You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Dear fellow Late iPhone / Android adopters (e.g. dumb phone owners). And before either of the Windows phone folks, or the remaining (but rapidly defecting) Blackberry devotees, complains - I apologize in advance for my ignorance.
Up until last month, I was one of you.
For the last few years I told anyone who would listen that "I'll never get an iPhone". I'd whip out my Pantech Breeze, a feature phone that I purchased for its big numbers and lack of features.
My reasons for not jumping on the smart phone bandwagon included:
- A desire to not be "always in touch", constantly checking e-mail and the Web from my phone.
- A firm belief that a phone should be used for making phone calls. Texting is for kids, and people who constantly Tweeted from their Android seemed to have a communication gene that I lacked.
- A wish to not carry around a brick in my pocket.
After a month with my iPhone, I'm here to tell you how wrong I was!
Feature phone holdouts of the world, the time has come to surrender.
Why?
E-Mail: Nowadays, my iPhone has become my primary on the go e-mail reading device. Carrying a laptop, or even an iPad, from meeting to meeting and across campus seems bulky, difficult, and slow. The iPhone is in my pocket when I walk around, and the iPhone's great e-mail client works perfectly for reading messages, and even sending short replies.
Cellular: Up until I got my iPhone I never realized how restrictive it is to always have to find a WiFi signal to get online. Sure, I could have gotten the iPad with the AT&T or Verizon plan, but this seemed like overkill. The fact that the iPhone can pull down and do e-mail and the Web wherever I'm at means I feel more free to be anywhere.
EDU Future: After a month with the iPhone, I've become convinced that if you work in higher ed that you should have some sort of web enabled smart phone. A powerful computer that fits in your pocket, one that is always connected, is a powerful tool for communication and learning. The smart phone will be the platform of choice for our students, and for the millions of people Asia, South America, and Africa who will join the ranks of postsecondary learners in the years ahead. If you are not using a smart phone everyday it is hard to understand the appeal and the potential, this is a tool that is best understood with hands-on use. It is easy to say in the abstract that our learning, administrative, library, financial, student life etc. etc. content and tools should be made mobile, it is quite another thing to actually experience how frustrating it is when they are not.
Your phone thoughts?
