Here are the questions we asked ourselves:
- What kind of iPhone and case do you have?
- Is the iPhone a separate but equal computer for you?
- If you use the iPhone in a fundamentally different way, how so?
- Do you try to use the same apps on the iPhone as your Mac — or do you find some iPhone apps better suited to the mobile life?
- What are some of your favorite iPhone apps and what do you use them for?
Jeff Gamet, Managing Editor
My iPhone is a black 16 GB iPhone 3G with an iFrogz Luxe case. I switch to a Mophie Juice Pack when I’m at events where I need extra power to get through the day.
My iPhone is, in fact, a separate but equal computer for me. There are certain tasks that I perform only on my Mac, like editing images in Photoshop, but I see my iPhone as a pocket-sized computer that by chance also makes phone calls. My iPhone is nothing less than my office in my pocket.
When it comes to interfacing with my iPhone, sure, I use it in different ways than my MacBook Pro, but many of the tasks I do at my desk happen on my iPhone, too. I check all of my email accounts on my iPhone when I’m away from my desk, I look up the same types of information on the go, and I see it as a central communication hub — sometimes even more so than my Mac.
Some tasks, however, just need device specific versions. For example, I do most of my writing in BBEdit, and there isn’t an iPhone version of that. Tracking flights when I travel is far easier on my iPhone than on my MacBook Pro, and I can thank Flight Update for that.
To a degree I use the same apps on my iPhone and Mac. I use Mail and iCal, OmniFocus for tracking tasks, and Tweetie for managing my Twitter accounts on both. Here are my favorite apps:
- OmniFocus – Task management. Auto-syncing with the Mac version through MobileMe makes this an indispensable app for me.
- TextExpander – I use TextExpander on my Mac, and believe it or not, it’s handy on my iPhone, too. It’s compatible with Tweetie and WriteRoom, so I don’t need to jump into TextExpander to use auto-expanding snippets in those apps.
- WriteRoom – I use WriteRoom to write notes instead of Apple’s Notes application. It supports TextExpander, so that’s kind of a no-brainer for me.
- Tweetie – I like to keep up with Twitter on the go, and I really like the Tweetie 2 interface. I can keep track of multiple Twitter accounts, and the flick to load more tweets gesture is just brilliant.
- Flight Update – I use Flight Update to track my flights when I travel. Actually, I use it to track all of the TMO staff’s flights when we’re heading to big events like Macworld Expo, too. It’s always a good thing to know in advance if someone is stuck in the wrong city.
- NetNewsWire – I use NetNewsWire on my Mac and iPhone to keep up on my RSS feeds. Auto-syncing with Google Reader means I’m always up to date.
- Instapaper – I tag articles and Web pages to check later with Instapaper. I use the service on my Mac and iPhone, and the Instapaper app makes it easy for me to reference articles I’ve already tagged.
- Dropbox – The iPhone Dropbox app lets me check what’s in my Dropbox account, and I can preview many document formats, too. I often toss PDFs in my Dropbox so I can reference the content on the go. Actually, I use iDisk for document viewing, too. Both are handy apps.
Nancy Gravley, TMO Contributor
My iPhone is a black, 16 GB, iPhone 3GS. The case is a UNIEA U-Suite Intercciato Premium leather hard case, a product I recently reviewed and liked so much I adopted it for my own use.
I don’t try to use my iPhone as another Mac. I use it as a portable extension of my Mac. I have five email accounts on my phone because it is extremely important to me that I be able to read and answer messages from my family, members of our Mac users group, and business messages. I don’t send or receive any texted messages. I usually keep a pogo stylus handy for typing messages on my iPhone.
I use MobileMe for syncing although I don’t always recharge my iPhone through my Mac. Many times I plug it into my Kensington charging dock, but there are not that many changes in the information that needs to be updated.
I don’t keep any movies on my iPhone and I keep very little music. I don’t want to watch movies on that little screen and I have a great 3rd generation iPod Nano that holds all the music and audio books I want and it has a longer battery life than my iPhone. I have lots of music on my Mac, but I listen to it at home through really great speakers. I do keep a few dozen photos.
The two most valuable things on my iPhone are my address book and the NAVIGON GPS app. I love having all my address book information with me at all times. NAVIGON is the most valuable app I have. It keeps me from getting lost, which is a major issue for me. I use Dialer to quickly access phone numbers, Notes for reminders, Eye Glasses to read small print, and the App Store when someone says “check this one out”. I only have 45 apps on my iPhone and have 11.3GB free.
The app I wish would work better is Remote which lets you use your phone to operate Keynote It’s too unstable. The app I want next is WolframAlpha, but it is $49.99. Talk about being a walking encyclopedia!
Dave Hamilton, President and CEO
I use a black 32 GB iPhone 3GS with the the iFrogz Luxe case (in green!) on it 99 percent of the time.
The iPhone is a different computer for me. I use IMAP to manage my e-mail, and the iPhone gets all the stuff that comes in to my main account (but not the account I use for lists and other, more bulk, addresses). It’s somewhat of a web browser, though I don’t find the experience of browsing the web on my iPhone to be all that great. It’s better than the Treo 650 I had before it, for sure, but… not like a computer at all.
I would say the iPhone is an extension of my computer. Sort of a stripped-down, on-the-go alternative that’s good enough but certainly not a full replacement. If I’m traveling for a short trip (1-3 days) I can usually live with just the iPhone. If I’m gone longer than that or anticipate having a lot of hotel-room downtime, then I bring my 15-inch MacBook Pro with me.
Some of my apps are duplicated: Safari, Mail, Calendar, 1Password and NetNewsWire. Even for those five, though, the iPhone versions are very much stripped-down in terms of the features I need. But they suffice.
My favorite apps:
- NetNewsWire – Keeping up on RSS
- Guitar Tuner – Couldn’t live without it. Works fantastically for tuning my acoustic guitar (and obviously works for electric, too)
- Notepad — I store a LOT of stuff here and enjoy syncing it back with my Mac
- Twittelator Pro — Absolutely fantastic Twitter app. Supports Lists, multiple accounts, draft tweet storage, and even keeps a list of my most frequently-used hashtags so I don’t have to type ’em a lot.
- Geocaching — This app turns the iPhone into a full-featured, one-stop-shop, paperless geocaching solution. My wife and I both have GPS-capable iPhones, and with this app we can be anywhere and decide we want to hit a cache. Lots of fun for the whole family, and the iPhone app fundamentally changed this from a cumbersome hobby into a frivolous delight while hiking!
- Madden NFL 10 — I know some people complain about this app, but both my son and I love it. Can’t wait until multiplayer functionality comes around!
- WeatherBug — Just what you think I’d use it for, but it’s definitely one I launch daily (and moreso if we’re expecting “weather” in these here parts!)
In Part II, we’ll continue with iPhone reports from Ted Landau, Bob LeVitus and John Martellaro.