Let me take you back.  The year was 2008.  Bush was in the White House, gas was under three dollars, and the Blackberry Storm was sweeping the nation.  (Yes, you should probably read that last bit in an old-timey newsreel announcer voice.)  And no wonder, as Verizon had just unleashed the first ever touch-screen Blackberry; no roller ball scrolling or stylus for this generation.  Since then, phones have continued to evolve; there’s a new iPhone, the Droid is gaining popularity, and of course there is a slew of new touchscreen phones dominating the market.

If you remember, two years ago half the 360 PSG office got Blackberry Storm smartphones, and a few of us either still had “old-fashioned” flip phones or iPhones.

Two years later, after contracts had expired, Blackberries had been cursed, and iPhones broken, lost, stolen, or replaced (thanks Apple Care), I thought I’d see what the office was using now that smartphones dominate the market.

Since that last blog, Kelli, Dan, Eric, and I have all upgraded to the iPhone 4, Jason and Ben both got the Samsung Fascinate, and Joel upgraded to the Motorola Droid X.  No matter the make or model of phone, every 360 PSG employee loves his or her phone.  So what makes them so great?  Most of us split work and personal time on our cell phones, and we all love to have our email at our fingertips.  Since phones have become extensions of ourselves, here’s what some of us had to say about our phones:

How does your phone help you with work?

Dan:

It’s a mini computer, good while on the go.

Jason:

Allows me to easily check my email and see and update my appointment schedule on the fly.

Kelli:

It let’s me listen to my entire music collection while working

Jena:

I don’t have the internet on my phone so I don’t use it for any work purposes.

Ben:

Constant internet access, email and calendar

Joel:

All my email, meeting schedules, task list, browser… basically can perform company-wide communications anywhere, anytime.

Eric:

I have all my ims, e-mails and server notifications going directly to my phone so I know what’s going on at all times.

Favorite phone feature?

Dan:

Touch Screen

Jason:

App store and the ability to quickly search and download new apps.

Kelli:

Who needs a GPS when you have an iPhone? I’ve driven all over the Northeast using just the Maps app to guide me.

Jena:

I didn’t buy this phone with any specific features in mind.  I just use it for calling and texting.

Ben:

It’s FAST and I haven’t had any annoying lockups or anything yet.  GPS app is awesome and so is the browser.

Joel:

The app store makes it easy to find tools and apps that help organize and streamline processes all the time.

Eric:

The beautiful screen.

Least favorite phone feature (or bug)?

Dan:

Keyboard

Jason:

No cancel button on the phone itself.  Blackberry has one, the Android phones have a ‘search’ button instead.

Kelli:

The inability to remove default applications.

Ben:

Bing as the default search engine (unchangeable).

Joel:

No real complaints. Early on, it had some software boot up hiccups/delays… but a patch they released in Nov/Dec of 2010 cleared it up and booting quickly since.

Eric:

Notifications. When you get a lot of them it’s hard to keep track. Androids notification pull down is a far superior method than anything we have on the iPhone (without jailbreaking).

If you already have an iPhone, have you ever considered switching to a different phone?  Why?

Kelli:

No. Why would I? It’s like having an extension of my macbook on me at all times. I don’t need anything else.

Eric:

Windows phone looks rather interesting.  It’s nice Microsoft came up with a fresh idea rather than the same old crap.

Joel added, “As these phones become more and more robust and fast… many of the common tasks like customer communication, time management, and remote collaboration will become easier and faster. We will see a major shift in user adoption of the smart phone as a major work-life everyday asset over the next few years.”