Lynda.com on iPhone = Huzzah!

November 5, 2009

My love (and tough love) for Lynda.com online training runs deep, but I’ve always longed for easier, more convenient access. Wouldn’t it be cool if, say, I were able to view Lynda.com training on my iPhone? Why, yes it would. And now, yes it is!

Lynda.com courses are now (finally!) viewable on the iPhone (via Wi-Fi or 3G), providing a new way to turn unproductive time into self-development time. Sure, it’s fun to while away the hours in the doctor’s or DMV’s waiting room playing Fieldrunners, but wouldn’t you rather be learning Photoshop CS4?

It’s disconcerting that we’re already two-plus years into the iPhone Age and this is just now happening, but I’ll take it. It would be nice to see online training stay a little (lot) more cutting edge. Sadly, we’re back to the cumbersome browser-based navigation I griped about in my original review, but it appears help is on the horizon: a native Lynda.com iPhone app due “early 2010.” I swooned! Here’s hoping “early” means, well, early and not August (software developers often appear to use a different English dictionary than I).

In related news, Lynda.com is also rolling out parallel Flash-based content, so you’ll be able to view the training material using either QuickTime or Flash on your desktop machine.

If you haven’t checked out Lynda.com, you really should. I consider their training content required curriculum for anyone in the eLearning and/or presentation design field. At $250/year for all-you-can-eat access ($375/year if you want the exercise files), it could be the best money you spend (aside from, ahem, an iPhone of course).

Posted in Apple, Content, Things I Love, iPhone