Denuo - denuology.com

The 2009 Chicago marathon starting line (taken with iPhone 3GS).

A couple weeks ago I ran the Chicago marathon. It was a cold, slightly gloomy race – and the last two miles were absolute hell. But I had an ace up my sleeve – or rather in my hand. My iPhone 3GS. It helped me finish the marathon – and (more importantly for THIS post) it shifted my perspective on what experiences the current generation of “phones” are capable of delivering.

When the iPhone 3GS was announced – the “killer app” for me was actually Nike+ integration. Being able to finally consolidate my running iPod and my phone made things a lot simpler and safer on training runs. I ended up training with my phone in hand for the entire summer. It served as my pedometer, my iPod, my phone (in case of emergency), and my camera on almost every run I went on. It also allowed me to run when normally I wouldn’t have been able to. Around the office I became known for my “lunch-time” runs – and I wouldn’t have been as comfortable leaving the office to run without people being able to reach me if they needed to.

Sometimes when you’re training you just see something you’ve got to take a pic of…
(in this case the beautiful Chicago skyline as seen from 10 miles north).

One screen is now both small and powerful enough for users to expect that screen to serve a diverse array of uses. “Mobile phones” are increasingly becoming digital chameleons – capable of quickly changing function depending on their environment.

This dawned on me when I realized my training needs and my marathon needs were subtly different- and that my device was able to transform to meet those needs. What was (during training) a run tracking, music, and business device – became a location broadcasting, memory-keeping and motivation device during the marathon. You’ll note that “mobile phone” has nothing do to with either of those descriptions – neither does “pocket computer.”

The starting line looks a bit different from the inside…

As the race went on I found myself texting the most. Updating my friends on where I was at, getting updates on their locations and, most surprising, getting random texts of encouragement from people who knew I was running the marathon. The personal encourgemen-texts (see what I did there?!) were a powerful motivator – even with the tons of people screaming at me from the sidelines. When I needed a little extra motivation to finish off the last two miles – I texted some close friends with “tired. still running.” and got replies that helped me finish the race.

11 characters that meant quite a bit at mile 25.

I suppose it’s appropriate that the (newly dubbed) digital chameleon – with its ever shifting colors – is still most powerful when it is connecting people.