Sunday, June 27, 2010

O Brave New World that has such iPhones in it




Traveling to New York today. There will no doubt be much to eat and I'm hoping to mobile blog a little from my beloved iPhone of course!

This little bit of technology has become so integrated into my life that I feel blind if I walk out the door without it-- I check emails, do banking, read the news, update myself on World Cup scores, take photos, edit them with the mobile Photoshop, and upload them to BlogPressLite-- all from this tiny little magical device. And I don't even have the slick new iPhone 4.

I am, however, still amazed that I can discover nifty new tricks with it. In the past I always had to hunt around for a place with computer access if I wanted to check into a flight online and to print my boarding pass before I got to the airport chaos. For this trip though, I got my "please check in online" message from Delta on my phone. I skipped nimbly over to their website in Safari and noticed as I checked in that there was an option for downloading your boarding pass to a mobile device.

"How cool would that be?" I mused to myself.



I've already taken and stored photos of some of those ubiquitous, pesky loyalty/discount cards, since the resolution of the iPhone's screen is high enough that the barcode can be scanned by the readers at Safeway or DSW Shoe warehouse. But I've never tried this, even though-- as I later discovered--eboarding passes on your phone have been around for years.



But has it been implemented everywhere? Would they take it? I admit I was chicken enough that I printed out a paper copy too, just in case. No one wants to walk the massive horrendous security line only to discover that the TSA has no idea why you're waving your phone at them.

But while navigating the cattle maze to the security desk, iI opened my text from Delta which had a link to my eboarding pass webpage on Safari. The woman at the desk didn't bat an eyelash, but took my driver's license and told me to hold the phone screen up to the scanner. It bleeped happily and that was that.

"Oh, that is so cool!" some behind me enthused.

"Isn't it?" I burbled, feeling like a kid with a new toy. Or an old lady who's discovered that this newfangled techie sumthin-er-other can still do some neato tricks. I hate rummaging in my bag for the scrap of paper boarding pass and I'm always afraid I'm going to drop it or lose it while I'm shuffling things around buying a bagel at the terminal.

Now, of course there could be drawbacks. What if you couldn't get web access at the airport? Well if you a worrier (and I am certainly one) when you do your online check in and you get to your boarding pass link, you could just take a screenshot so it's always stored on your camera roll. Do you know how to take a screenshot? Simultaneously press the power button on the top and the Main Button at the bottom of your iPhone. It'll automatically take a shot of whatever is on your screen at that moment and store it on your Camera Roll.

Another possible fly in the ointment is of course a dead battery. It's a good idea to have enough charge in the phone before you head to the airport. But remember you can always just go to the airline's check in kiosks and print a paper boarding pass.

But as it was, I was giddy at my new discovery and patted myself on the back and rewarded myself with a magazine and little treat.


- Posted from my iPhone

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