Written by:

Frank Sisco, 30 Mill Road, New Rochelle, NY 10804

Home office - 914.740.4422, Cell - 914.589.1013; Email – ideasmoney@aol.com

www.LifeAndMoney.com

Word count = 1,309 words plus 61 words for About the Author)

The buzz is becoming a deafening roar about Apple's new iPhone. Change your television channel and you bump into the ubiquitous clever commercials. Here's the URL in case you want to see them all: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad2/

Flip to another channel and watch the news covering the crowds standing on line to buy iphones. Or open up the New York Times and see another excellent detailed review by columnist David Pogue. Turn on your car radio and the talk show is debating - guess what - iPhones! This $600 wireless device is a cell phone and iPod and internet device all wrapped up into one with the interface being a multi-touch glass screen that you simply tap on the appropriate commands.

As a long-time lover of Apple and its products like the Macintosh (I got one the first week they went on sale back in 1984) and the iPod, I'm looking forward to buying an iPhone and discovering the many ways it is bound to affect my life. Before setting sale, I thought I'd set out a few cautionary ideas for you (and for myself) to be guides before and after purchase.

1. Nothing is everything but some things do many things well.

Don't expect the iPhone to be the best at each and every possible feature. What makes it remarkable is not only that it handles so many features so well but also that its elegant interface enables you to use the many features. For example, many cell phones have loads of features but the difficulties in accessing and using the features prevent most people from doing even the simplest of tasks. Like the fact that most people don't know how to use their VCRs to tape TV programs when they are not at home. What I found so advantageous over the years about Macintosh computers was that there was commonality in many of the commands of very different software applications giving me the ability to delve into areas with confidence that ordinarily may be perceived as having a learning curve that was too steep and difficult. I encourage taking the twenty-minute tour on the apple.com website to get a sense of the iPhone and how simple it is to use. Go to:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/guidedtour.html

2. Personalize while you socialize.

You will find that the iPhone has so many useful features you may get tempted to dive into them all right way, and then get overwhelmed and shun other areas of your life. Set a budget of time. Definitely try many of the features to distinguish between the ones you really should use now and those that should wait until later. Knowing about all of them now can help you can spot opportunities. For myself, even though I'm a music lover, for right now my iPod and CD player at home and in the car are sufficient, and so I'll spend my iPhone investment time on the features dealing with the internet and the cell phone. For you it may be the reverse. As you use your iPhone, explore ways to personalize the experience so you heighten your comfort while reaching out to others in new ways of communicating your thoughts and feelings. Some examples follow. If you're a service professional with many customers, it may be a great investment of your time to button up your contact software on your computer and sync it with your iPhone. Then you can call customers and leads more often while you are away from your office, in order to increase sales. Let's say you have a home improvements business with several contractors and clients. As your employees take assignments they can email you and others the photos of before and after projects so you all can share them with potential customers, either in person during presentations, or by email, or for uploading to your website for other uses. If you're frugal and a fanatic about bargains when you shop, perhaps you will use the internet feature while in a store examining an item to buy and get comparative prices from sites like dealtime.com, which could lead to discovering a much better price at a store right nearby. You could even use these shopping skills to help your family members who may not have an iPhone - yet. Personalization and socialization can greatly enhance each other.

3. Create, create, create.

I think the best way to best utilize a product is to find new uses for it. Curiosity and creativity can lead to savings in time and money, and enhancements in life. Some products lead to whole new industries, like the personal computer spawning desktop publishing 20 years ago or internet search engines significantly expanding the proliferation of and access to information and knowledge. The iPhone, I believe, is such a product for a few reasons. First, it is multi-dimensional, having many different uses. Next, the underlying aspects, such as the cellular network and the internet network, are already extensive and are growing in speed and reach. Third, the company, Apple, is a creative designer seeking simplicity and consumer appeal and is an effective marketer able to persuade millions of people to become early users. This builds a very attractive audience for other businesses to create ancillary products and services, all feeding the expanding IPhone industry. The expected huge population of iPhone users will almost guarantee that improvements will come soon in the current shortcomings and future glitches (e.g. quicker online access). Copycats and competitors will further serve to expand the industry and explore creative new uses, with some fringes become major. And at the core is the beauty of a product that in the beginning is already very useful and which can evolve in significant leaps, through software enhancements and even later major hardware overhauls, to become even more amazing.

Later on, perhaps much later, I expect iPhones to project large display outside of themselves. And to decipher spoken information in several languages. And to be lightning fast online and to store many times the existing storage amounts. Back to the point of finding new uses. If you are a roofer, while you are standing on the roof, email photos of the damaged roof to your customer and talk about the planned repairs right then and there. Maybe even videoclips. If you are a tour guide, send key website links to your participants the prior night of the tour's itinerary maps, photos, videoclips - so they can best plan the day and their questions. If your parents are still sharp but limited physically and can't shop in phone, then buy them an iPhone and show them how to browse the aisles from home and to order their foods and grocery goods, or their next movie or song. Buy an iPhone for your middle school child to make sure they always have at their fingertips millions of published items, and can read it while waiting for a bus. Or an oil painter to have handy photos of all your works, along with audio or video explanations, so you can show a potential customer whom you run into. Or a business manager who wants to share with your staff an important news item on the internet while you are having lunch. Or a real estate agent having the MLS of homes in her pocket, along with the whole internet. Or a surgeon showing diagrams and videos of an upcoming emergency operation to the patient's family members around an emergency room bed. Or a rock band or comedian who wants to have videoclips of their best performances handy when meeting someone about a new gig. Or a writer capturing a story on the spot, or a . . . The list goes on and on. It's all up to you! Please email your ideas and your actual iPhone experiences and I'll publish the most intriguing ones.

About the author:

Frank Sisco is a CPA and Personal Financial Specialist and writes on topics related to life and money. You can contact Frank by email at ideasmoney@aol.com or by phone at 914.589.1013 in order to express your opinion about this article or to obtain copies of prior articles. He resides in New Rochelle, NY with his wife and daughter.