After 3 years, I'm still pretty appless.....

     I'm on a flight at o-dark hundred this morning, so this blog will be abbreviated, maybe I should skip the commas?  This one is about my purchase of an Iphone and the limited number of apps I have put on it. 

     I bought my Iphone about three years ago, a lot of my co-workers had switched to one, or an equivalent, and I figured it was time for me to get a smarter phone.  I'm not sure, however that I am smart enough for

the phone I have, as I do very little with mine.  I currently have only a couple of applications that I have added to my phone, and a lot of the ones that were pre-installed, I have never opened.  I liked the idea of having a phone that would do more, but I struggle with the concept of spending any more time looking down at it, versus looking up at the people I'm with or the places I'm in.  Here's what I've tried so far....

     I had installed the Livestrong program last year while dieting and while I did find it useful, after I had lost the weight, I found it less necessary to track my calories on a daily basis, so it got deleted.  I have the link still on my desktop and I can see using it again for short term diets (I have my 30th high school reunion coming up this summer, so I should drop just a few lbs before that), but I didn't find it necessary to haul the extra weight of the application around on my phone, unused, anymore.  I had a similar experience with Gas Buddy, which tells you where the cheap gas is.  I


I took cooking classes from this owner, featured on Triple D

used it for a while, but at the end of the day, I'm not the guy who is going to drive an extra mile or to the other side of town to save $.02 a gallon on gas.  The cheap place was almost always the same place, so if I'm by there and am close to needing gas, I fill up, but I deleted the application as it became less used.  My wife installed the Triple D application on her phone, which tells you when you are close to a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives location, but I never put it on mine.  I like to check those places out with my wife and family, so if I need it, I'll just use my wife's (like she plans on using the cash in my wallet instead of her own).  I probably had installed others and deleted them but I don't recall any more.  When they create an app to help me to remember everything that I forget, I'll probably add that one.

     Many of the current icons on my phone go unused, some are redundant and some I have no use for.  Why is there a separate icon for photos, for example, when you can just open up the camera application and

touch the photo on the bottom?  It literally saves no steps.  When I open photo, I have to then choose camera roll to do anything, and when I open camera I have to choose a picture and start flipping through them.  I do take pictures on my phone regularly, but I don't do a lot with them after I take them, which makes me wonder why I take pictures regularly on my Iphone?  I have a Notes icon next to a Reminder icon and they seem redundant too.  I honestly just noticed the reminder icon when I started this blog, but I've entered things in the Notes section to remind me of things, so I'll say it again, I may not be smart enough for this phone.  I have a Game Center icon that I never opened until today and it thinks I'm my son Dan for some reason.  It may be Cloud related, but I've chosen not to get on the Cloud, so I really can't explain it.  The Newsstand icon goes unused, mine tells me that I can go and download magazines from the App store. Do I

Where I'll probably be after my wife reads that last line

really need an icon to tell me things I already know?  This seems really redundant, I downloaded a live application called a wife, for that,  26 years ago (only kidding dear, I'd be lost without you!).  I have no interest in using Passbook for travel or Stocks for checking stocks or even Itunes to use my phone to listen to music so those icons are useless to me.  I have exactly one song downloaded, it's the one for my ringtone and that took me years to customize. 

     I have recently downloaded Yelp and I have used it a few times, however, I find I get better information from the places that I eat.  My M.O. is to go to a good place and dine the first night, tip big, and then ask my server or bartender what other places in town are worth checking out.  They generally have the best information and after you've spent money in their place, they have no reason not to share it.  As I tend to travel in an area for 3 days, and repeat my visits,

thus far, this has been an more dependable way for me to find good restaurants.  My wife put Google Maps on for me, but I like my Tom-Tom, so I'll probably only use it if Tom-Tom doesn't work or it gets stolen.  I've thought about downloading a flashlight, but since I'm a Boy Scout leader, when I need a flashlight, I tend to have one.  I thought about downloading an app for tracking my wines, but I would have to enter the data while dining with others and I try and turn my phone off during these times, so it wouldn't be very helpful.  I regularly use the Contacts app, and I try and enter business cards in as soon as I get them.  If I'm at a great restaurant or hotel, I'll enter it in there and put a note in about why I liked it. A few weeks ago, while in Albany, I entered a great place to eat that was right in the lobby of a hotel I really liked (they even had a relaxation room with steam, tanning and massage).  That is invaluable information to me.  If there is a cheaper room rate to register under, then that gets entered too.  I use the  mail icon regularly, the settings button when I get on planes, and the clock button for an occasional alarm or stopwatch.  I text with the Message icon, but not very well.  Lastly, I'll use Safari to do a quick Internet search, but won't just surf the web on my phone, I'll wait to do that on my laptop later.  That's the whole gambit of what I have, have had, use and don't use on my phone. 

     Why do I resist the use of the technology so much?  It comes back to the old adage, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you have to.  In my business and in my life, I'll take a live conversation over

an e-mail and especially a text, any day.  It especially doesn't help when my phone auto corrects things that aren't incorrect to begin with. I meet people every day that are experts on something, so I take advantage of that and ask about what they do, and try and learn from them.  It's not as efficient as Google, but I feel connected to someone and it's usually mutually beneficial.  I limit the use of my phone and because I do, I'm not dependant on it.  I don't twitch when I hear an e-mail tone or ring, and I can get a text, buzz or beep without my feeling the need to check it out immediately.  I did fine in the era prior to instantaneous communication and instant self gratification and I suspect I'll do fine in the next era, whatever that one brings too.