I’ve been using a Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7 off and on for a couple weeks.
It’s a uniquely beautiful device. And Microsoft’s Windows Phone software is refreshingly different from competing products like Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
I enjoyed using the Lumia 800 so much that sometimes I had guilt — like I was cheating on the one I love, my iPhone 4S. Continue reading
As Apple introduces the latest generation of its iPhone this week, it’s important to put the company’s flagship device in perspective as just another smartphone in a crowded marketplace.
Long gone are the days when the iPhone exemplified the cutting edge in mobile computing. Now it’s well matched by competing products from other companies like Samsung and Nokia.
Even the iPhone’s long-vaunted iTunes media ecosystem isn’t as unique as it once was. Until just a couple years ago iTunes was the best way to buy movies or music on a mobile device.
No more. Superior competing services like Rdio, Netflix, and Amazon Prime have vaulted past Apple’s languishing media platform.
That leaves apps. Apple invented the concept of the mobile “app” and made it easy to install and use them. The iPhone remains app nirvana, but Apple is at risk of ceding leadership here too. Continue reading
As summer sputters to a dismal close it’s time to refocus on work and all of its tailings — like email.
Yuck, right? Who likes email?
Apparently we all do. We carry it around in our pockets.
I blame the Blackberry for this societal malfeasance.
But it doesn’t need to go on.
I urge you to join me in unweaving this discoloured thread from the fabric of our collective existence.
Take your email off your phone.
Do it now. Continue reading
The idea of paying for things with your mobile phone in Canada is gaining momentum. Again.
The politicians, the banks and the mobile carriers all stir this pot every few years.
So don’t get too excited. It’ll die down here again soon.
At first blush, this thing called “mobile payments” seems like a grand idea. Leave your wallet at home! Just pay for stuff with your phone!
If that sounds kind of futuristic, well, it isn’t. It’s just that you’re in Canada. As usual, most of the rest of the world is way ahead of us on this. But for once that might be a good thing. There are a lot of reasons not to use your mobile phone as a payment device. Continue reading
There’s that moment you get off a plane in a foreign land. The air smells different. You don’t understand people when they talk to you. And they drive on the wrong side of the road.
It’s all so foreign, so different; but it’s also appealing and attractive.
That’s how it felt the the first time I used a Windows Phone 7 device.
I was instantly enchanted. But also disoriented and more than a little confused. It’s very different – in a good way – from my beloved iPhone. Continue reading
A couple of weeks back I basically demanded that we all abdicate paper-based books for plastic and bits. And I still stand by that, as long as you’re over the age of 12.
With kids, it’s a different matter.
Keep them away from e-books. Far, far away.
E-books are great for us seasoned readers. But they’re terrible for learning how to love reading.
Plus, reading an e-book means you’re playing a direct role in market research.
And do you really want your kids to be the equivalent of permanent test subjects in a consumer survey? Continue reading
I have this funny feeling that e-readers will be a marquee gift this holiday season.
I don’t know why, but it could have something to do with all these new Kindles from Amazon, the new Kobo Vox, and the just-introduced Nook Tablet from Barnes and Noble.
There are so many e-readers on the market these days that deciding which one to buy for whom can be tough.
Luckily there are few general principles you can work with when considering what’s available. Continue reading
I hadn’t planned to, but I ended up lining up in the wee hours a couple weeks back for an iPhone 4S.
It was more a father-son bonding thing than a geek thing, to be honest. But once the Vancouver media descended on the scene and started interviewing us, well, I felt compelled to buy one, just to show it off for the TV cameras if nothing else.
And to be honest, I’m kind of glad I did. The iPhone 4S packs a key technology that clearly demonstrates the future of how we’ll use computers: a service called Siri lets you do things on your iPhone using just your voice.
In concept, Siri, isn’t that significant.
We’ve theoretically been able to operate our desktop computers with our voices for quite some time.
Instead, Apple’s true achievement in Siri is twofold:
First, it pretty much works, unlike most voice services that have come before (including those from Apple).
Second, it’s available away from your desk and it’s baked in. Voice services matter a lot more to the average person when you’re mobile and they’re easy to access.
With Siri, Apple has effectively reset the compass on the future direction of personal computing.
Instead of continuing along the path of pushing pixels across glass screens, Siri demonstrates that we can do without devices altogether. Continue reading
