The iPhone is probably the best media centric consumer grade smartphone to date. But considering the added PDA functionality and ability to add third party software I see no reason why it can’t also be used as a productivity tool. So I decided to take on this task with nothing more than a little creativity and some third party applications.

The main reason why I chose this project was because I had a need to fill. That need being; to create a study guide to get me through my Emergency Medical Technician re-certification course without carrying anything extra to class including the EMT book for the next 6 months. The catch here was that it has to be updatable as pre-hospital procedures change during an EMTs career and easy for any other EMT to understand if read. My other reason was merely the challenge of getting through the entire course without having to write anything using pen and paper. My only exception to the rules is the use of a highlighter pen which I use to mark important sections of the EMT book and of course the usual written examinations given.

The first thing I did was to enter in the entire schedule of classes in the Calendar application of the iPhone. I did this because the course is pre-planned based on the EMT book. This would keep me ahead on the reading that had to be done. I entered the schedule mostly using the iPhone and a few using the Calendar application in MobileMe. Total time was about 45 minutes to enter all the information needed to avoid picking up the paper schedule ever again.

To read the entire story head on over to Wyatt’s Tech Corner