Asset Stripping By Jc
Asset Stripping by JC
I’m starting to woinder about these multi function devices, PDAs and so on. Frankly I’m not using my Dell Axim PDA half as much as I used to and I’m not absolutely sure why as it does everything that I need it to. To my surprise I found myself this morning putting in an order for a digital voice recorder even when there’s one on my phone. The other thing is I’ve found out that I can check my emails from my mobile phone using GPRS and WAP and I find that an awful lot more useful than trying to do it from a PDA ause, for a start, the messages don’t get downloaded they’re just, I’m just reading the,
I woinder about how you’d look at – in someone’s garage, these multitools are all very weel, you know, these things with pliers, screwdrivers, tin openers and the thing for getting cub scouts out of horses hooves, but you don’t walk into a workshop and see a single multitool, you’re more likely to see more than one of the same thing with very similar functions, take a handful of chisels, or a drill and electric screwdriver, at the end of the day its about having the functionality to hand – case in point is imagine wanting to cut a sheet of paper in half – what you can do is open it up, find the right attachment, lever it out, cut the paper with a pair of scissors (that are actually a bit small, but you cope), then fold the multitool (not always easy), and put it back. Alternatively – take the scissors, cut the paper. Now I think there’s a lesson to be learned by manufacturewrs – there will not be one device to rule them all. People will have multiple devices, each optimized for its particular function. If that’s the case, then the most important is that they work together where necessary, all very well building in Bluetooth so that you can transfer information back and forth but build in USB so all talk to big mothership that’s the computer and life will be as it should.
Meanwhile, back at the Dell Axim, I would conclude that it’s not the perfect device. Maybe I’ll go back to the palm. It does all these wonderful things – music, email, word processing, games – but the main thing I’ve used it for is to play cards. The beginning of the end was trying a wireless card and the card didn’t work as well as hoped, here I am with multicomputer, most important thing being access to information from any device, rather than being device limited/constrained. It’s how devices share information that is most important, a management problem and a usability problem. Any device should be able to do what it does with a minimum of grief. These are tools after all. This isn’t about laziness, this is the convenience required by someone with a multitude of tools and who has the will to choose the right one for the job.
You have to find the right thing off the menu, it doesn’t give you the album in the right order with the software suppied, you could argue, well, why don’t I install a package that does a better job, but why should I have to? Wwhy don’t I just get a custom device that plays MP3’s? Which is in fact what I have done, I have a Digisette which I can load an album onto and I can go forward and back on it, and when I want to play an album I just hit play. Similarly other devices, like a mobile phone. Lots of crossovers between all these devices, it crushed the idea that one device to rule them all. That’s without even talking about desktops and laptops and servers and tablets and so on and so forth.
It could be argued that devices still can’t do everything in a small enough form factor, which has an element of truth. However the usability factor remains the most important. Its true at the highest end as well – I was talking to a friend who works in a recording studio, which has just acquired a new, analog mixing desk. Why not digital? I asked.
There isn’t an ideal form factor, and the component costs are that it should be possible to have multiple devices in multiple shapes. You wouldn’t have a single chisel, you’d have ten chisels. But if chisels were very expensive, you’d only have one and you’d make do. Chisels are affordable, therefore have a set of ten, choose the best one for the job. So, there is a role for the combo device, when you weight and convenience and not having to carry 50 things, something to be said for not having multiple devices for security – these things can get lost and stolen and broken - and complexity reasons, but that can be like saying that buying a new biro is like adding to the complexity of a pencil case. At end of day, its about simplicity but with digital cameras, video cameras, but they will require different things like battery life. Still can’t beat SLR digital or analog, because of the quality of the lens. Never going to get better than an instamatic lens quality. It becomes far more than squashing features into a device because it becomes impossible to find them. Dell Axim and why I’ve gone off it. The reason is I find it more useful to have multiple cheap devices, each with a simple, defined purpose, rather than a single multi-function device that falls between a rock and a hard place. Not going to get rid of it, still a role for it but its not going to replace everything else.
The Pocket PC interface is pretty but it doesn’t actually get you to the information or functionality you want in the way that you as a user would want to get to it. There are all kinds of the menus, today screen, settings and programs areas, as well as the file manager, all of which might reveal the information I need. Same files appear in different places, no obvious places for keeping things. There are also bolt-on shareware window managers.
All kinds of bolt-on window managers, but again, I shouldn’t need them. This is the device mentality – it should give me access to what I need, out of the box or not at all. Pick up and go, not pick up, spend a couple of days looking for replacement interface managers, and downloading and paying and adding to the price, it should be pick up and go. With Pocket PC, many different ways of getting to an application or a file, the same files appear in different places, or so it seems, there’s no obvious place to put stuff.
Setting up connections to access the Internet is mind-bogglingly complicated, it can be done but it’s certainly not intuitive, phone numbers, dialing locations, internet accounts, all the three things are linked but not in a way that makes sense when come back six months later, hunting around for how I set it up last time and that can’t be right.
So – if we look at the device market, there’s – what is a mobile, what is a PDA. There are certain functions that you’re going to want and certain contexts you’re going to want. Device should be a factor of function and context, soi if you’re going on holiday and you want to take some photos and shoot some video on the beach, the device should fit that need. If you are on a business trip want to take some notes and check email, device should fit that need. If you’re going to a party and you want to coordinate with your friends where and when to meet, you want to fit that need. If you’re driving in a car and you want to dictate an article about a Dell PDA no longer being the thing for you, you want a device to fit that need. In this case – and Olympus VN-90 voice recorder. And so on.
What we have is a device version of the Pareto principle – there will be a subset of devices that fit the majority of requirements. Manufacturers would do well to identify what those needs are, then they can address 80% of the market and leave the rest to specialized devices. There will be technogeeks who want to have absolutely everything, and there will be people working in places where they can’t carry a selection of devices, where they will need specialized devices as well. Technogeeks will want all the devices, and anal obsessives will want a specific device for every job, and so on and so forth. No different to pencil cases or toolboxes, its about having the right tool for the job. Can’t say that the Dell PDA – less to do with Dell and more to do with PocketPC – can’t say that it has arrived, it’s a step along the way.
The keyboard doesn’t enable you to type – you have to hit the keys pretty hard, particularly the spacebar otherwise youendupwithasentencelikethis. So, its not ideal.
Do I really want a PDA to go jogging? No, I want something that is light, portable and easy to use.
As it is, every tool-man has a set of tools he uses the most.
Is there a place for a streamer device – a cartridge that operates like an MP3 player?