Life without laptop

I am on the road at a conference as I write this. Normally, I don’t leave home without a laptop – but since I was travelling by motorcycle and space is at a premium I left the notebook at home. This meant putting a lot of faith in my iPhone, and so far it has paid off.

Of course, getting & sending emails, voicemails and tweets is commonplace with the iPhone, but could I do any “real work” if needed? Turns out the answer is yes.

A client contacted us about a change to an online project that was needed urgently. It wasn’t a big change but it did need to be done before I’d be back. I quickly logged in to the server over ssh conection using TouchTerm (touchterm) launched vi and edited the file. A quick check in the browser, and I was emailing the client back to say that the change had been made.

I’m still not sure if I’d be comfortable to be away for a few weeks without a laptop, but I won’t worry for a few days as long as I have the iPhone with me.