I recently joined the cool kids and got an iPhone. As mentioned Jon and I are going to Voices that Matter: Professional Ruby Conference (or as I like to call it, Ruby that Matters) as guests of Pearson Education. Except at this conference, I am not going to bring my computer, just my iPhone.
I think computers actually take away from the conference experience. They are heavy and distracting and you gotta baby sit the stupid thing all the time. The two redeeming qualities are that you can kill time if a session is boring, and you can hack code. Well, if the session is boring, instead of reading blogs, I’m going to leave. And if I want to hack, I’ll do some pair programming.
I’ll be taking notes in my trusty Moleskin as well as tweeting interesting bits using my iPhone. If you want to keep up with that, follow @lof on Twitter.
Update: So how’d it go?
I liked not having to lug around my computer—this is the lightest I’ve ever packed for a conference. Getting through airport security was a breeze.
I was able to tweet sporadic observations and I picked up a few new followers (hi!). I was also able to keep up on my email which was nice because I had some work stuff that needed attention.
There were two problems:
- MobileSafari crashes constantly. It drives me nuts.
- The iPhone 3G’s battery life is not long enough to stand all-day internet usage.
I’m commenting on this post during Cody’s talk. I’m a rebel.
I did this for RailsConf08. It’s absurd that I couldn’t bring my Apple wireless keyboard along to actually type emails of any length. The iPhone would have completely owned computer replacement status if that were possible.
I have tried to avoid bringing a laptop into the major conferences I’ve attended. I think it’s a Good Thing, and I’m glad to hear positive reinforcement.
Oh, and:
http://rubythatmatters.com/
Click it – I dares ya.
I think the battery is the biggest problem of iPhone 3G.