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In wake of Apple’s World Developer’s Conference and the recent launching of the Palm PRE, I felt it in our best interest to explore the iphone’s impact in a bit more detail with our own launch.

“The iphone has given me a fun way to consistently track, expand and create progress in my day to day business,” Peak Performance Strategist Jairek Robbins, owner of the Jairek Robbins Companies and  creative team member of mediaADDICT LLC (owners of the Brainbites Channel), told me in a recent interview.

Jairek Robbins is not the only life coach sporting igear. Anthony Robbins is also rumored to carry an iphone with him every where he goes. Getting Things Done productivity Coach Kelly Forrister, since her purchase of the gadget, has started blogging about her on own GTD implementations offering her own suite of best practices for the device.  Kelly recently switched from Key Tasks back to Lotus Notes, since the David Allen company uses Lotus Notes internally rather than Microsoft Outlook. Will she be sporting the PRE in the coming months, inquiring minds want to know?

The iphone users seem to be Getting Things Done fanatics.  According to  WebIs Founder Alex Kac Getting Things Done task functionality was one of the most sought after task settings requested in their Pocket Informant iPhone application before its release in the iPhone App store.  We had the opportunity to follow it through from its early inception with his team.

However the iphone is not always the best for everyone, especially heavy email users. “If people need to type a LOT on a PDA, like business people who travel a lot and need to be emailing all the time, then a Blackberry may be a better choice – just because it’s easier to type quickly on the BB. ” User Experience Consultant and Bit Literacy Author Mark Hurst told me in a recent interview. Note Mark Hurst is considered one of the pioneers of the online User Experience movement and arguably knows a thing or two about technology effectiveness. “Except for that case, though, the iPhone is better – yes, in part because there is an iPhone version of Gootodo available! ,” Hurst invented Gootodo.com (his example of a truly effective task program) ,” but mainly because the iPhone delivers everything – email, Web, Google Maps, camera, photos, video and music iPod, apps – everything – with ease-of-use and elegance to a degree that is unmatched in any other device.”

The ease of use and utter simplicity seem to be its key hallmarks. “I do use the Touch as my PDA, though. Several reasons for doing this:

It syncs flawlessly with my iMac. It is speedy. Its screen is unbeatable. The built-in Contacts list and Calendar are very nice, and serve my needs well. Appigo’s Todo application lets me sync tasks perfectly with the Toodledo online task management system. (It also syncs with Remember The Milk, but I prefer Toodledo.)” Productivity expert and technology blogger Bruce Keener, who uses the ipod touch which sports a similar feature set, chimed in as well about its robust usability standards. “The Safari browser beats all other PDA browsers I have ever used, hands down. It’s like actually being connected to the internet instead of kinda-half-way connected. It goes with me wherever I go … I always listen to the music while driving, and of course it is great for playing audiobooks or podcasts while driving, too. I still have my Dell x51v and my Palm TX but do not use either …when one device does all you need, then it makes no sense to tote around multiple devices. Of course, once I do get an iPhone, next year, then I’ll no longer need the BlackBerry either”

“The iPhone is a new type of device – a true hand-held computer – that we’ve never had before,” Mark Hurst continued. “I think the iPhone is the most significant new digital device we’ve had perhaps since the original launch of Macintosh over 20 years ago. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this little device.”

Mark’s words sparked me to delve deeper into the subject leading me to ask the obvious question — what does the engineer who designed the first Macintosh think of all the hoopla surrounding the iPhone -- Steve Woziank. I had the pleasure of speaking with him several months back about the subject and this podcast contains the results.