My family and I just got back from a too-short vacation in Italy, and we learned something important while we were there: Real vacations don’t have e-mail.
See, my wife was worried about us racking up unspeakably high bills while we were abroad, so we ended up almost completely disabling our iPhones for the entire trip. How we fared without them is the subject of this week’s Kahney’s Korner.
It might sound kind of impossible to navigate a new country without handy apps like Maps or Yelp, but we managed not to get lost by using old-fashioned paper maps and my daughter’s uncanny ability to always know where we were.
That’s not to say we went completely device-free, of course. Check out the video below to find out which gadget still got daily use.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
13 responses to “Kahney’s Korner: Treat yourself to an iPhone-free vacation”
Ummm, yea, then of course I have no vacation photos as my iPhone is my camera. How about just avoid your email app, but enjoy your device… you don’t have to be drastic to find balance.
Agreed. It’s almost a version of tenchophobia.
That’s the only way I used my iPhone on my last vacation.
Not happening. My iPhone doesn’t leave my side. Ever!
I remember when we first went to South Africa with our 8yr old daughter, we were driving down the road to the hotel and saying to her “look we’re in Africa” her reply was “hmmm” and then back to her DS. Likewise we now like to limit our “connected” time when away other than when it’s essential. Trouble is I’ve now completely moved all my content onto the iPad mini, books, music, pods etc, everything
To each their own, but limiting your access to devices seems just too restraining. As you point out, these devices have become so much more and, used correctly, they can wonderfully enhance a vacation, even turning it into a learning opportunity.
Eh, spent a month in Florence-just went to the Verizon store off the Duomo and got a SIM card for my iPhone and another for my iPad, as well as a month of prepaid service. Easy Peasy. And the service was cheap by US standards.
Tried to go to 3 first but they were closed, so we went to Verizon across the street.
a verizon store in italy?
mmmm i don’t think that’s possible, maybe was it vodafone?
verizon doesn’t operate in italy.
Anyway yeah, cellular plans are very cheap in italy, you can easily get 500 sms, 500 minutes talk, and a couple of GB per month with less than 10$ per month.
It was a couple of years ago, and it was definitely Verizon (maybe they’re not there now). I did have to make a call to them, which took a couple of tries to reach someone who could deal with an Italian account. My limited Italian (and the rep’s limited English!) made for an interesting call to make sure they didn’t auto-renew my month-month plan.
It depends what you’re trying to accomplish. If the focus of the escape is digital devices, then this advice is appropriate (though good luck escaping digital devices).
Most people who follow advice like this, though, don’t understand what they’re really after. What most people are after is the contact with the outside world (texts, phone calls, emails, keeping up with news/tech sites, etc.).
In this case, I would suggest putting your devices into “vacation mode”. Digital devices can still be VERY useful on vacation – Camera, guide, entertainment, tickets, translator, currency (sometimes), etc. The key is to show self-restraint and not have the device be a distraction (unless you want it to be).
Anybody who does the “leave the iPad/iPhone at home” thing, I would encourage to really examine why you want to – you may not want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Leander, where did you go for the 2 weeks and what did you see? I’d love to get your insight on taking the family to Italy!
Losers
Um, just use your phone in moderation like a normal person. I just use my phone to take pictures and to post on Facebook or Instagram when I’m on vacation. I ignore my emails and messages until I get back to the hotel.