In a company overflowing with smart gadgets and mobile development, why don’t I have a smart phone yet?
Anyone at Media-X can usually get whatever smart phone, tablet, or whatever device is needed if they request it, and often even that isn’t required. You might turn up for work one day and find a tablet sitting on your desk. Despite this, I have yet to make the jump to getting a smart phone for day to day use.
Personally, I do own a cell phone, and I use the word “cell phone” very intentionally. It has a touch screen, full slide out keyboard, but its technological prowess stops rather abruptly after that. It is neither iOS nor Android. It is something special.
The memory available would let you store upwards of one song, or 10 small photos, or 50 text messages. Web pages crash the phone when they finish loading because it runs out of space, likely due to the 9 photos that were taken earlier.
So with all its faults, why wouldn’t I move to something better?
When using the touch screen, it considers a tap to be a scroll gesture most of the time. That makes picking a contact out of a list an extremely challenging operation.
Attempts to use the voice control to make calls resulted in a few long distance rings out to Toronto.
Me: “Call: 613-298-5555.”
Phone: “Did you want to call: 647-298-5555?”
Me: “No.”
Phone: “Dialling…”
Me: “I said noooo!”
I leave this phone sitting at home for my wife to use as an alarm;Â one of the few things it’s able to manage reliably.
So with all its faults, why wouldn’t I move to something better? Because there’s so many amazing options out there and on the horizon!
The Samsung Galaxy S3 stands above its older sibling with well deserved pride.
Phones running iOS, Android, and now Windows Phone 8 are quite exciting and very capable. The options are increasing monthly.
We’ve lived with the standard desktop metaphor for so long, a change from that is very refreshing.
When I look across at a co-worker’s Samsung Galaxy S3 and its massive screen, I know this is really what I want. A tablet I can put in my pocket. A large pocket. My core interest in a smart phone (or “phablet“) is having a variety of useful productivity apps I will use on a daily basis, such as scheduling, tracking, and reference tools.
Windows phones, such as Nokia’s Lumia series, are still new to the market, but the radically different interface is interesting and exciting. We’ve lived with the standard desktop metaphor for so long, a change from that is very refreshing.
What am I waiting for now then? Sprawling screen sizes are here, multiple cores in place, very modern OS and browser support are here to stay. Is it time? I’ll get back to you right after I check to see what’s coming out next month…