Once again the work day passed in a blur, but I never really did much on my phone during work so this wasn’t a surprise. Jogging home was absolutely horrible though! At least at the gym I have a clock that I can easily look at to keep track of the time (I’m doing the Couch to 5k running program, and need to run/walk at specific intervals). With the c25k app I can just focus on running while voice prompts through the earphones tell me when it’s time to walk or run. Without the iphone, and without a treadmill, running home from the office was difficult at best. I wore my watch and put it on the stopwatch feature, put on my little Telstra mp3 player and set off. The very first interval where I had to change to running I was 30 seconds too late (I forgot to look at my watch). The rest of the run home I spent checking my watch every 30 seconds instead of focusing on my running technique. Very distracting, and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

This evening we went to a friends place for some poker and drinks. Angeline told me about how thrilled she was on getting the new iphone 3gs, and how she hasn’t stopped playing with it since. Props to her for being considerate though, since she didn’t take it out to show me (or torment me). Listening to the two of us discussing it finally convinced Paige that she wants one, and given that her phone contract runs out next month it’s perfect timing for her. She’ll be signing up for a new one as soon as she possibly can. Angeline congratulated me on being strong and giving myself a challenge, while Stu said I was just sadistic (he’s another iphone addict). We all then stirred Mat about not being able to go without poker for a week, which he just gave up and said he couldn’t do it (all this time he had been saying he could, but just “needed to find the right time”). I WIN!!

Purely because my friends are lovely and considerate, the night was a breeze. I was always occupied with poker so if I’d had my iphone I probably wouldn’t have used it anyway, and without their iphones laying around tempting me I had no problems at all. Once again I’m up for another challenge tomorrow though.

Tomorrow night we’re going to watch some friends play netball, another prime iphone opportunity. Normally while they’re playing I would multi-task watching the game while updating twitter. No twitter for me tonight! It feels like I’m disconnected when I go out on the town without tweeting, it’s a very strange sensation (I think it’s confirmed I’m a twitter addict).

I’m on the home straight now though! Only 3 days to go!

**Favourite moment for the day**

Not a “favourite” moment as such, but rather a “notable” one. Almost having a melt down over not having music while jogging!

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Tomorrow night should be a bit more difficult though. Actually, a LOT more difficult. I’ll be visiting a friend’s house for some drinks & social time, and unfortunately (well, for me anyway)  they just recently purchased a brand new iphone 3gs. I’ve been dying to see one of these in action, so the fact that I will be in such close proximity to it and yet unable to even look at it without failing the challenge will kill me. I know there are a few of my twitter followers (no names @gcboi) who will be extremely eager to find out how I fared. Knowing my friends, I’m pretty sure they’ll take every opportunity to stir me up about it.

Mat informed me this morning that even after two days of “usage” the iphone’s battery is still a bit over 3/4 full. I have never been able to achieve that in the entire time I’ve owned the iPhone, so it really shows just how little he’s been using it. He hasn’t even bothered to install any additional apps! I had to tell him how to delete a text message tonight, however you can see that he’s become a lot more comfortable with using it in just the way he handles it. There might be positive signs on the horizon yet that he would be interested in getting one, but whether he would use it to its full potential remains to be seen.

Lastly, there are no exciting or funny moments to report. Stay tuned for tomorrow night’s post where I will let rip on how nasty my friends are for teasing me and just how difficult it was to not play with the 3gs. I’m almost halfway through the challenge now though, and I’m determined not to fail! 4 days to go!

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Since I felt like yesterday wasn’t too bad I decided I was going to challenge myself today. After discovering the weather was going to be fine (via the Bureau of Meteorology website on the PC), I confirmed with Mat that I would ride my bike in. Normally this means that my iPhone would go in the front pocket of my backpack, earphones hanging out so I could listen to music while I rode. Today, I would have my iPod so I wasn’t completely without music. The only problem was that as I was riding in I realised I’d made a stupid choice for a playlist which had some non-favourable songs included. Typically one came on just as I was riding on the downhill/fast bit of the ride to work and I didn’t really want to stop the momentum just to change song (since the button on my iPhone headphones doesn’t work with my iPod). I frowned and kept riding, putting up with it.

The rest of the day passed in much of a blur. Towards the afternoon though it was time to go on a bit of a break (since I’d eaten my lunch working at the desk) and decided I would treat myself to a hot chocolate at San Churros. Catch was that I had to have it dining in. This is where the iPhone really shone – when you’re alone at a cafe/restaurant. Ordinarily I would spend the time reading through my rss feeds, catching up on facebook, or tweeting. With only the nokia I wasn’t confident in how it would go.

I was shocked by how fast the internet speed on the nokia was (still using optus 3g) but that was due to the fact that most of the websites have been adapted for mobiles (and therefore highly text based with absolute minimal graphics). While it felt faster than the iPhone, it was just downright ugly. I connected to facebook and even twitter, but gave up. Web browsing just wasn’t as fun with the nokia.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful. Before Mat left for poker tonight he advised me that the battery on the iPhone has also only dropped just a small amount. Normally after 1.5 days I need to charge it up! Definitely shows just how little Mat is using the phone, but I’m hoping that he will start using it more when he’s had time at home to actually play with it.

**Favourite moment of the day**

Getting 3 text messages from Mat tonight, the last one being “I can’t text message from this thing”. My, how technology befuddles him. Stark contrast from last night when he was so proud of making a phone call.

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After I had handed over the phone I started playing with the replacement nokia. While I thought it was a brilliant phone when I had first gotten it (one of the first phones to have inbuilt GPS with maps and turn-by-turn navigation) it just couldn’t compare now. There was no twittering from this phone, no wifi, and no way of easily locating apps to download and install. Of the “apps” that were designed for the phone, 99% of them are games, and dodgy ones at that. I could tell already this phone was purely going to be “just a phone” over the next week.

I decided to get off the computer (which meant no chatting to friends anymore – didn’t have my iphone to use beejive) and read a book. The night passed fairly quickly then, and eventually Mat and I went to bed. Normally in bed I would lay there for a bit and read google reader until I felt tired, would put the iPhone down and fall asleep. This particular night, I laid in bed and twiddled my thumbs until slumber came.

This morning I woke up and didn’t really have time to think about it (although it did feel a bit funny getting the nokia and putting it into my bag instead of the iPhone). It wasn’t until I had dropped Mat off at work and was driving to my own workplace I had thought about picking up some groceries to use for dinner tonight. Which then made me think that I should check my bank balance first. Unless I was interested in using a painful automatic phone system, then checking my account would be impossible. For the second time in less than 24 hours I missed my phone. I decided I would pick up the groceries at the end of the day after I’d had a chance to check the account using the work computer. Inconvenienced moment number 1.

Later in the day I had the radio playing in the background at work when I heard a fantastic song come on. I’d never heard it before and was interested to find out who it was. Without my phone I couldn’t use shazam, and typically the radio dj didn’t say who it was at the conclusion of the song. Inconvenienced moment number 2.

The only time that I truly had a problem about missing my phone today was at the gym. I use an application called c25k (iTunes link) which is designed to train a couch potato to run 5km in only 9 weeks. It’s absolutely fantastic. You start your ipod music on the iphone, then turn on the app. You can listen to your music (with full functions including skipping songs, pausing etc) and will get voice prompts from the c25k on when it’s time to walk or run, warm up or cool down, and when you’ve reached half way. Using this app means that you don’t have to focus on the clock – you can focus on your breathing or technique, or something else altogether. Tonight at the gym I was only equipped with my old ipod classic which meant I had to pay attention to the clock and make sure I was walking/running at the right times. It felt like it almost made it a bit harder, because I was looking at how much time I had left. Towards the end of the workout I found I could use that to my advantage though and started counting down the time remaining rather than thinking “oh god now I have all this time to go”. Still, I definitely felt the loss of the iPhone, and that app in particular. Inconvenienced moment numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the number of times I changed pace during my running training).

I’ve now been without my iPhone for 25 hours and I’m travelling pretty well. I’m not a raving lunatic demanding to get it back (yet), though I daresay that’s because I’ve been able to access the *main* functions all day via a computer – twitter & chatting to friends online. At this stage I expect I will find the rest of the week fairly easy like today (unless a certain sister keeps calling stirring me up about what she’s doing on her phone!!) but the real challenge will be the weekend. That’s when the iPhone comes into it’s prime – when I’m out and about and have lots of time to kill.

Until then, I think I’ll manage. Just.

**Favourite moments from today**

Picking up the nokia to call a friend with Mat saying “where are you taking my phone” only to realise it’s technically mine at the moment. Then looking sheepish for it.

Waiting for a friend to arrive home, and Mat whipping out the iPhone to call them before putting it away while looking at me with a VERY smug look on his face (not sure if that was to stir me about the iPhone or the fact that he was proud he’d worked out how to use it all by himself).

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