Greg Benedict

After the announcement of the iPad, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how it might change my workflow. I’m always looking to be more efficient and gain time back.

Let me shock and few people here. I don’t like my MacBook Pro for reading or watching video. It’s awkard, heavy, tough on the eyes and not in the right form factor. It’s great for design and programming, but not for what I want to do with it on my free time.

The ultimate tool for this must be truly portable. I should be able to pick it up and go where I want. Books are great for this, laptops aren’t.

Consumption

A large part of my free time is spent consuming. I think it’s vital for continuing to grow that I do so. Some people choose books or magazines. I prefer real people and real opinions.

Let me get it out in the open. I love my iPhone. It has absolutely changed the way I consume information. To a point, however.

I enjoy listening podcasts - there are 27 in my weekly rotation alone. My favorite feature on the iPhone is the ability to play podcasts at 2x speed. I get through them faster and I truly feel like I remember more. It has essentially rewired my brain to work faster and made me ALOT better at context switching. I make decisions faster and I’m no longer overwhelmed by email.

iTunes does not have this built in and it irritates me to no end. They took it out of Quicktime X and I have to open a file in QT 7, then hit command K to change the speed - every time. It’s easier to just sync and use my iPhone.

In addition to listening, I read/scan quite a bit. I currently consume 328 RSS feeds and have gone through over 4300 items in the last 30 days. I follow over 200 people on twitter. There are two key steps that help me wade through all of this for the good stuff. 

Efficiency

I don’t read everything. Unless you hate your family and friends, it’s impossible. Since I love my family and want to spend time with them, I use tools like Google Reader (Reeder on the iPhone) and Tweetie to scan the hell out of headlines, the first few paragraphs and links. Those items I want to read, I shove to Instapaper.

Instapaper does several things for me.

1. It’s a bookmarking service for later referral on the iPhone or your computer.
2. It takes all of the crap away, giving you a very readable page on the iPhone.
3. It works offline.
4. I can export to my Kindle which is GREAT for reading.

As great as these three tools paired with the iPhone are at helping me consume, they falter in certain scenarios, like watching longer video and sharing.

I won’t go into the issues of Flash for video right now as the alienation should be apparent.

Sharing

I come across things everyday that I want to share with you. I see much of my work and personal life in my peers and I know from the thousands of people who read my blog that it circles back now and again. When I find a great opinion or an inspirational piece, naturally, I want to share it.

Essentially, there are two key types of information I want to share:

1. Quick Items - Links, videos, quotes, etc. that refer you directly to others
2. Long Form - Opinions, rants, raves or more detailed articles.

For a long time I’ve used Wordpress to do this on my personal site. However, it breaks down for several reasons. I spend way more time patching it than actually using it. It’s not easy to quickly share, embed, quote, etc. It’s really only good for pages content and longer posts.

For about a year and a half now I’ve been toying with Tumblr. I’ve wanted to use it more, but I’ve honestly had to much emotional baggage handcuffing me to my blog. That stops today. It just doesn’t matter. Tumblr just makes it to fucking easy to grab and share back out. I love it.

So, I have setup several sites on Tumblr.

• Inside Optimistic - We’re changing some things around at TGFI to better show people who we are, what we like and why we do things the way we do. This place for sharing is similar to Coudal’s Fresh Signals but with a more focused approach.
• My Personal Tumblog - This is where I’ll be going medium to long form, and sharing things of a more personal nature.
• Obsessive Observation - I have a fascination with people watching. What are they doing? Why are they doing it? Some of what was on here I’ll be moving to my personal Tumblr account as that makes more sense. 

A little side note on Tumblr. Most people see it as a tool for quick sharing. I highly urge you to reconsider that view point. There is some fantastic stuff coming out of the community and is in essence a focused, highly visual version of twitter.

Where the iPad Comes in

So by now it looks like I baited you in to this with an iPad headline. Not intentional. I just had more to get more off my chest than I thought.

For me, the iPad is a much better fit. My iPhone is always with me, but that small screen limits what I can do. It’s hard to write about something you can’t easily reference. I also think I’ll get alot more use out of Pastebot. Scan on the iPhone, consume and share on the iPad.

Some of you may want it, but 3G and GPS just aren’t important for me. I’m not going to use it in the car much, and if I do I can use the tools I want offline (like Instapaper). 99% of the time I need internet access I’ll be within reach of WIFI or can use my iPhone for the task. If I really do end up needing it, I’ll just get a Verizon MIFI which is much more useful anyway.

Truth be told, unless I’m coding or want to watch a Flash video, I no longer have to open my laptop at night or try to use the tiny iPhone screen at the gym. 10 hours of battery is outstanding. Even at 5 I’ll have WAY more than I need to curate my little garden.