How the Iphone becomes an extension of a person

Steve Jobs, CEO Apple holding an Iphone

I was lucky to be among the first few people in Uganda to own a mobile phone. I got myself connected in 1996 when Celtel (the then only mobile service provider) was not even a year old. What delayed me was the cost of the hand pieces at Celtel. They were damn expensive. I waited until I got myself a moderately smaller set from Dubai at a much cheaper price. Over the years I have owned different Nokia sets, until I decided to acquire a personal digital assistant (PDA) instead of a regular handset. I have actually owned 2 HTCs since then.

When the Iphone launched, I did not expect it to be a threat to existing PDAs. I even laughed it off when they claimed to have a touch screen, yet the LG and HTC had one already. Peer pressure led me to try it out. I had it for a long time just as a regular phone because I was too busy to study it in details. Then I visited a friend of mine in Utrecht and Voila…took a few lessons.

Apple claims the Iphone has over 100,000 applications compared to its nearest I think is the Palm Treo with around 30,000. You don’t however; find the applications on the phone. You just have to download them. Some are free and others for sale. Applications like Facebook, dictionary, Wiki, etc are free of charge. An Iphone today comes in 8, 16 or 32 GB in black or white.

Office Products:

Calculator: The built in calculator (when held vertically) is very conventional but when in landscape mode, it becomes a scientific calculator with all the functions you need.

From my LinkedIn Iphone Group News, Apple Harmony on 24 November 2009 came up with some of those applications. http://www.appleharmony.com/the-30-essential-things-you-don%E2%80%99t-need-to-buy-if-you-own-an-iphone

Pen and paper: The embedded Notes application pre-installed on the device does the job. But, there is a nice intuitive notes application available on the Apple Store called Awesome Note that is 10 times better. Apple Harmony blogged about it: http://www.appleharmony.com/awesome-note-the-title-says-it-all

Voice recorder / memo: Some people prefer voice recording there memo’s for later review. The Voice Memo application built in the iPhone does a pretty good job with a nice GUI.

Organizer: The calendar application can synchronize with the Google calendar. It’s very easy to setup and use.

Contacts book: Remember those little contact books we use to carry around, well no more. With a few clicks here and there, add e-mail / address / home, mobile, work numbers… to your contacts. You can also sync them with Google.

Word / Excel: Quick Office an application available on the Apple Store, will allow you to create/edit word and excel documents (supports .docx and .xlsx) also view e-mail and access attachments with popular file formats including PowerPoint, PDF, iWork, HTML, PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, TIF, MP3…

Dictionary / Thesaurus: Download the free application Dictionary from the Apple Store and you will not regret it. It also includes a thesaurus.

Wireless mouse/keyboard: Air Mouse is an application available on the Apple Store that in my opinion is very useful when you give a presentation. With a single touch, your Apple device will turn into a presentation assistant by changing the slides. Of course, you can also use it as a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Media:

Digital camera: For all you photographers out there, the iPhone camera application is not a 10 Mega Pixel camera with a crazy zoom on it but it does the job.

Digital video recorder: Again, it’s not the best video recording hardware but for an all in one device the video recording capabilities the iPhone offers are excellent.

DVD player: With the iPod feature integrated, you can watch movies or your favorite TV show’s tanning on the beach while sipping on your cola or beer or on the train, bus… Note that the screen is large enough to enjoy.

MP3/CD player OR walkman: With the iPod feature on your iPhone you can tune in your favorite songs on the go. You can keep them organized by genre, artist, album,…

Navigation:

GSP navigation system: The iPhone 3G and 3GS are equipped with a GPS and there are a few GPS navigation applications available on the Apple Store that work great. I recommend using Navigon but you can also try Magellan or Tom Tom.

Map: You don’t need a map when you travel since the iPhone has Google maps integrated that work wonderfully with the GPS function. View maps in map, satellite or hybrid options.

Storage device:

USB key: Everything is about cloud computing these days. Let’s face it; the information on a USB key can get corrupted. Introducing DropBox, available on the Apple Store, this application provides you with an online repository you can use to backup and archive data or synchronize data between multiple computers. You get a free account that provides you with 2GB of storage capacity. The service is accessible through a Web browser so you can get access to files as long as you have Internet access and a Web browser.

Misc. stuff used everyday:

Weather Channel on TV: You don’t have to turn on the weather channel anymore since the iPhone’s weather application works extremely well. The service is provided by Yahoo! and you can configure to have your favorite countries listed.

Watch / Alarm clock: The iPhone like any other phone will display the time and also has the function of an alarm clock including snooze for all you sleepy heads.

Flashlight / Currency converter / Ruler / Tip Calculator / Unit converter: Another must have application is AppBoxPro. This application includes has a lot of interesting features but the ones most used are the flashlight, currency converter, tip calculator, ruler a unit converter. So it’s a nice all-in-one app.

Cookbook: There are several cookbook applications available on the Apple Store that will suite to anyone’s taste.

Cocktail recipe book: You’re throwing a party at your house and want to spice it up by serving cocktails, but never attended Bartending School. Worry no more, download the “Mixologist “application from the Apple Store and amaze your friends. Cheers mate!

Construction:

Plumb bob / surface level / bubble level bar: Not all of us own fancy tools that we will use a couple of times and let it sit in the garage to collect dust. Download the iHandy Carpenter application from the Apple Store that includes a plumb bob (the easiest way for you to verify the verticality of lines or walls), a surface level (the best tool to level any flat surface), a bubble level bar and many more useful tools at your fingertips.

Travel:

Translator: A language translator is an essential utility for all your business trips or holidays. Linguo, available also on the Apple Store is a general language translation application that supports 15 languages with dictionary type translations.