Home Again

Back home from Frankfurt, back to my MacBook Pro.

It was a good trip and not as big a sacrifice as I thought to be without my main computer. In a pinch I can get everything done on the iPhone. It's the convenience factor that works two ways.

I took the photo of the subway station entrance in Frankfurt on the iPhone. A few steps later, without breaking stride, it was on it's way home in an email. Try that on a laptop!

On the plus side for the iPhone there's the fact that it's always with me and always connected. Emails are pushed to me right away and the web is a touch away. Walking down the street, Google Maps are in the palm of my hand. I didn't have to lug the MacBook and it's bag around airports or drag the laptop out at security for X-ray. I was really traveling light!

On the down side is the inconvenience of only running one app at a time. On my MacBook Pro I use Spaces with 4 "desktops" running different apps at the same time. It's easy to move from one app to another, and they're all active. If I"m in iTunes and my RSS reader gets a new post the icon bounces and there's a flag with the number of unread posts. Same thing with Mail.

I'll be bringing the MacBook Pro on my next trip. The benefits of having a big screen and multitasking are greater than the inconvenience of lugging the thing around. The MacBook Pro will stay in the room and the iPhone will be in my pocket when I'm out and about. The best of both worlds!