the go.

Irish Taxi - Not used it much as yet but good for anyone on the road a lot- locates taxi companies in your area from gps and has a “call now” button.