Planes, Rivers and iPhones

Wow, it is just January 16 and the pilot of the year (or is it the decade?) has already been determined. No question the pilot and crew, as well as the various individuals piloting the many boats who, within seconds, were at the downed USAir jet rescuing passengers, are all heroes. Nice to see a bit of entirely positive news for once!

No doubt the Hudson River was the scene of something truly miraculous today.

What is interesting, from an iPhone perspective, it the coverage of how the iPhone and Twitter played a role in capturing those first moments after the place was down. the headline read-

Twitter and iPhone on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash

(Credit: Janis Krums)

It did not read-

“Twitter and Blackberry on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash”

or
“Twitter and Treo on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash”

or even

“Twitter and Nokia (with amazing 5MP camera) on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash”

No, it read Twitter and iPhone on the scene of the US Airways Hudson crash

Plenty of people carry phones that have cameras and can connect Twitter- in fact many have MUCH better cameras- but it was the iPhone that, once again, made the news.

I’m not surprised. The iPhone has, in ways both explainable and not, found its way into the lives of those who own and use one to a far greater degree than any other device. And it got me thinking—

How HAS the iPhone integrated itself into my life and even changed my behavior?

A few things quickly come to mind.

First off, I use the camera. A lot! We can all agree the iPhone’s camera stinks. No doubt about that. Any yet I find myself using it to capture images far more often that I did with any other device. In fact, rarely does a day go by that I do not use the iPhone’s camera while I would almost never use it on my prior devices. I’m not sure if it is the tight integration with iTunes, the ability to snap pictures right into Evernote or the playful things I can do with apps like Comic Touch and Juxtaposer but I use it all the time. (And just wait until EyeFi releases their iPhone app!) That is a huge change.

Second, unless I am going to the office I will often leave home without my notebook now. That is a huge change but unless I am out for a full day of work I see no need to carry it since I can do almost anything I need on my iPhone. No, the iPhone may not be as convenient or as powerful as my MacBook or even any of the numerous Netbooks, but with an iPhone and the right app there is very little you cannot do computer-wise (and, if you need to do something computer-wise you can access your computer with LogMeIn!)

Third, it has replaced my GPS. No, the iPhone doesn’t give me voice guidance (yet) but it is so much more convenient than the stand alone unit I was using. It is tied into my address book and I can use Google or a variety of apps to search for, and map a route to, any place I need to go.

Fourth, it has replaced my alarm clock. The iPhone’s native clock app is a great alarm clock. And, when need be, I can set numerous alarms one after the other to make sure I am up. I can set various alarms depending on the day so that, for example, when I have to be up at the same specific hour every Saturday I can set that alarm and leave it week after week.

Fifth, it has replaced my computer. Okay, not really, but there are a lot of thing I used to do on my computer that I don’t do or do far less post-iPhone. I read most of my RSS feeds on the iPhone, manage my tasks on my iPhone, Twitter on y iPhone (Twittelator Pro puts most desktop Twitter clients to shame) and the list goes on and on.

My point is this- for many of us the iPhone has integrated itself into our lives in ways no other previous device could. Even… when miracles occur in the Hudson River.