We've had some great discussions about all the things Windows Mobile phones can do, and how we tend to agree that "wow" features and "eureka" moments should be a big part of marketing and selling Windows Mobile.

I'm starting this thread as a "community diary" to capture great examples of ordinary, or extraordinary, things people do with their Windows Mobile phones during "a day in the life." Personal examples like these can really bring technology to life - you've probably closed a sale with a great personal example, in fact.

Why not share some of your day-in-the-life stories in this thread? Just describe a place and time, and provide a brief description of what you are doing with your Windows Mobile phone right at that moment.

I'll kick off this thread below. Thanks for contributing!

10:30 AM, Sat., June 21: Portland, Oregon 

I'm at the Portland Farmer's Market with my in-laws. The fresh produce, cheese, and wine look great, but because the growers and merchants in the market don't take plastic, we can't buy anything without finding some cash first. And we have to hurry - most of the sellers run out of their freshest product early.

But there's a problem: The single cash machine in the area is swamped by a line 20 people deep. Will my wife and I be stuck in line with her parents for the next half-hour? Not if I can help it! I fire up my HTC S620 with WM 6.1 and open Live Search for Windows Mobile. Portland is already dialed in on the map, and I quickly search for ATMs nearby. Sweet! There's one hidden away in a university bookstore just a few blocks away - and it's a no-fee ATM, too! We hurry to the machine, and there's no one waiting, so we get our cash and quickly head back to make our purchases. We're in time to get some beautiful-looking ingredients - we'll be grilling out tonight!

My life is fairly mundane but here is a typical day in my life with my mobile device:

6:00AM My AT&T TILT wakes me up.

6:05AM Before I have even get out of bed; I look at my email from my mobile device to see if there is anything urgent that needs my attention before my first coffee.

8:00AM While working at my PC in the morning, I often have a favorite movie playing in the background on my device or even a TV show that I have recorded on my media center PC. I use Pocket DVD Studio to convert DVDs for my device, storing the converted DVDs on my PC. I then use Resco Explorer to play these movies over my wireless network on my device. I also use Resco Explorer to play the TV shows.

11:30AM  Use SplashShopper to create and update my shopping list. This has a desktop application and a handheld application with syncing between the two.

12:00AM Use my shopping list on my device while in grocery store

1:00PM I have copious different notes in my OUTLOOK which I sync to my device. When I go to pay in a check at my bank, I have my account number stored as a note.

4:00PM Use Livesearch to find cheapest gas prices.

4:10PM Use the GPS to navigate to the gas station.

7:00PM   While at Taekwondo studio, I check my emails between classes.

 06:35 - My Glofiish wakes me up.

07:25 - I use a cool app my friend made to check real-time data on the trains and if it's on time.

07:52 - The train arrives, 11 minutes late as usual. While on the train I check my mails and To-Do's for the day, read up on the news with Opera Mobile, and chat with a colleague on MS Communicator.

08:07 - The train arrives  8 minutes late downtown. I use a cool app my friend made to check realtime if there are any available city-bikes (we have a rent-bike thing in Oslo where you rent bicycles for max three hours) nearby, find one and ride it on my way to work.

08:15 - I'm in the office, transfering pictures from last nights concert to my PC with WiFi and Total Commander.

10:00 - I'm in a meeting, demonstrating the power of Windows Mobile using MyMobiler to display my Glofiish on the projector.

12:00 - Almost finished with lunch, checking if there is some urgent mails, or if I can take a longer lunch.

16:15 - Checking if there are any available city-bikes nearby with my friends cool app.

16:18 - Using TomTom Navigator to guide me to the city-bike shack that has available bikes.

16:36 -  I'm on the train that actually was on time for once. Updating Jaiku on how my day was with Opera Mobile, and playing a round of Snails Reloaded 

Wednesday June 18th

 HTC ppc6800 WM6.1 W Gps

2:00a -Received Call From Drunk Brother Who Expected Ride Home (Better than Driving Drunk)

5:30a- Wake up by alarm from phone, realized on today screen that an outlook appointment beeped to make me aware of early meeting at bosses house. Uh oh. Better get ready fast.

5:45a- Never been to bosses house but have the address from meeting agena. Pull up Live Search. Click on maps and center on gps. I plugged in the address and let it rip. 1 hr drive to Dodgeville.

6:15a- Darn, low on gas. Starting to wish i didn't have to pick up my brother last night. Clicked gas on Live Search. Pulled up all gas stations and gas prices in area.

6:30a- Arrived at meeting right on time after finding a few shorter ways to the house.

6:35a- Realized i forgot my Meeting Agenda and a Pen. DOH! Accessed my emails. Pulled up the attachment of the agenda opened it up to edit it and activated the Transcriber feature to use my stylus to take notes on the meeting. *Brilliant*

What in the world would i do without my windows mobile powered htc.

07:00    - Woken by alarm on WM6 Professional
            - Read the weather on HTC Home
            - Flicked over to the Shortcuts tabs and fired up RSS Hub. Caught up on the overnight news and blog stories.
07:10    - My turn for the bathroom!
08:30    - Reminder to leave the house and drop my wife at work.
09:00    - Windows Live pushes my emails to me. Notice an email showing that the team brief has been moved back an hour and update my appointment details - more time this morning, so start ripping a DVD for my phone. Note an attractive Job advert and apply uploading my CV from my device. Re-Sync my CV with MS Skydrive.
10:00    - Copy film to device for viewing later. Then sit back and catch on some recorded satellite programs.
12:00    - New alarm alerts me of the new later meeting time. Time to get ready.
12:45    - Arrive at work and refresh myself with today's points.
13:00    - Use Calendar notes to recall meeting points and Mobile Word to record today's contributions.
14:20    - Meeting concludes and I forward the Word document to my work's email address.
14:30    - Reminder for this afternoon's Job interview. Open TomTom 7 and dive to contacts and call up address. Quick TomTom traffic check shows that the main Motorway is snarled up, re-calculate route, plenty of time to get there. Get to the car and flip back to HTC Home plug-in and fire up Windows Media Player Mobile and call up favourite driving playlist.
15:15    - Arrive for interview nice and early, refer to the appointment entry to get interviewer's name and sign-in. Just enough time to log into en.wikipedia to confirm background history on the company.
15:30    - Quickly and subtly switch to the silent profile during the interview.
17:00    - Interview concluded and very happy with course of events, open emails and jump to recruiters signature and call in an update.
17:10    - Back to Windows Media Player and switch to 5 Star rating playlist - I'm in a great mood .
17:10    - Back to TomTom and Navigate to 'Home'.
18:00    - Arrive home and relax to latest RSS stories.
21:35    - Alarm for work.
22:00    - Sync with Work PC and update contacts, schedules and documents.
22:00 to 06:00 - Watch my earlier ripped film, play my synced music through Windows Media Player sync list and write-up my notes from the team meeting.
07:00    - Dive Settings\Personal\Sounds and Notifications\Phone: Incoming Calls and set Ring type: to 'None' -  deserve a rest...

These are great ! Anyone else want to give us their day in a life story ....

I'll give it a run:

When I wake up, I use Ping.FM via SMS to post my morning blood sugars to all my social sites (I'm diabetic, and it stirs up a lot of conversation).

While I'm showering/getting ready, i use NewsGatorGo for Windows Mobile to download new podcasts directly to my memory car.

On the way to work, I use my Motorola HT820 BT headset and listen to podcasts, usually from TWiT or CNET.  Sometimes I've downloaded XVid encoded vidcasts from Revision3 and watch them using DIvX Player for Windows Mobile.I also have a few Looney Tunes cartoons re-encoded from DVD sets if I get really bored.

When I get to my store or the restaurant of the day (if I work later in the day), I update my Brightkite account via SMS, then I post a picture of how the day looks via e-mail.   Brightkite and Ping.FM automatically update my Twitter and Facebook accounts, and Ping.FM also updates Jaiku, Pownce, and FriendFeed.

I also use Qik to record a little bit of video if I'm feeling really chatty.

Once my workday begins, I'm usually busy dealing with customers, so I keep up with Twitter and Jaiku using SMS, and I have Yahoo! IM, Live Messenger, and AIM running on my phone via the OZ client (uses SMS).

My phone is provided by the company, but I cannot have Exchange setup on my phone.  I'm an hourly employee, and I can't check mail off the clock.  I do have Nuevasync setup on my phone to sync my contact and calendar with Google, then I have my live.com address setup with Windows Live, GMail is setup using IMAP, and I have Yahoo! setup with XpressMail.

I also have a few songs sideloaded from Napster on my phone, if I want to/need to listen to music.  It's a good thing the Blackjack II can support SDHC cards with all the media I have, plus I can use Live Mesh mobile to download more media if I forget something. (Side thought: Skydrive and Mesh need to merge now.)

I surf news via NewsGatorGo and the AT&T MEdia Net landing page, and most mobile-friendly sites with IE.  I'm one of the lucky ones that got in on the Skyfire beta early, so I use that for full sites and sites that need Flash, like YouTube, last.fm, and other video sites.

If I get bored, I have eReader and free books from Project Gutenberg installed, as well as several games, some from EA, WINPlay.  I also have AT&T Navigator installed to get turn by turn GPS, Evernote to store/view notes and pics, and Dashwire and Cellspin to upload pics and vids to sites.

All of this is what I use my phone for in a normal day, not including new sites and services I try on a daily basis.  When I tell my customers I use my phone for 80% of my computing and living, I mean it!

Great post, Kris. Thanks for all the detail! But I do have to say: That is a very busy day! I need a 15-minute break after reading it...

Kris Gainsforth:

I use my phone for 80% of my computing and living

That's a great day in life -thanks ! - amazing how much you (and the rest of us) make use of our mobile devices.

Kris Gainsforth:

All of this is what I use my phone for in a normal day, not including new sites and services I try on a daily basis.  When I tell my customers I use my phone for 80% of my computing and living, I mean it!

WOW! Kris, that is a great day in the Life....I'm going to take a stab at it also...hopefully this week!

yrless:

I'm going to take a stab at it also

Please do yrless, it would be great to have a good collection of these.