Normally I like to ‘unplug’ on vacation. No computers. My vacation to Honduras last week was different. I brought my iPhone with me, despite knowing that I would be out of my coverage area and wouldn’t be able to make calls. Even though it mostly sat in my pocket inactive during the day, I found that it was extremely handy when I needed to convert lepiras to dollars in order to figure out how much I was spending.
Along will the helping with simple calculations, I’ve discovered that my iPhone is my new reading device. Part of my rationale for ‘unplugging’ during vacation has to do with removing work-related stress and distractions, but with my iPhone I find it very relaxing to sit on the couch at the end of the day and flick through the RSS feeds in my Google Reader to find articles to read.
It’s commonly known that reading large amounts of text from a screen strains your eyes. With my iPhone, even on long articles, I’m able to quickly digest text in small amounts (it doesn’t hurt that the screen resolution is over double that of standard computer monitors, 163 ppi). Add to this the fact that I’m not hunched over a computer at a desk, or sitting with laptop on my lap.
Even down in Central America, I was able to get up on Sunday morning and read my Sunday Times.
I like that.