A couple weeks ago, when I published my iPhone review, I claimed that it could easily replace the primary uses of a computer for most people. With the motherboard dying in my MacBook Pro this weekend, and a major propane explosion in Toronto forcing the evacuation of the nearest Apple Store, I spent the weekend computerless and was forced to eat my words, making the iPhone my primary computer for 48 hours.

I’ll admit, I’m still in the ‘wow’ period with my iPhone—even after receiving the first monthly bill. But there is a different type of interaction with the phone when you are sitting at home writing a review, or using it out in the ‘real world’.

Sure, it’s great be able to surf the internet from your phone, but it’s much more essential when you are on the go and need to lookup a phone number or address online.

I expected that because I am a power user, the iPhone could not possibly replace my need for a computer (most people don’t have 1200 RAW photos from Africa left to edit). However, I found that editing work aside, the iPhone was able to handle 80% of my day-to-day uses of a computer.

But it functioned better than a computer, because I did not need to designate certain hours of my day to a screen. Instead, in the moments that I was waiting for a meeting to start, waiting for the subway in the middle of the night, or waiting for Swiss Chalet to bring my large order of fries, I can get things done that I would normally need a computer to do. Organizing and responding to emails, surfing the web, and catching up on RSS feeds.

It gets to the point where when I’ve been out all day, I can come home, and not feel the need to do anything. It feels as if I haven’t missed a thing. So while I still hold to the belief that the iPhone acts as computer in your pocket, it isn’t the kind of computer that you would sit down at home and use to work on. Instead, it’s a device that supplements the primary uses of a computer while on the go.

And when using it with that mindset, it’s flawless.

After 8 months, I’ve decided to do a slight refresh of MichaelMistretta.com. It’s hard to notice slight changes on other people’s sites, so I thought I’d point out a couple noticeable improvements. If you’re viewing this in RSS, be sure to click through to view the refreshed design.

Refreshed Design

While I had planned to have a complete redesign of the site finished by now, I’ve been caught up in other projects—most notably, The Plank—which have been taking a huge chunk of my time as of late. Better than rush to get too many things done, I’ve decided to postpone the redesign, but still felt it necessary to refresh some things that were bugging me (to say the least).

The background has been darkened, and the font has been changed (thank God, I know). Hopefully, everything is much more legible, and easier to read for long periods of time.

If you want to see just how drastic of a change this makes to the overall feel of the site, check out the before/after shot of the designs.

Colophon

I also decided to completely re-write my Colophon page, as lots has changed over the past 8 months. It’s not easy for me to write about myself, but I think I’ve finally reached something I’m happy with. So if you can’t get enough of me, check it out.

Linked List

I’ve encountered many blog posts that I want to share on my site, but do not warrant a full post. In order to manage these links, I have created a new category of post—Linked List. Similar to what many other bloggers have done, there will be two different types of posts on MichaelMistretta.com.

A linked list post will not display a title when viewed on the home page. You can view all of the linked list posts here.

Having both linked list-style posts and full articles will allow me to update the blog on a much more frequent basis, and I think it will help to mirror more of my interests into the RSS feed as well.

-Michael

Kyle Baxter has written an excellent review of Cultured Code’s Things:

A productivity application is only as useful as how much users actually use it. A to-do application is utterly useless if users do not use it all of the time — if a user spreads their tasks out across a to-do application and, say, a notebook, they have two places they must reference when working on that project, which wastes time. Ultimately, then, they are likely to stop using the application altogether because it creates little value for them.

Part of the reason I refrained from using a task management system was because most applications required you to take a university course in GTD before actually being able to use them. I don’t want to spend more time maintaining my todo list than actually getting things done from that list.

After reaching the same conclusion as Kyle—that my memory would not suffice as a task management system—I forced myself to develop a GTD workflow. I decided to test both OmniFocus and Things—two of the popular new task management apps for the Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch.

OmniFocus sat stagnant in my Dock for two weeks. I dreaded having to open it up and set up my projects and contexts, so I never actually took the time to do it. It just seemed to require too much of an overhead—too much that I needed to know.

Things, on the other hand, I was able to open up and start working with right away. I started by simply writing down all the things I had to do today. As I continued to use the app, I developed a project and folder hierarchy, and refined my tagging system.

Really, there were only a couple requirements for my ideal GTD app:

• The ability to quickly jot down all the tasks that came to mind.
• Tools to help organize, sort, and filter my tasks.
• Helping me not only to organize, but also to focus on what I have to get done today¹.
• An elegant and simple interface, that looks and behaves like a Mac app.

Things has done all these things right. It doesn’t get in the way, but instead puts the focus on my tasks, and allows me to work like my mind thinks. It still needs some polish, which I’m sure will come with it’s 1.0 release, but already, Cultured Code has accomplished an amazing feat.

They’ve brought the power of productivity to the rest of us.

I couldn’t help but notice all the new faces from Shawn Blanc’s blog around the site today.
Thank you all for visiting, and feel free to subscribe or browse the archives if you’re interested.

If your up for it, shoot me an email—I’d love to chat.

Cheers,
Michael