Last year, I did an experiment where the iPhone was my sole computing and communications device for almost two weeks. That was over a family vacation, so there were really no critical business needs. Now I’m about to go on a one week trip. I’ve decided to leave the laptop behind while traveling to Barcelona, Spain for the Mobile World Congress conference and exhibition.

As I’m typing this blog post, I’m actually in the taxi heading towards the Kuala Lumpur international airport. My trip is about 18 hours including a transit in Amsterdam.

I’ve decided not to bring my laptop. My iPhone will serve as phone, email device, reference device and document reader. I have a dozen meetings lined up (outside of the conference proper), so I have quite a task managing time, people, location and their contact information. Data for all of this sits on my iPhone.

I have three backups for the above data : on Google (Gmail and Google Calendar), my office Exchange server, and printed documents.

This is my first time in Spain and Barcelona, so I’ve downloaded a couple of useful applications : a guide to the Barcelona metro system, and a Lonely Planet Spanish guide.

The basic iPhone apps are already set for travel : the clock, Weather, Google Maps. I’ve heard numerous horror stories about the cost of data roaming, so I’ll keep Internet access at a bare minimum.

For the trip out (and back), I’ve loaded the iPhone with ebooks, audio books, and the latest episodes of my favourite TV series for me to catch up.

I’ll try to update the blog from Barcelona (if schedule permits), otherwise I’ll see you here next week!

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Filed under: iPhone

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