I Should Know Myself Better.

This morning I ended my post about the iPhone Duo with, “I shouldn’t be coding this weekend, but we’ll see how that works out.” Here I am about nine hours later, with a native PureNotes iPhone Duo app for it. Not perfect, but it does what I need it to do. Read and Create new notes.

PureNotes is the notes app I’ve built for my own use, the overbuilt one I mentioned this morning. I already had the web app and all my notes on my server. The question was whether to improve how it worked in the Duo’s browser or build a native app. The new app connects to that same server, gives me access to my notes and lets me edit them and send the changes back.

The part I really like is “laptop” mode. With the Duo half-folded, the note is on the upper half of the display and the virtual keyboard on the lower half. I get a “full-size” keyboard and can hold the phone with both hands and type really quickly with both thumbs. Sure, I can type with both thumbs on a regular tall phone too, but the keys are much smaller. Here I have larger keys to hit. There’s also a camera button so I can quickly attach a photo to the note.

At trade fairs, I want to write a note, attach a photo or video, then put the phone back in my pocket when I want to pick up a product. The original difference with trade-show mode was quicker access to the camera for those attachments. After my changes to laptop mode, though, the two modes are actually the same now. I still want to develop trade-show mode further, maybe with a business-card scanner. I don’t know yet.

The app doesn’t have dictation yet. That would be useful for quick notes when I’m on the go, but I need to research what the Duo can do and how to use it in the app.

I also did some of the business work I really needed to do. Not as much as I should have, but I’ll get up early tomorrow and put in a few focused hours to clear that backlog :)

As I’m writing this, my wife has just called. She’s landed at Kastrup on her way home from Mana Pools and is waiting for her checked bag. So all good. I have about 90 minutes to clean up the house, have a shower and make dinner :)