I think I had a smartphone back in Mumbai. I say ‘think’
because my Nokia E 63 was used for making calls and sending SMSes.
Then I moved to Singapore and bought an IPhone. I have
already fallen in love with it. Especially because a lot of my waking hours go
in nursing the baby and the IPhone is a very handy thing to keep me busy. My
top uses –
- Skype – Sure, I had it on my comp in India too. But suddenly I find my family and friends geographically dispersed and Skype could not have been handier.
- Whatsapp – This is something I discovered only recently and I have been fascinated ever since. It is also the first paid app I have bought on itunes but it is so cheap, it is practically free. I have rediscovered my lost fetish for having conversations through SMSes. Even better, I have been able to chat with friends in different time zones given the odd hours I have been up at.
- Camera – The quality is top notch. I am trying to keep a record of the baby’s growth and an Iphone is much easier to click snaps or make videos than my usual point and click camera. Especially when we go outside, I don’t have to remember to take the camera along.
- Surfing – The top sites being baby forums. The baby not sleeping well? Baby’s poo green in colour? What are the side effects of vaccinations? Much easier than sitting down at my laptop and wasting my non-nursing hours.
- More surfing – Mostly my favourite news sites – Guardian, Rediff, NDTV, NY times (upto the unpaid article limit). I re-discovered New Yorker and have been enjoying the great quality essays. I have also been able to keep up with business news on the economic times and business standard websites, something I thought I would never do during my maternity leave but which is probably going to be helpful when I head back to work . Also my favourite blogs (though commenting is a bit of a pain with such small letters). And occasionally recipes for the helper to add some zing to our daily bread.
- Email – Naturally. I even have time to read forwards
- Directions – This is the one function which I use on-the-go. With google maps, bus and MRT timetables - New city, here I come!
- YouTube – Especially to keep in touch with Bollywood songs. Also to know what a Harlem Shake a friend told me about is. Or to indulge in a bit of nostalgia by playing old Hindi and Tamil songs. I should ideally be playing nursery rhymes too but I still have not crossed the bridge into that stage of parenting
- Worldclock – this is a cheap thrill. I have entered the times of various geographies inhabited by family and friends and it is super easy to figure out who is likely to be free to talk/Skype at a particular hour.
I was wondering whether to include
Facebook given how frequently I visit it. Except that I have built in so many
restrictions that I hardly see posts of more than a few people and they don’t
update every two hours. So it is not much fun.
I am aware I have arrived at the smartphone party late. Which is also why I am quite eager to up the knowledge quickly. If anyone has suggestions for use
or some sites which I can surf for timepass, pls share your thoughts
generously!
6 comments:
there are a lot of people who are into smart phones because of the applications that can really help you to make your task easier and even make you access the internet all the time depending on the place if there's a wifi connection availble
Oh I love my iPhone, some of my fav apps are:-
Google maps: because the apple maps is the biggest black mark on the iphone and are practically dead and useless in our part of the world. so i hide that away and have downloaded the google maps app which is fabulous and takes me where I want
Viber: for free calling over wifi and 3G all over the WORLD..its kind of like skype, minus the video
Runkeeper: helps track my walking/jogging and is super fun for OCD people (like me) to track and feel motivated
Clear: awesome list app, I have tried many and nothing has made me happier than this one because it is clear, simple, and beautiful. it is paid though.
News: ET, Firstpost are my default everyday apps, but for all other reading I use, Flipboard.
Flipboard: AWESOME, get it. It is a news and general interest magazine aggregator (everything form the atlantic, to new yorker to whatever else you might like, and also sorted by category so very very useful)
Feedly: I use this as my blog reader. it is lovely, very well designed and lets you sort blogs in categories. they also have a desktop version, so both phone and comp are synced and it works seamlessly.
Dropbox: if you would ever like to share files (pics, mail attachments) off the phone to the cloud or vice versa. Very useful if you are a big iphone camera a lot, because i find iphoto painful.
Cleartrip: great app, but only useful for plane tickets. I use it more to check rates when I am on the go. but booking also works brilliantly
Games: Angry Birds (if youre not addicted as yet, get it), Cut the rope (adorable game! you have to feed a hungry frog with lots of candy), Papertoss (full timepass), Wordfeud/Words with Friends (scrabble, essentially)..I go through phases of being addicted to these, but mostly theyre handy and most used when waiting in queues, in the car, and what not is so much more entertaining now
Yeah, like u I joined the smartphone party late...got onto whatsapp recently as well. I've used the iphone on and off (sanjay has one) but still prefer my samsung to it. I use it for skype, whatsapp and music more than anything else.
dThere is always a divide between an iPhone user and the other smartphone user. However, all the apps that you have listed here are available on other smartphones too and I must say, when I got my HTC last year, I was sooo happy. I too have almost all of the apps listed - youtube, saavn, tedtalks, viber, whatsapp, cleartrip type app and some fun games.
The games are quite addictive. I was quite cynical of the Angry Birds games but now I am a convert. I love it and I like Bubble Shoot too. Haven't got a hang of Temple Run though. Have tried Words with Friends but all my friends have been lazy.
Since I love reading books, I have a book reader. But I like Kingsoft Office which not only lets me read e-books but also use Word, Excel and PPT on my phone.
Another one which I have downloaded is the MDScan Lite which I used to scan documents on the go. I simply love this app.
I also found SoundHound to be very useful, especially during Grammy awards as it listens to snatches of songs and gives accurate info about the singer, song name and album name. It has helped increase my collection.
Happy smartphone
Haha........ I discovered the smart phone pretty late to, more out of work pressure than anything else. Now I'm pretty hung-up on it, though nothing close to the techie (my husband).
When my V (my daughter)was born, I obviously had no idea about the concept of a smart phone, but I finished quite a few books of my too read list in the first six months during feeding time :-)
Love reading your blog and plan to be back often.
hAAthi, Musings - Too much only! Will try them
Aparna - Sistah. Looks like 'better late than never'.
nmaha - Thanks! Looking forward to seeing you again
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