When I was invited by the editors of this fine magazine to write an article for it, I was told the general topic is the digital lifestyle. They wanted me to write something about Apple (I run MacTalk after all), but I don't want to be some sort of marketing puppet for Apple, as I do enough of that every day. I also didn't really know what a digital lifestyle is beyond a PR buzzword, so I took some time to think about it. After a couple of minutes, I realised for most normal people, a digital lifestyle is the parts of their life that comprise of using technology to get stuff done. But for me, I don't have a digital lifestyle, but a lifestyle that is digital. It is my life. There is no percentage or section of my life that is digital. It's ALL digital. I decided to write a timeline of an average day for me, highlighting all the uses of technology that make my lifestyle so incredibly digital. For those not so nerdy, or perhaps from a different generation, this may shock you!
6:30AM: After falling out of bed (my partner is a nurse, damn early starts) and wandering to the toilet to empty the tanks, the first thing I do is wake up my Mac mini from sleep and check email, check RSS feeds, browse through Google News, ABC & The Age, check in on Twitter and look at iCal to tell me where I have to be today. All whilst eating breakfast.
7:30AM: Partner has gone to work, so I try to get in some time on the treadmill. In the garage there's an iPod shuffle plugged into a pair of speakers, full of my favourite podcast, Smodcast. After that drudgery, I shower and get dressed. Interesting to note that this is the longest period of the day where I am virtually incommunicado. For close to an hour and a half, if the phone rings, I won't hear it. I'm not on Twitter or checking my email and any IM's will sit ignored until I get back to a computer. When done with that, I use PocketWeather on my iPhone to decide what to wear. I live in Melbourne, so you can't be too sure.
9:00AM: Make my way out of the house. In tow is an iPhone 3GS, 13" MacBook Pro, Amazon Kindle, 160GB external HDD, 16GB USB flash drive on my keyring, 3G modem, spare iPhone battery and a collection of various cables. I used to have a Sony PSP and a Nintendo DS, but use of those rapidly dropped off with the iPhone.
A quick check of the Connex website ensures me that there will actually be a train when I reach the station. I spend my travel time reading the Kindle version of Slate and The Atlantic and random articles I've bookmarked with Instapaper, listening to music on iPhone and randomly checking Twitter and email.
Once off the train I use the tramTracker app on iPhone to see if I should stop in to the cafe for a muffin or just go direct to the office. Today the train didn't sync with the tram, so I'm gonna get me some sort of sugar fix in the 13 minutes until the next tram.
10:30AM: Arrive at office, where there's another iPod, hooked up to an iPod Hi-Fi (still the best sounding iPod dock), containing 80GB of my favourite music. I spend most of the morning communicating with MacTalk contributors, sponsors, PR people and so on via email, Twitter and instant messaging. I rarely make a phone call unless it was something I needed to explain in depth, quickly. If I do use the phone, it will be a VOIP line, on my iPhone, using the Pennytel app.
Powering through my to-do list on Remember The Milk, an online to-do list that syncs with an iPhone app, and sends alerts to me via Twitter, IM and SMS. During all this, I'm checking/replying to emails & Twittering, because I am under the age of 30 and can't maintain concentration on a single thing for more than 10 minutes at a time.
1:30PM: Lunch. Use tramTracker again to see when the tram is leaving so I'm not wasting time waiting for a tram. Use my credit card with an authentication chip and a PIN to buy lunch. Of course, I am still connected to email, Twitter, internet and whatnot via 3G on iPhone and check up on things whilst I eat.
2:30PM: Get back from lunch - keep on posting on forums, communicating with colleagues, writing bullshit on the Internet. Want to listen to some different music, so I fire up BitTorrent and get what I want because the iTunes store doesn't sell it and as if I'm going to go to a record store.
4:00PM: Remember that I need some groceries and that I won't have time to get them tonight, but will be home most of the morning tomorrow, so I visit Woolworth's Homeshop website and buy a couple of items and tell them to deliver it between 8AM and 11AM tomorrow. I get an SMS reminder from the bank telling me I need to pay some of my credit card bill - log in to ANZ's Internet banking and use BPAY to pay them.
5:15PM: Someone tells me about a doco on SBS tonight that I should watch. I won't be home to watch it, I won't even be home to enter it to record on my Elgato EyeTV (Mac based PVR). But I do have IceTV and via their iPhone app, I can remotely set shows to record over the Internet, direct to the EyeTV. Now I will know the real story behind the moon landings.
6:00PM: Get a Ping (iPhone app which uses Push notification to send instant messages - it's like SMS but without the crazy cost!) from one of my podcasting cohorts saying he will be late for the recording of the podcast. Eventually we start recording the our podcast "Can Touch This", which is all about iPhone apps. Get recommendations for apps via Twitter & use the internet to research on the fly to make me sound smarter. iMac in action with audio gear to record to a digital audio file, that will be edited on a computer, then encoded to AAC and distributed, digitally, to 1,500 listeners around the world via the Internet.
7:30PM: Make my way home, just like the morning, but in reverse. Read some more articles via Instapaper on the Kindle. Check things off Remember the Milk on iPhone, edit any calendar items on my iPhone to sync with iCal when I get home. Avoid getting beat up on the Sydenham line at night for my valuable digital loot.
9:00PM: Arrive home, plug everything in to charge, then plonk my behind on the couch and fire up the other Mac Mini hooked up to my 50" plasma TV, which contains the latest episodes of my favourite TV shows downloaded from the USA, just hours after they aired, in glorious HD. Have laptop with me on the couch, doing some light work whilst watching TV.
11:30PM: Bed. Set alarm on digital clock (hey, it's digital), read some more on the Kindle before falling asleep. Experience nightmare where the Internet is down world-wide for 30 minutes. Wake up, visit computer, visit Google to reassure myself that the end of days has no occurred and go back to sleep.
So that's my lifestyle. Incredibly digital hey? Five years ago, most of this wouldn't have even been possible.
October 26th, 2004:
- Twitter didn't exist.
- iPhone didn't exist.Telstra's 850Mhz 3G network didn't come into effect until 2006.
- None of my favourite podcasts have started.
- iPods weren't cheap enough for someone like me to afford 2 of them.
- Amazon Kindle didn't exist.
- 16GB and 160GB external storage would have cost a fortune.
- Connex's website didn't have status updates
- tramTracker didn't exist.
- IceTV didn't exist.
- A DVB-T model Elgato EyeTV came out just a few weeks ago.
- Instapaper didn't exist.
- Email on a mobile device sucked or you had to buy a Blackberry.
- iTunes store not available in Australia
- Had to go through the slow process of signing to use a credit card.
- VOIP was not easily available to consumers.
- TV shows not so readily available on BitTorrent as now.
- Woolworth's Homeshop didn't exist.
- Remember the Milk didn't exist.
- 50" plasmas just a pipe dream unless you were cashed up.
Let's not forget that was only five years ago! Five years ago most of this would be unusual, difficult or impossible. Now it's relatively mainstream, affordable and easy. My iPhone is virtually glued to me, everyone knows what I am doing via Twitter, I can achieve tasks in minutes that would take hours with their analog counterparts and do some things that were just impossible. The digital lifestyle is so well entrenched in my life that I don't have one, it just is life. I wouldn't want to live any other way.
