Day: March 23, 2010

The HTC Evo and Nearly a Pocket Tablet

Mobile

Its not just BibleTech this week, for many who are involved in mobile and telecommunications, the CTIA Conference is going on and there’s been a number of announcements and rumors. One of the announcements though is a device that – at least from some respects – sits right around where a lot of mobile computing will be going to. That device would be the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint – and its a bit of a monster.

Here are some of the specs of this latest smartphone:

  • 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD
  • 1GHz processor
  • 1GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM
  • 8 megapixel camera with flash and able to take 720p video
  • 1.3 megapixel front facing camera
  • HDMI out
  • 802.11b/g WiFi
  • 8GB microSD card
  • Google Android v2.1

There are a ton more specs – Engadget has that covered with some comparison  pics.

The piece that I want to focus on is the size of the device – its not small. And the fact that its dang near a tablet computer that’s sized for a (large) pocket.

I think this is where mobiles on the high-end will be going this year. Samsung has announced a model today (the Galaxy S), and there’s a rumored Nokia, both with large screens, nice sized processors, and the kind of ability that just is crazy to be in our hands (mobiles are like little microwaves I recently read).

With devices getting to this point, will we attend to the same uses, or change it up a bit? I’m hoping that there’s a change, and that we do some neat things like using them more like the PDAs of old. Or, do new things like mashups and alternative content displays. And at the same time, I’d like to see the screens be used for more than just making text bigger. We should be enriching the user experience now.

Or at least pushing the envelope with environmental and battery tech so that these devices can be usable as pocket offices for most of the day.

Now, get me those specs in every other mobile OS, and we can really have some competitive events happening – or at least a choice that would make me reconsider redoing that tablet work experiment more fully.

For the rest of folks, consider what you’d use a computer for. Then see these smartphones, and realize that tablets are in some respect their evolution. Should be interesting from here to the end of the year.

Poem: last.fm About Me v2

Poetry

A rewrite of the About Me section from my last.fm account:

Patterned this life after Love’s best design
Every pen that wrote four by 79 lines defined
Until I came to this place to unwind
And catch new friends by a musical interlude
Intertwine one playlist and healthy doses of the Divine
Not letting the dullness of radio turn me sublime
I reach outside and inside to find
Sounds
Sounds patterned after life before afterlife drowns this out
Pound each desk and foot like the drummer boy’s unibrow
Hairy sounds scale up your back until you realize the child
Is nothing like this B-side because it smells foul
The only classic temptation here is to wonder if Steve’s seen this aloud
I’d ask but instead I keep my head down
Powering into each beat until the fader dips into chow
And what you eat of this life is no more ego or proud
But roots of life in brotherly towels
Giving a queen a rest in the glorious miles
And leaving sounds after sounds patterned after Love’s only Child
In this design there is only one destiny
I hope you find the Child as you listen to this life’s playlist from me.