I went to a seminar last week at the University of Sussex. For the first time in my life I did not take a pen, nor a notebook. I took my iPod Touch. I sat there listening to the seminar and when anything of interest came along I picked up the iPod Touch and thumbed in the notes. I felt a bit self-conscious about it. Everyone was sitting around a large circle of desks, I guess there were about thirty people there. When I picked up the iPod Touch I felt that maybe other people thought I was playing a little game or texting a friend or something.
I had changed the settings on the iPod Touch so that it wouldn’t make any sound whatsoever when, for example, an email arrives or if an alarm goes off from the calendar. Also because the iPod Touch has, well, a touch screen, then it is completely silent, there is no risk of clicking or anything that maybe could be possible with a Blackberry.
For the actual business of note taking I found it to be very good. I used the standard notepad application that comes with the iPod Touch and then just emailed the notes to myself when the seminar was over. I found it rather liberating not having to hang onto a piece of paper or worry about a pen leaking in my jacket pocket. You could say, I guess, that I have the iPod Touch to worry about but I think one reason why mobile devices are so successful is that we rather like worrying about them.
I’m getting into the way of thumbing which, of course, Blackberry users have been doing for ages. Once you get used to it it is pretty fast. I don’t take copious notes (funny how lots of notes is always copious) but rather I just take down a few things that I want to remember.
Oddly enough while I think I’m okay with using the iPod Touch in a seminar I don’t think I could use it in a meeting with, say one or two people. I don’t know and when I next have one I might try this out. I guess it might be okay if I was having a meeting with Steve Jobs. The funny thing is that while I feel that people give you the space to write notes in a notebook, they will sort of slow down speaking for you in a small group, I would wonder if they’d do the same if you were thumbing into an iPod Touch or a Blackberry?
When I arrived at the seminar all prepared to use my iPod Touch for the first time I sat down and the person right beside me got out what was either an iPhone or an iPod Touch. I thought maybe I wasn’t going to be the only one taking notes on my iPod, but in fact my neighbour just put the iPhone or iPod Touch on the desk face down, then got out a sheet of paper and started writing notes on that. Thinking about it all later I wondered if it was an iPhone and she was recording the seminar? I sort of doubt it though.
