My Macbook Pro has been an indispensable addition to my work and play life, I love it to bits and pieces, microchips and all. But my iPhone, now that has been revolutionary!

Wait two seconds please before you dismiss this as yet another iPhone gizmo promo write-up; it is not. My husband warned me to write for all my readers when I told him about this post and I responded “always“. This is no different; it is for all of you, iPhone owners or not. Once in a while, you come across a product that redefines your lifestyle, refines the rough edges, does away with the redundancies, clears up the small frustrations, creates room for growth and makes things so ridiculously simple and ingenious that you stand there with your jaw wide-open and wonder why for the life of you, you did not take the leap sooner. This blog being a space where I share approaches to living a prolific life, I’d be terribly remiss if I did not tell you about how this little genius has changed the way I live, work, think and play now. (Did I get carried away again?)

Up until 20 days ago, I did not own an iPhone and I had no intention of succumbing to such a popular trend to boot. Me, peer pressure? No way. I set the trend myself. I dare to be different. And I am having too much fun laughing at my husband’s new obsession to this little black device. Such was my state of mind and mood when the most strange news came to me. A co-worker’s mother bought an iPhone for her 80th birthday! That was it. That immediately pushed me over the edge (It takes a strange kind of peer pressure, I tell ya!) and I made the fastest purchase of this shiny new box from the nearest Apple store that Saturday.

Love at first touch.
My new Romeo.
My best friend.
My little genius.

I have never really been a Mac fanatic but I have a soft place in my heart for technology. Of all the advancements in technology that I have used, worked with and owned, from routers and switches and intellectual systems to home wireless IP phones, smart phones, laptops, digital cameras, my High Def video camera, Apple TV, Macs, and countless other gadgets, the iPhone seems to me to be the supreme achievement of man‘s ability to transform life in 21st century.

The thing about technology is this: Much like a pet, a child, your finances and your belongings in life, you either let it control you or you control it . I am a big fan of the latter. You are in charge, you are the boss and the master. You decide how to live and then allow technology to enable that living by making it easier, faster, better, more creatively and more efficiently. You decide how much of your time, effort, patience and productivity it consumes, how much reward you reap in return, and if the math does not work out to be in your favor, you are not in a good fit with your technology and change is naturally the answer.

You may laugh but it takes courage to make a change in our consumptions of technology. Habits form and breaking free from them takes conscious effort. A simple example is the story of me and my Blackberry Bold. Too much had passed between us. Too much anger and frustration lay below the surface. Too many unanswered questions. It was time to break up and move our separate ways. Lucky for me, I found my new Romeo in the iPhone.

Top 10 Ways the iPhone has Enhanced my Life

When it comes to this iPhone, I am an addict, a hopeless lover, a fanatic consumer and a true believer in its power to seriously enhance my life (Yes it has been only 20 days but strangers claim to be lovers and promise eternity to one another after a short rendezvous; why can I not love my iPhone so after 20 long days of courtship!). No matter, whether infatuation or true love, I want to share with you the top 10 ways the iPhone has enhanced the way I work, live, think, and play.

1. Made for the palm of my hand

You form a psychological attachment to your technology, both on intellectual and physical levels. As for the physical, the device must feel good on contact with your skin. There must be a bond, however slight, so that you physically continue using it. We usually underestimate the importance of this physical attachment until we come across the perfect device. The iPhone is made for the palm of my hand. There is no doubt about it. It fits there as perfectly as my most favorite jewelry. This instant gratification from perfect contact to my skin fills the psychological need for physical connection. Me and the iPhone, we have always belonged to one another. It was really made for the palm of my hand but in reality, it has only just recently arrived home.

2. Intuitive and Smart

The iPhone is smart. It is a product made with extreme loyalty to common sense. Every move, every touch, every function and operation, is smart and intuitive. Every function makes sense and therefore, there is no need of memorization on the user’s part on how things work and the concept of user manual is quite simply a joke. The iPhone behavior follows common sense even when the human user abandons it temporarily. Using smart and intuitive devices can help you think more clearly and simply and remember not to complicate matters when a simple, intuitive solution will work.

3. Simplicity at its Core

The iPhone is pure simplicity at its core. Simplicity is not the lack of sophistication; simplicity breeds subtle sophistication when done right. The touch screen is simple yet sophisticated. The movement in and out of the applications and the transition from one mode to another is simple yet full of sophistication. When you run into a problem, think of the simplest solution a purely logical being would come up with and try that; it often works. The iPhone does everything other smart phones do but it just does it better because simplicity drives the design and operation.

4. Empowering of Users as Developers

Apple made the iPhone but the user community has given birth to hundreds of thousands of iPhone application developers. You could be the next one. The core foundation of the device is made by Apple; then it’s turned over to the user world to enhance it creatively. You can be an end-user of this device or a contributor to its growth and evolution. Some of the best applications are made by ordinary users who think of extraordinary ideas: “What if my iPhone could..…” and there is a next application. In my short 20 days, I have found a number of yoga &meditation as well as photography apps developed not by Apple. The world community of users, thinkers, creators, developers can all share in the excitement of product evolution along with Apple and that is a very empowering idea.

When a user community is involved in the evolution of a product, the possibilities for growth are boundless and more importantly, they are driven by the user for the user. Apple is a genius company not for creating genius products alone but for enabling everyday users and developers to partake in the growth and journey of the iPhone. The iPhone’s potential is constantly being tested and raised by every new brilliant idea turned into an application. The creative minds of the user community push the limits on what it can do and what it should do and what new ways it can change and enhance our lifestyle today. May they be filled with an infinite source of inspiration and creativity.

5. Brilliant Consumption of Knowledge

My life is all about learning lately. Learning about the Renaissance, Ancient Egypt, yoga philosophy, blogging, languages, the classics and the destination countries and cultures of our travels. Consuming knowledge readily and at a moment’s notice is of utmost priority to me in choosing my technology. The iPhone’s brilliant delivery leaves me beyond impressed. The blackberry never afforded me a friendly side toward education. On the iPhone, the Louvre application alone has a repository of information and bio on every major work of art in the world’s beloved museum and Nikon’s Learn & Explore application allows me to learn about photography in a sweet format. There are hundreds of other applications reshaping and reformatting our expansive world of information into a medium that is most efficiently consumed by the iPhone user and my excitement knows no bounds.

6. Touchscreen Ingenuity

A week into using the iPhone, I had fallen in love with my own fingers. The sweet response from every light touch on the iPhone screen! The sensitivity yet the adaptability; the iPhone gets to know you better with more use and it learns your language by more communication. It predicts your words and learns not to correct you if you type in French. It learns your favorite contacts and your daily routines. For all of this, my fingers are the chief driving force of this amazing experience and I love it.

7. Bridges the Gap between Generations

The 80-year old Mom of my co-worker loves her iPhone and uses it fairly well. She can do this because this device bridges the gap between generations. There are very few devices which can cross such gaps with the user’s willingness to participate. There are those where the user has obligation and must utilize. The iPhone is purely optional and yet it attracts the youngest and oldest among us as its newest users. It is not just friendly technology; it is also powerful technology. The ability of the iPhone to change one’s lifestyle is enormous. You can set it up so that it tracks your eating habits, encourages you through audio podcasts, tracks your exercise routine, keeps you in touch with your world large or small, and does so in a most aesthetic form. The large generation gets smaller with the iPhone, a tribute to the genius of this device.

8. Reliable and Predictable

The iPhone works. It is an Apple product and notorious for being reliable and predictable from functionality standpoint. It does not crash. It does not stop responding. It does not abandon you in the midst of a long email, important conversation, or an audio-cast. And even if it did, it would be a most rare occurrence, a fluke. The disappointments from unresolved crashes of not one and not two but several Blackberries left me scarred about smart phones. Reliability means trust. If you can trust your technology, you are most likely to use it and it promotes your peace and harmony to boot. The iPhone raises the bar and saves my sanity so I can focus on more important things in my life.

9. A Single Device for all my Zen Living Habits

No longer do I need a Blackberry for phone and messaging, an iPod for music and my GPS for directions! From early rising to recording my vegetable juicing, from recording my walking and yoga hours to playing yoga podcasts right next to my mat and walking around the house with French podcast, it keeps track of my zen habits for me and enables me to do them anywhere and anytime. A handful of select applications (Momento, my current favorite) and a daily routine is all you need. The commitment to yourself and to your iPhone will kick up your inspiration and you will feel extremely good about yourself and terribly organized about having it all in the palm of your hand.

10. The Best Single Travel Companion

Traveling is the core foundation of living well and fully. I simply live for it. The iPhone makes for the single brilliant travel companion especially for organized and well-planned traveling. With TripIt application for all your planning and itinerary, to Google maps and Yelp to help you locate anything anywhere in the US and elsewhere, and the DropBox and EverNote applications which synchronize between your iPhone documents and your computer documents at home through an online repository, you have everything you need in one device. All your music and data travels with you in the same device. For blogging, I have found enough foundation to write up drafts for blog posts while away from my Mac and manage the blog remotely. Next time on the road, I will not feel so far away from home. The iPhone puts a new taste and color in my experience of traveling and that is quite the boost to prolific living.

A Penny for your Thoughts:

How do you approach your technology? What is important when you look for a product to enhance your lifestyle and promote more of what you love to do? What do you think about the iPhone? Am I in for a rude awakening or is it really as good as it feels so far?

Tagged as: application, iPhone, products, simplicity, technology

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