iPhone: not a toy
Yes, I was one of the folks who camped out all-day for an iPhone, and since then I’ve received plenty of ribbing from friends about my “new toy” and early adopter habit. But the thing is, I didn’t buy the phone because it was fun and nifty (it is). I bought the iPhone because it was something that I thought would be practical and useful, particularly with a kiddo on the way.
Well I’m now about a month into using the iPhone and three weeks into being a new parent, and for the record, I was right. Granted, my iPhone won’t change diapers or feed the baby at 3am, but it’s been incredibly helpful in all kinds of other ways:
* It may take a village to raise a child, but first you’ve got to let the village know what’s going down. The iPhone lets you organize your contact list into multiple groups, so I created a “Go Time!” contact group for the start of labor (ob/gyn, pediatrician, hospital, immediate family), a “Just Born” contact group of people to call (friends, family, bosses who needed to know we weren’t coming in, etc.), and a “Birth Announcement” contact group for the inevitable mass email sharing the news. When the big day came, I was able to tick down the lists, tapping on each contact to call or email.
* Here’s the parental killer app you never see in the iPhone commercials: Clock. For the first week Ben had to be fed every two hours to help fight off jaundice and some early weight loss. The phone’s countdown timer made it easy to set and reset a 2 hour countdown with alarm. You can also create multiple alarms, which has been handy for his night feeding schedule.
* On the jaundice front, I was grateful to be able to access the net and research more about the illness after we first got the news in the hospital. The iPhone’s web browser plays nicely with my university library’s online database portal and can display pdf files, so I was able to pull up and read articles from MedLine, CINAHL, and Evidence Based Medical (EBM) Reviews. (Happy follow-up: Ben is now a-ok.)
* AT&T’s EDGE data network may not be up to 3G speeds, but it doesn’t stink. There wasn’t any wifi in the hospital, so all my web research and email was over EDGE, and it got the job done just fine. At home the phone picks up and uses my wifi network for a faster connection.
* With a baby now often tucked under one arm napping or snacking, suddenly “what can I get done with one hand free?” is a big issue. One-handed typing isn’t ideal, but it’s much easier and quircker on the iPhone than it is doing the same hunt-and-pecking on my laptop’s keyboard, so I’ve been able to quickly catch up on email when needed.
* Suddenly I’ve discovered the world of SMS messaging, which is handy, since it’s all too easy to shrink into cozy nuclear family land and every little convenient way to keep up with friends is welcome. It never seemed worth the trouble on my earlier cell phones, but with the iPhone’s virtual keyboard and slick SMS application (which gives you an instant messenger-style interface and chat history), sending text messages has become a lot more common and useful.
* I may be a digital photography snob, but when you’ve got grandparents who have a grandchild addiction to feed and a baby who actually needs to feed feed, its just not an option to pull out the dSLR several times a day to take a photo, then download it to the computer, then resize and edit it, and then compose an email to attach it, blah blah blah. The iPhone camera is good enough, always handy, and you can immediately review and email out photos after snapping them. Thanks to flickr’s feature of providing an email dropbox for photos, it’s even easy to send them to your flickr photostream.
* I get sent out on lots of errands to the Outside World (a strange, exotic place where people don’t spit up on you quite so much). Unfortunately, with continual sleep deprivation, it’s easy to forget to make or take lists, so it’s been helpful that ImaginaryGirl can quickly email a shopping list and it pops right up thanks to the phone’s Blackberry-style push email abilities.
* On the making errands better front, the iPhone plays very nicely in the car. I have it connected to my car stereo via the Honda CRV’s auxiliary audio port and it connects via bluetooth to my Garmin Nuvi GPS. The GPS acts as a bluetooth headset/speakerphone, and it paired up to the phone without a hitch and can even access the iPhone’s contact list when looking up phone numbers. So now when someone calls, the iPhone mutes the radio, I answer the call and talk handsfree via the dashboard GPS, and when I hang-up it continues the song or podcast right where it was when the call came in.
So to recap: I was right; the phone is wildly useful, not a toy. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play with my phone and watch that nutty youtube skateboarding dog clip again.
