New Phone Options

I’ve been an iPhone user since the original iPhone.  My 3GS is wonderful.  I don’t love everything about it, but it has more pluses than minuses.

Last week the HTC Evo caught my eye, and I’m intrigued.  It speaks to my inner geek.  The HTC Evo runs on Sprint’s 3G & 4G networks and has Android 2.1 for it’s operating system.  It has a 8mp camera (rear facing), 2 LED flashes and records video at 720p at 24 fps.  The Android system, from Google, is very interesting to me.  I’ve played with other Android phones and was not impressed.  But I’ve heard really great things about the Sense UI that HTC uses on their phones, including the Evo.  One of the features that really excites me is the tethering.  With an added option on your contract with the Evo you can connect up to 8 devices for that 4G speed.

To make things that much harder for me, today Apple announced their new iPhone 4.  The new iPhone 4 finally has a decent camera (5mp) and 720p video recording.  I do not understand why these were missing from the iPhone 3GS.  The new screen on the iPhone 4 looks beautiful.  I’ve been using the iPhone for years now and it’s familar and comfortable which is an added plus.

Both phones call to me for rather different reasons.  I’m going to work hard to determine which phone is the right one for me.  With the amount of money involved, I don’t want to pick the wrong one.

Staying Organized: Work

I love organizing!  It makes me feel calm and together.  Some of my amused managers and co-workers have even called me hyper organized!  Because I like very specific items I buy my a lot of my own supplies for work, so some of the items cross over between work and home.  I thought I’d share some of the key tools I use to keep my organized for work.

Electronic

  • iPhone – My iPhone is wonderful.  I currently have the white 32GB 3GS.  It’s great.  I have so many apps that make my work life easier, like OmniFocus and SplashID.  It also use my iPhone to listen to podcasts and music to keep me focused while working.  It’s a great little organizational machine for me!
  • OmniFocus – This is like my second brain.  I record all of my to do items in here.  If it’s not in OmniFocus, it’s not getting done.  I’m diligent in recording everything that needs to get done in here.   OmniFocus was designed for the Getting Things Done system from David Allen & Co.  While I don’t strictly adhere to the GTD system, I do follow many of the principles.  OmniFocus is flexible enough allow me follow the portions of the system I chose and still achieve my goals.  I’ve been using it on my MacBook since the beta, and on my iPhone since the app was realized.  It’s a dream.
  • SplashID – My company has not yet fully embraced the concept of a single sign on.  So I have multiple logins & passwords for work.  Additionally I need to access websites outside the company for various purposes.  SplashID gives me one central location to find all my logon IDs and passwords for each site or application.  My iPhone app syncs to my personal MacBook.

Analog

  • Moleskine – I love using a Moleskine to take meeting notes for my short term projects.  They are also great when designing user interfaces.  I tend towards the Large Squared Notebook.  The size is just shy of half letter, which seems to work perfectly for me.  I like squared over ruled or blank.  It helps me keep my notes organized and my sketches aligned.
  • Circa – Levenger, thank you for bringing Circa into my life.  I adore these notebooks!  For work I mostly use the Junior and Letter sizes.  I have a customized Junior notebook that I use for normal meetings.  All my current projects have either a Letter or Junior sized notebook assigned to them.  For some of my projects, I’ll even grab one of my leather foldover notebooks or zip folios.  I’ve found these are great for all day off site meetings.  They really keep me organized.
  • Post-It Notes – My favorite Post-It notes are the Super Sticky ones.  I normally use the canary yellow ones because I’m a bit of a traditionalist and they stand out just enough for me.  I use them to take down super short term notes (like voicemail messages) or add an extra note to some printed pages (like which slides for a presentation I’m doing)
  • Post-It Flags – Post-It flags are awesome!  I don’t know how I got on without them.  I use them in my Moleskine’s and my Circa’s.  I use them when I’m taking notes on something printed, to flag where I have questions or corrections are needed.  There are so many uses for these!  I normally use the small tabs because I don’t write on them.  But I have a large collection of colours for colour coding.

I love these tools that help keep me on time and task.  Each items has made my work life a bit easier and more organized.  I’m always ready to learn about new tools to fit into my system.  If I find any, I’ll be sure to share them.