Going iPhone - 100 Days in and Still Smiling

For those that have been following along ...

It's been about 100 Days 

Since I made ... The Switch!

Guess What? I'm smiling even more now.

It's like a wild mustang coming out of the fog (hence the picture with this post) and experiencing the wide open plains for the first time.

• This is a continuation of my post about buying my first iPhone
  6 Weeks In and the Smiles keep Growing

The iPhone experience may not be perfect for everyone, but I can tell you it's a lot of things that really can make people smile. I know I smile a lot more with the iPhone than I did with the Windows Phone.

Don't accept design flaws that do not improve your life.
~ Tony Faddell

This was from the originator of the iPod at Apple in a TED Talk about Design on NPR. Listen here.

Cool Stuff - Things that make me smile (pretty much every day)

Everyone uses their mobile devices differently. I have found a few features and apps work really well for me. If you have a few other things you like about your iPhone drop them in the comments below.

• Podcasts - Easy to use, easy to find them, and easy to queue up for long walks with Ellie the Wonder Pup.
• Voice-to-Text Everywhere - Most every app has the ability to use voice-to-text. I use this every day for OneNote, Facebook, Texts, Twitter, emails and more. It's just simple to use and it seems to learn a bit more over time.
• Deep Press Trackpad - If you haven't tried this ... check this out.
• Video with Slo-Mo - You've probably seen this on some of the Apple commercials. It's a really fun way to capture action shots. I've found 5 seconds is about all you want to capture. 
• Shake to Undo (works almost everywhere) - Try it! Type something, delete it, then shake your phone. You'll have a few options to "undo" or "redo"
• Apple Pay … Still cool! Again, if you haven't tried this ... it is amazingly simple and to be honest ... kinda fun to use.

Areas to Improve

Like all things everything isn't perfect, but I can tell you it's pretty close.

• Caps Arrow - This is one item I really got used to on the Windows Phone.
  
  Where you can highlight a word - then press the up arrow key to cycle thru CAPS, Sentence Case, and lower case. 
  
  Since most people on iPhones probably have never seen this feature I added this image. (click on the image for a larger view)
  
  Once you have this feature … you NEVER want to go back to the old and painful way of capitalizing words manually.
• Request: Since anything is possible with 1’s and 0’s …
  C’mon Apple (or Microsoft) – Give us a keyboard fix for this.
  
  I had high hopes that the Microsoft Wordflow keyboard for iPhones would include this … but … sadly … it does not.
• Camera - A higher resolution lens. It's good, but it's no Nokia Lumia 1020. Nokia set the bar very high .. 3 years ago with this high quality camera.
• Camera Software - Again, it's good. But, the software on the Nokia Lumia's is incredible for one-click image adjustment (even though it's several years old).
• Not much else - I haven't found much else to complain about. I know iPhone's have their detractors, but I'm not one of them. I will keep testing, playing and learning from and with the iPhone and report back here.

What Can I Count on from Apple?

Continuous Improvement is one thing I know I can count on with the iPhones. I expect the cameras and the software will continue to improve. And, as other features are added my friends Bryan Hart, Owen Allen and Chakkaradeep Chandran will keep me updated on new things to try.

Community Matters --- I really appreciate the community that has embraced the iPhone lifestyle. Many of the people I have worked with at Microsoft and in the Microsoft Partner Ecosystem have realized the value of the experience and the value of productivity trumping pride.

What Happened to My Windows Phone LUV?

Some might say this is blasphemy and otherwise pooh-pooh my making the switch. For those that were following along ... you know I was a fan for many years of the Windows Phone platform. I'm still a fan.

However, at some point Productivity trumps Pride. As I wrote in My First iPhone … and a few more Firsts

This is not rubbing Microsoft's face in anything. Microsoft had numerous chances. With me and with a lot of others. But, as we have seen ... the current state of mobile devices aren't Microsoft's forte. That's life. They will be back as I mentioned in 3 Things Microsoft needs for a Surface Phone launch

Don't Count Microsoft Out!
They have tenacity, vision and most important ... CASH!

100 Days in ... and the Smiles Keep Growing

I'll keep playing and working with the iPhone. I'm regularly amazed at some new feature or app I didn't know existed. It's nice to be on a platform that is being improved upon. 

Going forward I might try an Android device next. Perhaps in parallel to the iPhone. 

What do you think?

• What do you like?
• How are your experiences with the iPhone?
• What's your favorite app?

Add your comments here and share your thoughts. 

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This is part of my on-going series of posts where I try to have a little fun and share a little of my insights on People, Process and Technology. It is cross posted to Linkedin.

Jeff is an expert in the Enterprise Content Management industry. He brings over 20 years of Channel Sales, Partner Marketing and Alliance expertise to audiences around the world in speaking engagements and via his writing. He has worked for Microsoft, Kodak, and K2. He is currently the consulting with Microsoft and partners to drive Community Engagement and Alliances.

Tweet him @jshuey or connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+ He is active in the Microsoft Partner Community and is the co-founder and President of the IAMCP Seattle chapter.

He is a contributing author to Entrepreneur, Elite Daily, Yahoo, US News and to the Personal Branding Blog