Anyone have an iPhone?

ericscher

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I haven't yet bought any type of smartphone because as interesting as they seem to be, I simply haven't needed one and I can't bring myself to buy one just to have a neat gizmo.

Having said that, I think I am likely to be offered a position where it might just be useful.

I don't want something that I have to futz around with, I just want it to work. If I end up needing to buy one I'll mainly need e-mail & web capability and it would be real nice if I could view files. Mainly Excel & Word in this situation.

I saw the propaganda for the iPhone with SIRI and I thought it looked pretty interesting. Lots of little useful things it can do for you that add up to a real convenience factor.

Does anyone around here own one or know a lot about them, who can give me an idea of how useful they are in REAL life?
 
I can't remember the last time I actually used a real PC (other than for work). I do everything from my iPhone. You'll get used to it after a while and like a cell phone itself, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
 
Or more specifically, all my emails, Internet forums, gps for boat, banking, photos/video on the go, calendars for appointments, entertainment games for my daughter, handheld flashlight, and immediate web access for those debates that arise while enjoying cocktails. That's just a few.
 
I have one as well. Know much about it? Not much. I can say its just like a real computer only smaller for me. As for viewing Excel and Word, I couldn't tell you. I will say the big drawback is the size of the screen. However, once you get used to it, its not hard to move it around to see everything.

Hope this helps.

andy
 
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Totally agree with "spinzone". I can't go or do anything without it now. Besides the phone part, the essential features for me are the calendar, always having a camera with me, email, and internet access whenever and wherever I need it. I will admit that I have spent a lot on apps most of which I no longer use (if I ever really did!) My most useful apps are WeatherBug, banking app, AwesomeNote, Kindle and iPhone readers, Boating Suite, and Words with Friends.
 
I run with it and the GPS tracks my pace and uploads it to Nike.com so I can track against my goals

I eat with it and the LIVESTRONG app tracks my nutrition and exercise and helps me maintain

I make reservations for dinner with it by using the OpenTable app

I use it to ask SIRI to remind me of something

I use it to login to work

I use it with GOTOMYPC and connect to my home PC

I use it to connect to my Slingbox and watch my TV at the house

I use it to set my fantasy football lineup

I use it to track my boat during night trips so I know exactly where the shore is at

I use it to share pictures with my wife and family when I'm out with the kids and we experience something cool

I use it to check the news and sports scores and stock prices and any other random information lookup

It's my remote control

It plays my music which is completely stored in the cloud

All my pictures for the last 10 years stored in the cloud

All my accounts can be looked up and bills paid

It's 100 other things that I don't even know because there is an extreme amount of content behind it ready to be downloaded and experienced

...oh yea, and I can make a phone call if I want but I normally don't have time for that. I hate talking on the phone.
 
OK, Butch...

You're exactly who I was hoping to run across.

The big draw for me is SIRI.

I do not know as of this moment whether I will get the position that would make this phone desirable, but if I do I will want to do the following:

  • E-mail & Web, of course.
  • Calendar & scheduling.
  • "Voice Notes" (basically I want a voice recorder instead of a pen and pad)
  • Reminders
  • Contacts
  • Opening MS Office documents

Basically, this would be a major IT refresh project involving 144+ site surveys with spreadsheets, pictures all kinds of miscellaneous data and a SLEW of contact information that all has to be tracked. I'd be looking at signing off on 20 sites a week.

I want to be able to save, store, manipulate and send any of this data to anyone I need to and I want to do as much as possible with voice commands.

In your experience with SIRI, is she up to it?
 
Eric,

I own a chain of att stores. Sounds like a Blackberry might be a better fit with push email and viewing files and attachments. PM me and I will get you in the right direction.

Will
 
Some guys at work have connected their iphones and ipads to our work network to get email and view documents. Our IT dept doesn't really like them doing that, as it supposedly is not as secure as the Blackberrys the rest of us use. By the way, I absolutely HATE my Blackberry. The screen is WAY to small for viewing documents (PDFs, etc). Sorry Red Raider, but I hope RIM goes out of business soon so we HAVE to go away from Blackberry at work.

We do a lot of contract writing, and one of my guys has complained that his iPad does NOT show document redlining in MS-Word, but other than the redlining (or blacklining, whichever you may call it) he says it works great for document viewing. Again, he uses the iPad for docs, not an iPhone. An iPad may be what you really want... It doesn't fit in your pocket, but the large screen is a major plus.

If you're going to use it a lot for web access, know that iphones and ipads do not do Adobe Flash. There are a lot of websites that have flash apps embedded, and these will NOT work on iPhones and iPads. So, if the sites you are approving use Adobe Flash, you may want to look at the Google Android operating systems on HTC phones, or other tablets. Android devices run Adobe Flash (which is maybe the one big advantage they have over Apple). Personally, we have a couple HTC Desires (smart phones) at home that run Android, and they are VERY impressive. I've not tested Word or Excel on them, as they are my wife's and daugther's phones, so someone else will have to help you out there.

Just 2 cents. Main thing is be aware of the Adobe Flash issue with Apple. If you don't need that, Apple products are top notch.
 
Well, I'm not looking to do any real web browsing in this application. Yeah, google is likely for a variety of reasons, but I think the big things are going to be e-mail with attachments that I would often need to view on the phone so as to have an answer quickly; and time/detail/contact management.
 
If you are interested in SIRI, the clip below does a good job of walking through some of the features. While I understand the need to do things on the go, editing docs is something that I would want to look at on a larger screen. No phone would be big enough for me. Since I connect to both my machine at home and our server farm at work, I can do anything on the iphone that I could do if I was sitting at my desk. Just because I can, that doesn't mean that I want to. :D

An iPad or some sort of Netbook might be a better option.

 
Butchkid said:
An iPad or some sort of Netbook might be a better option.
Well, I don't lack for either desktops or laptops, nor for screen space. The computer I'm using to type this out now is a homebuilt (Shuttle G2) with a Matrox Parhelia driving three 22" side-by-side monitors.

The main issue for me is keeping track of all the details that add up to a day.
 
I have a HTC Evo for work and an Iphone 4 for personal use. They are both great phones but hands down (for me anyways) the iphone is the better of the 2 operating systems. (apple vs. android)

The only thing i grab my HTC for over the iphone is to do a quick google search. I also have the ipad 2 and there's just no beating that for all of the things you can do with it. If you're not needing a phone to make calls then the Ipad would probably be the way to go. it's incredible enough that my wife and 4 year old daughter both have ipad2's (yes she's spoiled but not rotten LOL) If you need a phone as well then either android or iphone will have tons of apps you can download for work/productivity purposes. i would definitely give the edge to apple though. it's pretty endless with what you can do with it. it took me years to jump on the iphone bandwagon and i wish i would've done it sooner. for the record though i'm still a PC guy haha!
 
Well an iPhone will certainly do all of the things on your list and more. Here's things I use my iPhone for on the boat...

1. WindAlert App. - Forecasts the wind for the day and week. Will send a push high wind alerts.

2. Navionics App - for a map of your lake. Track your position and movement. Includes depth contours and hazard areas highlighted on the map! To be honest for $10 this is on par with the Garmin GPS capabilities.

3. Knot Time App. - Videos of how to make nautical knots of various types and applications.

4. Speedometer App - Uses GPS to display your actual speed.

5. Sailflow.com - pull up their web site for additional wind information

6. Spotify music app - $10/month to play almost any music to the stereo wirelessly via bluetooth A2DP. (Ironically using the Blackberry stereo gateway to the aux port on the stereo)

7. And of course, pull up club.benningtonmarine.com while on the water!!!
 
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