talkingDigital

My first smart phone

Adam Cochran here – I am anxiously waiting for the release and availability of the Palm Pre. I see those as two separate events. I hope too get one on release day, but who knows how the Sprint store in Grand Junction, CO will handle the distributing on release day.

I have been in the store three times in the past three weeks and each time I have been given a different story on how they would be distributed. First come – first serve, invites only, special Friday night event…

I am hoping for the first come – first serve scenario. I plan on being in line early Saturday morning. 

Gadgets are wonderful, but unlike the crew at CNET, I don’t have the opportunity to buy each new gadget that comes out. I must carefully wait until just the right gadget comes along. That is not to say that I am a stranger to gadgets, I read all the tech news, listen to the podcasts and encourage my friends to buy the gadgets I am unsure about so that I can gadget by proxy.

Smartphones have always been a favorite gadget of mine. My first smartphone was one of the first smartphones – the Kyocera QCP-6035. It was awesome! I kept it around and replaced it a couple times but didn’t replace it until the Palm Treo 600.

I debated switching to a Windows Mobile device but hated the Windows look and feel. I didn’t want to go through all the menu systems to get everywhere. I debated going with Blackberry, but it felt clunky. So, I stayed with my Palm devices. I loved them for their simplicity and their agility.

When the iPhone came out, I bought an iPod touch. I compared plans, data, text and decided that I had to stick with Sprint for my budget’s sake. Sprint is about 25 percent less than AT&T for my uses. I am also very happy with the Sprint data network in my area.

It is important to clarify that no carrier is superior in all areas of the country, but Sprint has always preformed well for me in every area I have lived or vacationed. With prepaid plans so easily accessible now, if I did vacation somewhere that Sprint’s coverage was shoddy, I could always just buy a temporary phone and number.

I have used my iPod Touch for surfing the web, listening to music, watching movies, and running a variety of apps and games. I love the iPod Touch and I can see the beauty of an iPhone. However, the iPhone has four major hangups that prevent me from even considering it…

1. No tactile keyboard – I can touch type with my Centro. I don’t care if the keyboard is cramped and difficult to use on the Pre – at least it has a keyboard. You can’t tell me that the iPhone keyboard is less annoying than the Pre keyboard. I have written rather lengthy emails on my iPod Touch. I make a mistake about every three words on average. I can type three or four sentences on my Centro keyboard without making an error.

2. Background processing – I want to be able to keep an IM program running while I check my email. I want to be able to look up a contact, then map it, then go back to the contact and make a call without having to go to home screens or restart apps in between. 

3. It’s on Sprint – I don’t get any deals from Sprint. I buy the plans at regular rates and with standard contracts. I pay $200 for 4 phones with unlimited data, text, picture mail, protection plans, and 1500 minutes shared between phones. Go ahead and compare – the next cheapest plan will likely be $30/month more. I have considered leaving Sprint at least three times until I did the math.

4. It’s not an iPhone – Last year we must have seen at least half a dozen “iPhone killers.” They all failed. Whether it was the Blackberry Storm, the HTC Touch Pro or the Samsung Instinct, they all failed. You can’t take on the iPhone by simply resembling the appearance of an iPhone. The Pre is not trying to be an iPhone, it is something much different. Anyone expecting the Pre to be an iPhone killer should write their negative reviews now.

The iPhone’s strengths are the apps (developer base), the sexiness, and the fact that it is made by Apple. Pre touches on these things, but it also is presented as an entirely different phone. I don’t want a Palm Pre because I want it  to be an iPhone or because I expect it to be better than an iPhone. I am buying the Pre because I expect it to be different than the iPhone.

I don’t need a device that will download 200 different tip calculators or run countless apps. I want a device that is small, versatile and capable of combining all of my means of communication. I communicate on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, and a variety of Google services. The concept of the Pre fits my needs more than the iPhone. I plan on buying the Palm Pre because I want my money to go to the guys willing to take on Apple by creating a device that targets the weaknesses of the iPhone directly.

I don’t expect it to work perfectly at launch and the Pre 2.0 will certainly be a better device, but you have to admire Palm for making so many gutsy moves with the Pre launch. In many ways, the Pre is similar to OS X. Palm has reached a point where their product, both hardware and software, has become stale. They had two options, they could try to fancy up the existing product (the Microsoft approach) or they could reinvent themselves as Apple did with OS X.

Reinventing your image is always much more risky, but the payoff is much higher if successful. Palm has tossed backwards compatibility aside and told all old developers (whatever developers there are left) that their existing skills would no longer be useful. In what appears to be a dangerous move on the surface, is seens as a very necessary move to users, geeks and analysts who follow the smartphone market.

Windows Vista has really had me thinking lately about the future of computers.

Google, Zoho and others have developed very usable programs that work from any Internet based computer allowing anyone to access fully functional programs and all of their data from any Internet enabled computer anywhere.

USB flash drives and portable hard drives have also taken on abilities that were once only found in stand-alone computers. These drives can now run entire programs allowing you to plug them into any computer and run your programs. Once the device is unplugged all of your data goes with it.

Smartphones, like  the iPhone and Blackberry, have replaced 90 percent of what most users used to need a laptop for. Email, basic web surfing, simple games and calendar management can now be done as easily on a cell phone as an expensive and bulky laptop.

I think that in the next five years computers will exist in one of three forms, and none of these forms resembles what we use today.

1. The credit card computer. The day will come when hundreds of gigabytes will fit on a chip as thin as a credit card and as small as a Tic Tac. As of this moment such a chip can hold over 30 gigabytes.

Perhaps one day we will simply have dumb terminals, computer monitors, keyboards and mice that use a simple network interface to connect to the Internet and devices such as printers, digital cameras and cell phones. These terminals will have no memory or storage abilities.

To use these computers, you will insert a small device that you carry in your wallet, or on your keyring. The dumb terminal will suddenly become your computer as it uses the programs and data from your credit card computer that is with you at all times.

2. The cell  phone computer. This is a variation of the credit card computer, but it  is much more practical.

The iPhone was not the first smartphone to combine computer functions with the portability of a cell phone, but it was the first smartphone to get the average user’s attention.

Devices like the Blackberry, Palm Treo and iPhone do more than the average computer was capable of seven years ago.

As memory, power and features expand in portable cell phones, would it be any surprise if we were able to carry our entire computer in such a small package?

Connect the phone into a similar dumb terminal as discussed in number 1 and you have a computer that works in the office, on the road and at home.

3. The Web 2.0 system. There is a good possibility that many computer users will be too attached to their non-portable desktop systems. There is comfort in having a solid 15lb. tower that connects all of your devices.

It is possible that personal computers may stay physically similar to what they are today for quite a while. However, the software on those systems will dramatically change.

Wireless broadband Internet will almost certainly reach most computer users in the next 10 years. This will lead to  Internet based computers. These computers will have a very plain operating system and limited storage capabilities. Powerful processors and video cards may still be essential for those who do games, graphics and CAD, but all programs and data will be stored in online accounts that can be accessed and used from any computer anywhere.

The debate between Mac and PC users will disappear as the operating system will play little or no role in the function of the computer.

I would not be at all surprised if Google is the driving force behind this type of computing. Especially since they already are the driving force for this type of computing.

No matter what type of computer we use, I think that the obvious end will be that TVs will double as monitors and all computing will be portable.

Computers are easy. No, really they are. They are not intuitive, but they are easy.

In order to prove my point, I have developed the Cochran Sliding Scale of Easiness. Using this scale I can easily gauge whether something is easy or not and just how easy that thing may or may not be.

Here are the criteria for evaluating if a thing is easy.

1. Can it be broken down into steps?

2. Are the procedures always the same once learned?

3. Does every part and/or process have a name?

4. Can someone who has never done said thing before do it simply by following a precise set of notes?

The more you can answer yes to the given process or thing, the easier that thing is. See, computer’s are easy.

Computers are not intuitive. As much as we want them to be, computers offer no obvious help. To use the help that is offered, you must first learn the things that there is no help for. At some point, someone has to teach you something about the computer so that you can get on your way in the learning process.

Computers are easy to learn, but you must put in the work. Here’s what you should know..

1. Buy a notebook and keep it by your computer. Write in it every time you learn something.

2. Write clear concise notes. Do not skip a single step and never assume that you will remember next time. Write it down.

3. Learn the names for everything. This may be the best use for a computer book. In general, books can’t teach you anything, but a good book that points out all of the Windows features and names them will go a long way in getting you started.

4. Realize that everything you do with your computer is a process. There is not flowchart for doing everything with your computer, but there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of little process to do each thing.

5. Processes rarely change. Once you learn how to print, you will follow that same process every time in every program. Once you learn to save, that same process will work the same way in every program. The same goes for sending an email, attaching a photo to email, spell checking a document, searching Google, installing a program, etc.

I think the biggest reason that people have a hard time learning their computers is that they are overwhelmed. When you are overwhelmed, your confidence is shaken. When your confidence is shaken, your mind closes to learning.

Rather than focus on learning the computer, learn how to print. Learn how to save. Learn how to send an email. Gradually work your way up to big things like creating tables, formatting columns, removing backgrounds from photos, etc. You will discover that all large processes on your computer are actually made up of lot of short processes.

Eat it the same way you would an elephant – one bite at a time.