I am coming up on the 1-month anniversary of being an iPhone user; immersed in the fast-pace drama of dropped calls, Crash Nitro Kart, and youtube videos that burn through battery life. Brian and I have begun developing iPhone applications in conjunction with several niche app developers; and within the past week I have encountered several men and women who sware by the revolutionary nature of this device. For some of us urban professionals, freelancers, and entrepreneurs; the iPhone is becoming the new television, family, and church.

What are the positives and negatives that I- a hardware amateur- have noticed in my iPhone? Let me count the ways….

Positive: I probably listen to the pandora app on my iphone for an hour a day; whether during my exercising, my coffee trips, or my french study sessions. iPhone gave me mobile Panora.

Negative: Dropped Calls. This problem has abated as of late; but back in the end of August my iPhone caused my business to suffer. I must have said “sorry it’s my iphone” roughly 200 times during august and september.

Positive: iPhone SDK development enables people like me to invent gps / accelerometer / 3D / social / mobile / phone / email / IM applications. I don’t see developer friends rushing to the android platform any time soon.

Negative: Burns through battery life. My iphone will last me 2 days on 1 charge, if I don’t use the phone for those 2 days. If I juggle my phone calls, music, emails, and internet searching at a casual pace- my iPhone lasts about 5-7 hours before requiring a recharge.

Positive: You make friends. Not because people are drawn to the iphone like mosquitos to a bright light- but because it accents whatever conversation you initiate. When i met someone from Muldova, I searched for the muldova map, and they pointed to their hometown. When i met the founders of House music, I quickly did some homework on the subject- sitting in the next chair- and the iphone queries provided me with something to talk about.

Negative: Doing simple things can take a while. If my iphone is in my pocket- and if I simply want to add a calendar event for next week, i need to turn the iphone on- close whatever app was already open- open the browser- flip to my google calendar- click the text input- slowly enter “thursday 5pm meeting with bloxes.com“, confirm (which takes about 5-10 seconds), and review the submission. Adding an event to a calendar requires about 30 seconds of group silence.

Positive: It’s sexy

Negative: You get typecasted as jumping onto the iphone bandwagon by seasoned blackberry users

Positive: It’s actually pretty low-cost. Buying a phone costs $300 (including activation charges, etc) and the monthly fee starts at $100 (including 15% taxes, SMS, etc), which makes it a lower-cost PDA.

Negative: Accidental Behavior. If you don’t turn your iPhone off, it has a habit of doing whatever it feels like while being tossed about in your pocket. For me, that includes calling my contacts- playing youtube movies- performing internet searches- and opening the beer app. Good old beer app.

It is clear; when you follow the crowd, you will only be as successful as the next guy in the crowd. In entrepreneurship; it pays to rebel against the crowd. But it does not pay to rebel for the sake of rebelling. If anything; you should rebel with the emerging trends. Follow the trends- against the crowd.

America’s financial institutions are in turmoil, ivy league MBAs are having trouble finding jobs, and acceptance rates at professional programs are dropping alongside the escalating education prices. Professional positions are consistently outsourced to developing nations, and technology seems to have a 3-year turnover.

With that said, it pays to act against the crowd- and find a career path that does not leave you vulnerable for outsourcing, domestic financial turmoil, or career pigeon-holing. But you need to understand the trends of our time in order effectively rebel against the groupthink.

What are the current trends in the business and technology world? Lower barriers for international entrepreneurship; an importance of technological competence- rapid turnover in the job market, rapidly changing cultural icons, ease of travel, emergence of microfunding, international legal paradigms- the list goes on. I wish I knew the entire list.

There is a difference between joining a trend and identifying a trend. If you can identify which way the wind is changing; capitalize on it.

I had the honor of meeting Daniel O’Neil, with Everyblock.com. He has quite an interesting website.
The goal of everyblock is: collect all data that can be geocoded, and organize it for user search.

Basically, it’s like a newsfeed of your block.

What can I do with everyblock besides scan the crimes near me? Films being shot, flickr photos and blog posts, new businesses moving in near you, and general news- accurate to within your city block.

Daniel thought it would be interesting to integrate twitter feeds into everyblock; and create a social newsfeed alongside a geo-newsfeed. As I pointed to the wall of Argo Tea, and imagined a digital display with a social and geo news feed of this city block.

Other clear applications include real estate prospecting, learning the culture around a vacant apartment, even monitoring geographic trends for stock market appraisals.

What would you do with Everyblock data? Daniel says there will be an API- some day.