As you ’ve probably remark , Macworld’sstaff spent last calendar week cover Macworld Conference & Expo here in San Francisco . In the past tense , covering the show need me to transport around various printouts — my schedule of merging and event ; a list of vendors with booth locations ; and Expo base map — as well as an official show pathfinder and a notepad for jot down down banker’s bill .
Those who ’ve study my past articles know that I can geek out at times ; I like to try various technologies just to see how I can apply them and how well they work . So for this year ’s Macworld Expo , I tried to cover the show flooring using nothing but my iPhone . ( Just the show trading floor ; I used my laptop during Phil Schiller ’s keynote . )
It was an interesting experiment , and one that work well in many way . But it also wound up play up the iPhone ’s biggest flaws .
What worked
Throughout the workweek , as I roamed the show floor and meet with vendors , the iPhone became a virtual extremity , helping me organise my days and keep in touch with the outside world .
Of naturally I used the iPhone ’s Calendar app to keep running of my engagement — Expo events , private coming together , Macworldpodcast school term , mouth appearances , receptions , and , yes , parties . ( The Maps app was utile for finding those party . )
And the iPhone was plainly a bully communications twist . I used its MS and phone feature of speech when I needed to air or receive an pressing message or to really speak with someone . I used theTwitterclientsTwitterrificandTweetie(iTunes connectedness ) to send out updates about things I witness at the show ( here ’s anexample)—a phone number ofMacworldeditors ’ “ tweet ” appeared on picture displays around Moscone Center . Finally , I used the iPhone ’s vitamin E - mail client to keep up with the one C of substance I receive each day of the Expo ; to send off info to my fellow editors about interesting products I saw ; and for non - urgent communication .
A speedy apart : Using the iPhone for e - chain armor had two important benefits . First , it mean I could leave my laptop computer in my hotel way , significantly lightening the lode I had to lug around . But it also made it easier for me to train my e - mail on a regular basis : I did n’t have to put all my bags down , pull out my laptop computer , and explore for a decent Wi - Fi sign . With the iPhone , much of my e - mail direction was done during “ down time”—while grabbing a bite to eat , waiting to talk with a vendor , or stand in line — that would have otherwise been ware . So instead of just skimming subjects and grapple with the pressing messages , I was able to learn and dispense with many messages as they arrived . ( Yes , Expo isthatcrazy for us , which explains why most of us fall into a deep , deep quietus at the oddment of the week . ) Whereas previous Expos left me with an brim over Inbox upon my return to the office — several years I had more than 1,000 message waiting at week ’s end — by lunch period this Monday I was down to 20 or so substance to deal with .
The iPhone also helped me carry off my treks around the Expo floor . To see this part , you ask some ground : Each Expo , theMacworldeditorial staff visit nearly every marketer on the show storey to see their products and to give them some one - on - one typeface time . To prepare , we produce a spreadsheet listing every vendor along with booth number and product sphere ; eachMacworldeditor then volunteer to visit fussy booths based on that editor in chief ’s beats . Given that my beat include iPod and iPhone accessories , input devices , and Mobile Mac , I had more than 100 vender to personally call this yr . That ’s a lot of booth to keep track of .
In age past , I printed out this spreadsheet and marked off , with a pen , each booth I visited . I also carried a Macworld Expo floor map and conference plan with me to figure out on the button where each vendor was located . This year , I used a combination of two iPhone apps , Appigo ’s ToDo and iMacworld , to find those seller and pass over my booth visits .
As I noted in my review of ToDo , it sync with the online serviceToodledo ; it turns out that Toodledo lets you import chore fromCSVfiles . So I saved my discussion section of theMacworldvendor - visit spreadsheet as a CSV filing cabinet sorted by booth act , import it into my Toodledo account , and synchronize ToDo . The result was a to - do list on my iPhone with each “ job ” displaying the booth number and name of a seller I was assign to travel to . After stopping by a particular booth , “ checking off ” that task moved it to the Completed section of the list .
But I figured that as long as I was using ToDo , I may as well take reward of its other features . I create another list called Expo Booths Notable ; when I set up something especially interesting at a John Wilkes Booth , I go that trafficker ’s introduction to this new lean . At the end of the show , I had a convenient leaning of all the marketer or products that warranted a follow - up . I also used the Notes field in each task to type brief notes about interesting products . Finally , if I saw something that was more appropriate for one of my colleague , I used ToDo ’s Share Task button to send the project — vendor name , booth number , notes , and all — to him or her . I end up using an literal report notepad only once the entire workweek : to take detailed notes for my iMovie ‘ 09 prevue .
As for the iMacworld app , although it was n’t the most stable I ’ve used — it regularly crashed on me — it was gravid for getting more information about a trafficker , as well as for encounter exactly where on the show floor that vender or a kiosk numeral was located , taking the place of newspaper maps and show political platform .
With all these tools and capabilities pack into my iPhone , I found myself carrying less than ever while being far more rich — it was the near Expo experience I ’ve had as a diarist .
What didn’t work
Not everything went as smoothly as it could have . The most obvious issue I experience — along with other Expo attendant — was internet coverage : there were a number of time last week when I could n’t get a data signaling of any form . Given that I ’ve had very few signaling issues with my iPhone outside Expo , even around Moscone Center , I charge most of this on the sheer identification number of iPhone users in such a modest place , as well as that space being over - saturated with countless wireless sign — Wi - Fi , 3 G , EDGE , CDMA , and various proprietary wireless connection .
The 2nd issue that ride me nuts over the class of the hebdomad was the iPhone ’s poor multitasking . Or should I say the complete lack of multitasking other than phone , e - post , and SMS datum reception . Although this has been an issue for me at various other metre , it wasmuchmore of a problem while covering the exhibition because , as take down above , I was regularly using at least seven apps — Calendar , Phone , SMS , Mail , a Twitter app , ToDo , and iMacworld — and switching between them many times each 60 minutes . If I was viewing my list of vender in ToDo and want to use iMacworld to find a vendor ’s booth on the show floor , that meant quitting ToDo , launch iMacworld — which was very irksome to launch — and then find the booth on the map . Then I had to throw in the towel iMacworld and launch ToDo again . A few times a daytime is no big softwood . Hundreds of time each sidereal day was torturous . If you ’ve regard any demos of Palm ’s just - herald Pre ( by the way , what ’s up with that name ? It ’s like ring your Cartesian product “ beta ” ) , you know that multitasking can be done well on a telephone set .
Next on the inclination was a familiar iPhone bogeyman : the lack of copy - and - paste . It ’s ordinarily nettlesome , but it was infuriating last week , as I regularly tried to get text from an east - mail content to ToDo , or an address from Calendar to Maps , or a notation from ToDo to SMS . It was the first time since I ’ve had an iPhone that the deficiency of copy - and - paste was more than a minor infliction ; with the iPhone as my primary computation machine , not having copy - and - spread was a serious obstructor to my productivity .
Finally , many an iPhone - manage group discussion speaker or media fellow member was struggling with battery life story . While people have complained about battery life since the first iPhone was released back in 2007 , the phone can broadly get you through the day under moderate use . But under the conditions I was using it , my iPhone 3 G was closely out of succus by midday .
I was n’t alone : perhaps the most pop John Wilkes Booth among media and loudspeaker — in term of where they were spend their own money — was that ofRichard Solo , where you could grease one’s palms the company ’s originalBackup Battery for iPhone / iPodfor $ 20 ( normally $ 50 ) or the novel - and - improved1800 for iPhonefor $ 40 ( usually $ 70 ) . Indeed , a representative told me the society had soldthousandsof batteries in the first two days the Expo floor was unresolved , and I come across many iPhones connected to such batteries during meals and coming together . cede , many people wo n’t regularly be using their iPhone this heavily . But I ’ve heard from many an iPhone owner who puts it through just such a ringer to and from work — for deterrent example , during an hour or two on the underpass or train — every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . ( This is why an outside barrage is one of my most - advocate iPhone accessories . If you ’re in the marketplace , we ’ll shortly print a review roundup of such batteries . )
Laptop or iPhone?
Overall , I was quite pleased with the iPhone ’s performance as a limited stand - in for my laptop , even though I needed an external battery to get through the twenty-four hours . Still , while I ’ve say in the past that I could leave my laptop at home if the iPhone let me use a portable Bluetooth keyboard for text entrance , I ’m adding some caveats to that statement after last week ’s experiment .
The iPhone certainly performed yeoman service , relieve my loading and render most of the lively functions I involve while walking the show story . But I also found myself frustrated by the thing it could n’t do , and I had to turn back to my laptop computer for “ real ” work in the eve . While these shortcomings may be satisfactory during daily use — after all , the iPhone is still aphone — they point to things Apple necessitate to meliorate to make the iPhone a more - viable business and power - user cock . They also foreground areas Apple will take to focus on if the company is to take the next coherent footfall and make a larger , iPhone - OS gadget that can actually replace a laptop for many hoi polloi .
