What’s in Your Pocket, Simon Mackie?

By Aug. 17, 2009, 2:08pm PT 3 Comments

My mobile device of choice is the iPhone 3G. I’m still very much in love with it almost a year after I first got it. For a web worker, it’s an amazing productivity-boosting tool that gives me the ability to stay connected, and even do useful work, while I’m on the road and away from my laptop.

I was actually quite skeptical of the iPhone’s usefulness in the real world, believing it to be more of an expensive toy, but my opinion changed as soon as I started using one. The device is so well-designed that it’s a real pleasure to use  — I haven’t said that of any gadget in a long time. Being based in the U.K. means that my carrier is O2, so I have pretty good network coverage — I’m not sure that my opinion of the phone would be the same if I were based in the U.S. and tied to AT&T. Most important to me, though, is the great ecosystem of apps that make the iPhone a truly portable web-working machine.

I actually use only a small number of apps on my phone on a regular basis, but those that I do use enable me to deal with a large portion of my work while I’m away from my laptop — it’s certainly good enough to deal with most emergencies when I’m on the road. The apps I use regularly are:

  • Safari
  • Skype – A really well-designed mobile VoIP app that just works.
  • Read It Later – This is a great little app, and perfect for train journeys — I can mark useful things to read on my laptop during the day. Then, before heading out, I just make sure the app is synced and I can read them on my phone while on the train.
  • Gmail Tasks – This isn’t an app, as such, just a home screen link to the web app, but it’s important for me to be able to access my GTD system on the road.
  • TweetDeck – A sleek-looking and full-functioned, although somewhat crash-prone, app that allows me to sustain my Twitter addiction while on the road.
  • WordPress – Allows me to keep tabs on WebWorkerDaily while I’m away from my laptop. (Disclaimer: Automattic is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.)

I’ll upgrade to a 3GS as soon as I get the option on this contract. While the new features and extra speed are great, they’re not worth paying through the nose for.

James Kendrick: This guest post was graciously written by Simon Mackie, the editor of our sister site WebWorkerDaily.

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