I’ve been using the iPhone for a while now. How has it transformed my own particular mobile habits? In terms of telephony and texting, nothing’s changed. As for email, which was probably the biggest use of my previous (Blackberry) device, usage is about the same, although I am much slower typing on the virtual keyboard - I almost always make mistakes. I think the keyboard needs improving somehow.

So what about the changes? The number one change has been an increased use of podcasts. In fact, having an iPhone has really enabled me to discover podcasting. It’s a whole new world opened up to me by always carrying an iPod. Other than always being with me, there are two other factors that have pushed me towards podcasting: video and regular synchronisation.

The video interface on the iPhone is excellent, mostly due to its size of course. Initially, it wasn’t podcasting that pushed me towards video, but using iMovie to make small films, mostly family shots. It’s very easy to make films using iMovie and then export them to iTunes in the right format. Once I got hooked on portable video, I went looking for other things to watch. This eventually led to podcasting. The offshoot has been downloading tons of videocasts to view on my Apple TV, which, despite the various criticisms and poor uptake, I think is a brilliant device (more on that later).

I had listened to podcasts before on my iPod Nano. However, with the fact that I regularly charge the iPhone via the USB port, I am able to refresh the content often. Of course, now that I carry an iPod all the time, content consumption has gone up and I need to refresh often. This regular syncing habit along with always carrying the iPhone has proven to be enough of a tipping point to get hooked on podcasts. This is a transformation in my mobile habits thanks to the iPhone. Of course, one doesn’t need an iPhone to do this - any portable audio device will do, but I was not in the habit of carrying another device besides my phone.

Would this be possible with other phone/music devices? I guess so, but I think that the incredible ease of using iTunes to discover and manage the content is an integral part of the experience.

Having an iPhone has also taken photos to a new level. I, like many others, take tons of digital pics. I am already a Mac user, so I use iPhoto to manage my photo library. I just love the way that having set up some basic sync parameters, such as which folders to copy across, my iPhone - and my Apple TV - always have a fantastic library of refreshed pictures. What I’ve also noticed is that the size and ease of viewing pictures on the iPhone has increased the tendency to share with others by simply holding out the device for others to see. Admittedly, the cleverness of flicking the pictures with a finger swipe almost makes me want to show others, just to share in the impressiveness of the experience.

I haven’t noticed any real changes in my music listening habits, except that I now carry around a swatch of music videos. That’s more incidental than anything. Mostly these videos were downloaded to watch via the Apple TV, not the iPhone.

I have three young kids and having an iPhone has meant often giving it over to one of them to play with whilst we’re out and about. They like all the usual media content, but mostly they will use it to access YouTube. This isn’t so great for me as invariably I get the device back with the battery nearly flat. This is the overall downside of the iPhone. Using it often for streaming data, including web access, can rapidly run down the battery.

The web experience on the iPhone is so much better than what I was used to with the Blackberry. Just the simple things, like cookies that really work (so I can tick “remember me”) have proven useful. In the latest software release, I’ve already got used to the webclips feature, which basically enables me to put a link directly on the home screen. This is an obvious and simple feature, yet so powerful.

Which features would I like to see on the iPhone? I’d like to see push email and a much better camera. The existing camera is unusable. Most of the time, the pictures come out blurred due to the slow “shutter” speed. Of course, the 2MP resolution is lousy anyway.

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