Saturday, December 13, 2008

top ten reasons to switch to i-phone

I haven't yet caved to buying an iphone. Partly, it's the thought of shelling out that extra $150 to Verizon. And partly it's dread of having to convert years of contacts, calendars, memos from Palm platform to Mac. (Yea, I know it's supposed to be easy, but it only seems easy if someone else does it.)

I'm not a gamer and hate the thought of hunting and pecking on glass. However. I was so tantalized by a friend's personal list of Top i-Apps, I just might appeal to i-Santa, after all.
1. Zenbe: This is a great for list making (to - do, shopping) and sharing. It's better organized that the simple "notes" that comes with the IPhone.
2. Movies by Flixter: Great for finding movies in your area using the GPS software. LInks to traliers and ticket purchase. Also gives box-office tops.
3. Jott: This one allows you to record breif notes which it then translates and sends to you in an email - this is free. Variouis levels of monthly payment allow for more sophistication as in sending texts to your kids, adding things to your clendar, etc.
4. Recorder: Is a simple recording device that creates AIFF files, stores the recordings and also allows you to email them.
5. Shazam: Picks up ambient music from stereo or radio nearby and tells you who it is and even allows you to purchase. kind of great.
6. Ambiance: Noise machine with a large number of sounds including a cat purring.
7. Urbanspoon: Using GPS function, finds restaurants in the area as well as reviews from NY mag, NY Times, Voice. Has bookmark feature.
8. Yelp: More broadly searches restaurants, bars, coffee shops, gas stations, drugstores with google maps. Has Bookmark feature.
9. Stitcher: Online radio offers many brief daily feeds from a variety of subjects. I listen to NPR and a few others. There's even Apple Category as well.
10. Mental Case: This is kind of interesting. It's a mini PPT in a sense, not to build but simply to rehearse small presentations on the run on your phone.
Thanks to Lisa M. for this list via Cathy W.

3 comments:

Rob Buccino said...

One of my happiest days recently was when I accidentally slammed a car door on my Palm Treo, which I had come to loathe for its many counter-intuitive operating demands, lousy phone call quality, and tendency to do unexpected things (such as call people on its own from deep within my coat pocket). Treo wreckage in hand, I promptly bit the Verizon bullet and got an iPhone. What a delight! So much easier to set up. So much easier and simpler to operate. It effortlessly loaded my MacBook's Address List and iTunes. And it offers so many fun ways to waste time, included many your friend listed above. Go ahead, take the plunge. The $$$ pain only hurts for a little while, but the fun keeps happening.

- Rob Buccino

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Ha! Maybe I should start being a little more careless with my Centro. Which (despite what Santa says) has a lot of the same annoying features as Treo. Thanks for reason #11, Rob :)

Anonymous said...

I only wish it were Verizon that carried the iPhone. The thought of switching to AT&T is the only thing that's stopped me from making the leap.