At work i got into a healthy discussion (no it was not a screaming, visceral sling fest, i still really respect the folks i was arguing with) about iPhones.
Well, ok, it wasn't about iPhones in particular, but the topic seemed to hover around their love for their "trouser mac" and my general antipathy toward the device. For them it was a swiss army knife of overwhelming utility that could solve the world's problem while providing an indie dance beat. For me it was a shiny device that had some significant flaws, was pretty damn closed, and if you managed to figure out how to get it to do something useful, there's a very real possibility that feature would be taken away in a future mandatory update. This did not sit well with the faithful, which lead to the debate, but it did get me thinking about my general device policy.
Every morning on my way to and from work i grab my cellphone, my mp3 player and my laptop. On weekends, it's cellphone, Archos, and GPS. Needless to say, i like pockets to stow crap i happen to be carrying around. Thing is, there's a fair bit of overlap between all of these devices. My cellphone is more than capable to act as a net device, GPS, and MP3 player. The Archos can do net, MP3 and video. The only real single tasker i have now is the GPS, yet i still don't feel compelled to combine these devices.
i guess it's a little like carrying a toolbox vs. a multitool. Don't get me wrong, there are some multi-tools i'd love to have, but those are more useful because i don't have the real tool at hand rather than the first choice, go-to item i'd dig for. In fact, the multi-tool i'm likely to get is not really something i could slip into a pocket and haul around with me. There are times when the best tool for a job is actually using the best tool for the job. If i used my phone as a media device / GPS / phone / browser / hammer / hampster shaver / dessert / floor-wax, i doubt my battery would last as long as it does, and i'd be screwed if i get called while out and about need to stay on line for longer than a few minutes. So carrying the other dedicated devices makes certain that's not really a problem.
Yeah, so maybe having that many digital doo-dads makes me look a bit like Batman, and i run the risk of going nova from all the Lithium Ion batteries strung about myself, but as my argumentative counterpart noted, why settle for a device that doesn't do what you want it to?
Another downside with 'do all' devices' would be if it breaks, you have nothing, whereas you, if your phone breaks, you can still find your way home and listen to music. :)
For me the convenience/feature scale tipped the other way. Not having to carry the batman tool belt is a big plus for me. The iPhone has enough of the features that I need that I'm willing to live without the ones it is missing. Not perfect, just good enough.
Interesting topic.
i thought of having a basic phone with essentials and then attaching various accessories (purchased or rented) at the back according to the need. Even usb connection is good, come to think of it operating system is where i am confused coz for most of other operations like music or information or files, i can pull it from the Internet. It is getting to create (use of applications) where operating system is required. A single device concept may prove to be costly and everybody may not be able to afford it, i think people would benefit from devices which are connected and use each others resources effectively.
This topic is interesting i think i will re-read the post and further comments for more information.
i am with highlycaffeinated. the iphone is way not the perfect device — there are some annoy flaws (who the hell forgot to put in cut&paste capabilities??) — that being said, it does what i need it to do well enough that i can eliminate some of the tools that i had to carry around before.
the other side to that is that my wife loves her iphone. why? because it is easy enough to use and does exactly what she needs. sure, i could stick her with my sonyericsson w810i, which does what the iphone does (mail, web, music, etc), but she wouldn't use half the features because it doesn't "just work".
i think the phone market is vibrant and there is never one-phone-to-rule-them-all. and that's why there is so much mobile phone lust going on in the world :)
The post above is very well written, i like reading it a lot. It makes me think about something new every time. Like once in some documentary i was surprised to find the use of clock by a king who used it to find the right time to take decisions but the clock was a secret and the common man in his kingdom didnt know about it and some traveler from another country who visited the king took back the knowledge and many years latter that country introduced clocks to this kings country people who where amazed by the wonder of the clock.
About the phone
Penis and Vagina of humans seem to be multitool in nature.
Smaller nanotechnology and new power resources can support multitool device.
Loosing a device vs traveling light is an interesting perspective. Also a device for amateur multitask vs professional single task.
Recently when i watched on television a phone store in a country where their were so many different types of phones and then when they told many would not work outside the country, i was surprised and disappointed.
I think creation prefers evolution over perfection.
Going forward we could see a device which would give importance to 'identity' which means i fix a camera to this devices and my settings kick into the camera and the camera goes back to previous mode when my identity device is removed.
If i am going to carry many gadgets with me then they would have to interact. Even maybe like company A and B working together. So if am carrying a camera from company A and my friend a MP3 from company B, then their should be combined benefit to us carrying these two gadgets around.
I will now re-read the post and further comments for more information.
I am sorry about that line.
People could talk about having a 'essential' device or 'connector' with key components like power, Internet connectivity, identity, GPS, I/O and then connected to accessories manufactured by various companies. So i could connect devices like camera, music player, gaming device, ebook reader etc.,
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No device does what I want well enough. That's the general case. I live in a world of crushing disappointment, day in, day out.
It's a trade-off thing. At the moment, for you and I, the iPhone is not sufficiently equipped to sway us just because it's cheaper/smaller/newer/hipper/got-rockin'-potential. We demand more than that. Others make different decisions. It's a bit like trying to decide on the best car. "What!? One car can never meet all my vehicular needs!"
And for me, that's true.