Phones should not be cameras!

Posted by: dcwalton on Dec 24 2007

I am a purist. I have always believed a device should do only what it was intended to do. Therefore a mobile phone should be a phone and not a camera.  A PDA should allow you to organise your diary and do email - if you wanted to use Word, Excel or Powerpoint, do it on a proper computer. I have always maintained this belief stoically until technological developments in the last year started to make me change my mind.

I like toys - technical toys, and I have changed my mobile phone and my laptop every 6 months for the last 10 years. I started off with a Palm device - changing that every time a new one came out. I was a dedicated Nokia user until Sony Ericsson came along with polyphonic ring tones and then Motorola brought the RAZR with real music ability (and a hugely sexy new design that destroyed all competitors). So my standard travel kit was a Palm device for my calendar (and solitaire), my phone for communic ations, and a laptop for the daily grind (up until very recently always a Sony Vaio). 

Then one day along came a Blackberry. It did email, real time, on the go, no synching necessary. It synch’d my calendar without me having to plug it in and press a button. It was just there for me whenever I needed it. It even played solitaire. Admittedly it did not have a touch screen, and the screen quality was pretty poor. Even worse it was a useless telephone. So I still had my Blackberry, my mobile phone and my laptop. It also did not work as a modem to my laptop - which the Moto RAZR did.  At first I thought I would prefer a touch screen interface - but soon I learnt to love the wheel. It was a very clever way of navigating - and soon I had the "fastest thumbs in the West" when it came to typing. I used to have conversations with colleagues about the best way to type but whatever we decided we all had our Blackberry’s and our mobile phones out on the desk when we were in meetings. The other downside was the screen quality being so poor - if it was too bright you could not see a thing, if it was dark you had to put the light on and it drained the batteries horribly. One of the biggest benefits for a person who was constantly travelling like me, was that it was one of the first devices to charge off the USB. As my RAZR also charged that way, it meant that I did not have to carry tonnes of heavy power cables around.

By this time I was a convert, but frustrated by the poor mobile phone features - I wanted to reconcile devices. The next Blackberry device was a massive leap forward. It had a hugely improved screen with a crispness and colour lacking in the last one. It also had a light sensor so it lit up automatically depending on the quality of light around you. Still had the wheel, could play real music ringtones, and most importantly - it was a decent quality mobile phone. Into the "graveyard drawer" with all the other devices went my RAZR. Email was still just as sleek but now you could really see what you were typing. You could also have great fun with a couple of copper coins as they have a magnetic sensor built into them so that when you put them into their case they go into power saving standby mode. It still did not work as a modem but the wireless technology built into the laptop meant I was more likely to tap into a wireless hotspot on my travels than take on the expense of dialing out through a mobile.

So now I should have been satisfied and settled in - however, it is never good enough and I get bored after 6 months or so. Along came the Blackberry 7100. The downside has always been that the Blackberry’s are just big and clunky and do not easily fit in your pocket.  They do not look sexy by any definition - it has never been good for my street cred!  It was the very thing that put me off the Nokia Communicator all these years. So when the Pearl came out I was lured into getting it despite the funky double key qwerty keypad. But it was a lot sleeker than the other Blackberry - but still no match for the mobile phones that were out (i.e. the RAZR). Whilst the screen was miles better, it was still a brick. The other problem was the keyboard. There is no denying it worked well - not predictive text but guessed the next letter. However, it just was a second best solution compared to a proper QWERTY keyboard. The phone was better once again - but it was still a brick. I gave it away and went back to the next model in the series with a full QWERTY keyboard. Not a massive improvement but a good workhorse. Note all the way through I had my good old card games on the device and the email just worked easily and smoothly. By now my device also supported Yahoo Messenger.  You could download an application that worked with MSN Messenger but I never got it working. Messenger was critical for me because I spent hours in airports and hotels across the globe and if I could go on Messenger there was always someone I could talk to, for free no matter where I was. I have been on the same data tariff on my Blackberry for all these years. 5mb of data per month (I have never been anywhere near this) for no more than £20 a month. A bargain compared to most connection options! Yahoo Messenger on the Blackberry is brilliant. Blackberry Messenger also started being included as standard - but you need to have friends with Blackberry’s to make use of it!

So here I am with a Blackberry 8700 series device, and everything is still working nicely except it is still a brick and in no way sexy. Along comes the Pearl. For the first time a Blackberry which competes with the current mobile phone market in size and shape. In addition, it had a camera, which I did not want until I had one - and it was really good quality. Despite being only 1.3 megapixel it just took great pictures, and as I always had it on me - it allowed me to capture the moment. I was converted and had to eat my words having evangelised  against camera phones for all these years! The only catch was it was back to that stupid keyboard which despite being very clever, and despite my adeptness, was still second best. We also lost the wheel and gained what I have heard some people call a "nipple" in it’s place. Basically a touch button that works on a similar principle to the iPods. I am used to it now, but I must admit I still miss the wheel. By now the browser on the Blackberry worked really well. A combination of the clear screen and the Internet connection over GPRS and then EDGE means that you can browse any website relatively quickly and with ease without necessarily even needing a Windows Mobile version. It also comes with its own websites for downloading applications and themes.

So I thought, that’s it - this is the best I am going to get. A fully functional Blackberry but with double keys. But no! I was saved - along came the Blackberry Curve. Sleek and sexy, with a 2 megapixel camera and a full QWERTY keyboard. Yahoo Messenger built in, good browsing, card games working fine and now even Blackberry maps as standard - a GPS map system that allows you to find any address and zoom in to addresses. It even has a nice sleek little case that stops you having to worry about accidentally clicking buttons. Needless to say it is great for email still.  It also has a mini-sd card slot and plays music and videos with great quality. I have a 2gb card in mine and like to play music out on speaker when I am travelling with work. Most mobile phones require a headset plugged in to listen to music. The pictures and videos you take with it are great quality and it just ticks all the boxes I have. I can’t imagine what they could do to improve it at this stage. What it means is that I can go out on the road with nothing but my trusty Blackberry - no laptop or any other mobile device - I have it all in one place. Who’d have thought it!

 

 

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