Since I arrived, my phone has mostly been a navigational tool, though I'm really appreciating having it to hand for general internet as well. (Something I hadn't thought about before: you can't surf the web on the Underground. And I thought the 8 minutes in the train tunnel back home was a trial.)
Although I repeatedly get lost, I have yet to be seen peering at a map in the middle of the street like some tourist. Instead I peer discreetly at my phone's maps, in small glances calculated not to attract attention. Yeah, that's me, the one with my thumb freezing out of my glove so I can use the touch screen. Yes, the one in the doorway cursing because the screen went to sleep and the GPS too and now the GPS is taking ages to get a new fix and I don't know where I am on the map. Yeah. Did someone say discreet?
Gratifyingly, the map data for a city like London is of such high quality that you can genuinely navigate with it - it took me right to the door of the Bank of England, where a similar destination in New Zealand would yield directions to the city block containing the building and leave you to figure out for yourself where the entrance is. Not that there's not room for improvement. A built-in guide to the multiple entries and exits of many tube stations would be one obvious thing to add.
The other day I took a photo and it sucked because the light level was bad. This did not surprise me.
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