Thought for the day: are gadgets making life simpler?
By Ben Robinson on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 AM PST In Ideas and rants, Technologies, The Digital Life
Any of you that have read my Bio will know that one of the key things I am looking for in new devices, services, or tech in general, is that it makes my life easier/simpler – that could typically (though not exclusively) be defined as saving me time, or to say another way, ’streamlining my life’:
“…he [Ben] now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already crowded life. It’s his opinion that mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it!”
So it was with great interest I was reading the August 2008 UK edition of printed magazine “Mac FORMAT“. Inside (page 10) is a short column from Brad Gibson, where he makes “a case for a return to the simple life”. He is essentially making the same points as myself – whereas you might start using a “solution” with the best intentions, often you can be dragged in to a process which involves incrementally more and more of your time and money (upgrading and installing software, for example) – thus nullifying any gains you might have hoped to make:
“Simple isn’t simple anymore. It’s mind-numbing. And keeping track of different cables, drives, and versions… Give me a break!”
Given this thinking, my latest consideration is whether in fact Mobile devices are in some cases becoming too advanced for their own good – hence the pic above. Gone are the days when the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 6310 (a voice+text phone) was prevalent (although you’ll see a surprising number of them if you look in the Financial District in London!) – we are now firmly in the days of the iPhone3G – but do the services and apps offered by the device actually make life simpler/easier/streamlined?
Perhaps I would be better off using a ’simple’ voice+text device, and then consider something a lot more powerful for complex tasks I might wish to perform – maybe even a full-blown Laptop…
So I am keen to get the input from IntoMobile readers – what is your setup, what devices do you use, what services do you employ on each of them – and the $1m question – do they actually make your life better, or are you just forcing yourself to believe they do……?
Ben
I’m not actually after a more simplified life. I used to think I was, but recently I’m not so sure…
I’ve come to accept that there’s plenty of fun and satisfaction to be had from navigating life’s peaks and troughs. Gadgets exist (in my opinion) to helps us climb the peaks and bridge the troughs.
The frustration comes from attempting to climb too many hills at once. Focusing on 2 or 3 gadgets (and peaks) at a time – seeing which features actually make a difference to your life – seems to be the key, for me at least.
At the moment I’m wielding a MacBook Pro, an iPhone 3G and a Nokia N95 8GB, more than enough for my feeble powers! ^_^
Together, these 3 gadgets enable me to get done what I currently want to do in 2008. I’m certain that the next decade will see me using 3 or 4 different (or upgraded) gadgets to rise to the challenges of life.
I carry around an N73 in my pocket all the time. I use the camera to take quick shots, gmail mobile to check email, google maps to get directions and local phone numbers, and google search for quick inquiries.
I often think to myself how amazing it is to have such information ready in my pocket. I find the google maps to be the most useful program. A friend and I were driving around looking for something, and couldn’t find it at our first location. So instead of driving home, I just looked up the closest places on my phone and got directions and called different stores until we found what we were looking for. This would have been impossible back in the day. I remember I used to stop at gas stations to check yellow pages when in a similar situation – and those didn’t give directions!
I am not super happy with my N73 because the camera could be better, the web could be faster, the maps could use GPS, and integration with the rest of my life could be a little smoother. But I have to say that carrying around a device capable of so much has changed the way I live.