Jeff Blogs

Those of you who have read my blog know what a huge fan I am of my iPhone. It has become one of those devices that I could not live without. It is constantly by my side and I use it for everything.

When I first bought it I thought it would be a cool phone that would allow me to also check my email when I am away from my computer. I had not anticipated that my iPhone would actually change my computer habits.

Before the iPhone I was inseparable from my computer. Whether it was my laptop at work or my MacBook Pro at home; I was never without a computer and keyboard. Now though I find myself using the iPhone for most of my daily tasks other than software development.

The problem with this new computing paradigm has been the ergonomics of the iPhone. It is great when I am on the move, I can just take it out of my pocket and work on it. But when I am at the office or at home at my desk it is a little more problematic.

Lying flat on the desk is not the best viewing angle and continually holding the device becomes a pain especially if I am using the iPhone in combination with my laptop. What I really needed was some kind of stand that would hold the iPhone at a good angle.

My problem is I am too artistic. I somehow could not bear the thoughts of leaning my iPhone against something or propping it up to an angle that make it suitable to work on. No, if you are going to have something as cool as an iPhone you needed something equally cool to store it in.

After a long search I finally found something that I thought would work; the Podium is one of those accessories that is not only useful, it is also an excellent artistic design that shows off the device.

I bought the classic Platinum version that looks like chromed nickel. It came is a cool package with a lenticular image of the iPhone and really who doesn’t love a cool lenticular image. I removed the Podium from its packaging and the first thing I noticed was the sheer weight of the stand. Clearly the iPhone would not tip this over which I had worried about at first.

The cradle for the iPhone has three “fingers” that hold the iPhone snugly even when the phone has a rubberized case like the iSkin. The “fingers” and cradle rotate on a ball socket allowing you to rotate the iPhone to various angles so you can see it. The base has a hole in the back which is perfect for feeding the docking cable through allowing me to keep the phone in the Podium when I sync or recharge it.

I’ve been extremely happy with the stand and how it works but I’ve been even more impressed with the customer service from the company. After a month’s worth of daily use in the Arizona heat, one of the fingers of the cradle snapped off. I was a little disappointed and wrote to the company to see if I could purchase a replacement cradle.

The technical support staff was very empathetic and replied almost immediately saying they would cover the part under warranty. After verifying my address they shipped a new unit to me free of charge. In this day and age it seems as though customer service has become something most businesses cut but not at Pivotal. Based on the quality of their product and the awesome customer service I will be a loyal customer for a very long time. And by the way, the replacement works perfectly and I haven’t had the problem that I did with the first cradle I got.