Today is the 8-day anniversary of my iPhone, and in those eight days a whole bunch of people have asked if I've lost weight. At first I thought it was just that the iPhone made me look thinner -- you know, like a good pair of jeans. But this morning I stepped on the scale and sure enough, I've lost four pounds.

I've done a retrospective analysis of the past 8 days of my life, and I think all four pounds can be directly attributable to significant iPhone-related lifestyle changes:

When you compare the up-front cost of an iPhone the cost and performance of other weight loss programs, four pounds in a little over a week looks like a pretty good deal:

• If you sign up for Jenny Craig, you'll pay $77 to $119 per week (not including food) to lose 1-2 pounds a week; if it takes you seven weeks to lose 10 pounds, that translates into about $585 (compared to just $499 for a 16 GB iPhone, which at the current rate, will have me down by 10 pounds in just 2.5 weeks).
• NutriSystem charges $293 per month (including food), and you can figure on losing ten pounds in four to ten weeks -- so figure it may cost as much as $732 to lose the weight an iPhone can take off in just four weeks.
• People lose weight faster on the Zone -- something like 8 to 10 pounds a month -- but it costs $40 per day; you could buy two iPhones for that money -- with Bluetooth headsets!! -- and lose weight with a friend.

Coming soon, the latest Apple campaign: iSkinny.

Break out the propeller beanies: it's a gear-heavy episode this time. It starts with Rob talking about the swishy new voice recorder that will soon be replacing the combination of a 4th-generation iPod and Griffin iTalk. That'll mean much nicer sound... and the end of that hard-drive-spinning-up whine that we're guessing you won't miss at all.

But Alex quickly sees Rob's bet and raises him an iPhone.... specifically, her quest this evening for a task manager she can carry around on her new favourite-toy-EVVVer. We touch on Central Desktop, the solution of choice for organizing Barack Obama volunteers on Super Tuesday (hat tip to the excellent TechPresident site).

We tweak the folks at 37Signals' Highrise CRM application for lifting Alex's likeness for their web tour (or as she's now known in these parts, Suzanna Cavatrio, copywriter for Enormicon).

And we issue three demands from Apple: the long-awaited software development kit for genuine third-party apps on the iPhone; the official arrival of the iPhone in Canada (maybe we can blame Ted Rogers for the holdup); and an Apple Store in Vancouver.

Oh, and there's one last thing: the Fake Steve Jobs turtleneck.

Enjoy. We'd love to hear from you - just leave your comments below.

We actually recorded episode 5 last week, just as various colds, flus and what appeared to be the Phage descended on our humble household.

But our household was also invaded by a more benevolent intruder: Alex's new iPhone, which works in Canada thanks to some startlingly well-written instructions she found online. (Link coming soon! Thanks, Hack that Phone!)

Which led us to talk about why there are so many online tutorials that only a developer could love...

...and that led us to discuss practical tips for communicating with developers.

Enjoy! And as always, your comments are more than welcome.

I just discovered that Google Docs finally work in the Safari web browser. (Up until now, Mac users had to access their Google Docs via Safari.) I think we may have the iPhone to thank for this; all those iPhone users wanted mobile access to their documents! I wonder what else the iPhone will finally bring to the Mac platform.

If you're not using Google Docs, this is a great time to start! Google Docs let you create, edit, store and share documents and spreadsheets; the word processor feels very much like Microsoft Word, and the spreadsheet editor like Excel, so you'll be right at home. But unlike the desktop versions of those apps, Google Docs let you collaborate with your colleagues. Here are some of the ways we've used Google docs and spreadsheets in our work:

• as part of a strategic planning process: brainstorming results in rows, participants in columns, with each participant marking their favorite ideas
• manage our docket of clients and projects (one client per row, one week per column; each week we insert a new column and add notes, current status, and upcoming actions and status
• capacity planning: clients and projects in rows, weeks/months in columns, to track upcoming hours required
• document creation: one person drafts in word and uploads, others fill in their details/examples

Kelly Goto has a post suggesting the iPhone may be the breakthrough product in a category where promise has been tantalizing but success has been elusive: the ultra-mobile personal computer.

The success of the gesture-based touch screen interface is almost so fluid and easy to use it goes unnoticed. Even a 1-year old baby can use it. Since its release, many individuals formerly tethered to their laptops have admitted being able to switch to the iPhone for email and browsing when traveling. In many ways, the iPhone is the first ‘ultra mobile’ consumer device to give us a taste of tomorrow we can use today.

Go check out that video she links to. It's exactly as billed: a baby (okay... at 20 months, maybe a toddler) successfully navigating an iPhone app. It ain't exactly pivot tables in Excel, but this is still amazing to watch.

I left a comment on Kelly's blog. Here's the gist of it:

I don’t think that attractiveness of Mac technology to kids is an accident. The iPhone in particular has a vividness to it that’s only the latest in a line of recent design advances from the folks at Apple (remember OS X’s “lickable” interface?). From the little animation touches to the gorgeous, saturated, high-contrast graphics, Apple’s appealing not just to our inner efficiency expert, but also our inner child.

Maybe that’s part of the appeal of iPods, OS X and even the original Mac. Apple’s design aesthetic doesn’t just say “let’s work”, “let’s connect” or “let’s create” - it also says “let’s play.” That may be part of the reason some folks still find it hard to take Macs seriously in the workplace… but it’s also a big part of what makes using them so compelling...

Most projects don't have nearly the number of dollars available that Apple can throw at user experience, of course. But it's worth looking at your site, software, product or service, and asking if a little injection of playfulness wouldn't make a big difference.

By the way, we're going to see the latest iteration of Apple's come-out-and-play approach to interface design later this month when OS X 10.5, Leopard, is unleashed. We'll try to contain our sense of panting anticipation in our blog posts between now and then... but no promises.