In the passing weekend, I’ve not really taken a whole lot of time doing non-consumption activities on my mobile. And that’s both good and bad. The bad is that I have this MMM Prototype which I need to work on before the end of the month and am not willing to blur the lines by working on it while using my work-supplied laptop. The good is that I’ve been less stressed about computing all around, and this is good.
But this weekend the bad bugged me a lot more than the good. So much so that I started considering purchasing a netbook. I don’t want a netbook. In an opinion that I share with Steve Jobs (amongst others), netbooks suck and really don’t excell at much more than being smaller laptops.
I then took another look at the Celio Redfly, but they still don’t support the Symbian operating system – nor the simple fact that my device does TV-Out already – and so that’s again a non-starter unless I were to move to another mobile device (and the learning curve associated with that). Which is why the iPad doesn’t really fit (if I were an iPhone owner, that would be a slightly different story).
Nothing against other mobile platforms, but I’m actually pretty comfy with Symbian and Maemo, and would prefer to stay with either one of those versus the other platforms that are available.
And so that leaves me with some work yet to be done. And a lot of time to think about what’s next. What would the productivity device look like for me if I could have it? Well, the Redfly is a pretty good picture of things:
- Needs to be a tablet with an 8 or 9in screen
- Keboard isn’t needed (I have a bluetooth one)
- Needs to be able to use my mobile phone as the primary device – in other words, it should litereally be a touchscreen and bluetooth radio
- And should also be able to serve as an input accessory for my mobile phone (onscreen keyboard to insert content on the mobile)
That kind of device would have all kinds of implications to me while working, and while just living. For example, I could continue with my practice of going home and connecting my mobile to my TV for media entertainment, but then control it from the tablet.
Or, I could have both devices in a work setting, with the mobile staying in my pocket, and then I have the keyboard and the screen proving to be the productivity center of things. As a knowledge worker, and one who pretty much stays online and with systems such as SharePoint, this would work very well.
Yes, the more I think about things, especially in light of how I’m writing this post now, such a mobile accessory is more in line of needs than an iPad or Redfly. And in the end extends mobility from the “small to the large”-type experiences that seem to work best (especially for me).
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