The press loves tablets. New-media theorists love tablets. The hardware makers love tablets. Tablets might become the default “Personal Computers”. But in 2012, my heart is still with handsets.
Pocketable · The device is with me unless I’m naked or in my swimming suit. The best Internet device, like the best camera, is the one you have with you.
Speaking of Cameras · They’re really getting pretty good; the days of the point-&-shoot may be numbered.
Online · Lots of tablets are WiFi-only, and that’s fine, I guess, as long as I’m in my home or office. And yeah, if I have a handset I can make a hotspot for a tablet. But whether I’m thinking as a programmer or a civilian, being on the Net by default, wherever/whenever, is huge.
One-handed · I can wave it. I can tap it. I can shake it. I can read the news while I hold onto the city bus pole. I can point the camera at interesting people on a railway platform.
Telephony · Yeah, I often wonder if those “Voice” and SMS apps really have a future, but for the moment I still find phoning and texting awfully handy.
Tablets · I’m totally dependent on mine for reading and browsing and demoing. And I’m sure there’s bucketloads of money to be made building and selling them.
But increasingly, they feel like just another computer, deliciously light but starved for CPU and memory, with a great screen but a lousy keyboard.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Mike Kozlowski (Jun 03 2012, at 16:56)
Although also with an OS designed in this millennium, carrying behind a lot less legacy baggage than your desktop OS.
Which, actually, seems like a pretty big deal.
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From: John Cowan (Jun 03 2012, at 18:24)
"First you use machines, then you wear machines, then ...? Then you serve machines." --John Brunner, *Stand On Zanzibar* (1968) I'd modernize the last sentence to "Then you are machines".
I'll stick with a keyboard my sausage-like fingers can actually type on, and live with being half an hour from the Internet, worst case.
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From: Jamie (Jun 03 2012, at 18:27)
Hm. I like my phone, sure. (and aside from the monthly tax I pay on it, I don't mostly use it for telephony.) but it is more utility - look up something, short message, whatever.
My tablets (well, iPads) are now dominant in getting shit done for me. Portable windows into my servers (still a vi and command line guy, the wireless keyboard is fine with issh and a couple other apps, $35 or so), I can work in the kitchen, the cafe, wherever. I'm using my main machines less and less, or at least less directly. Mainly only for working with photos, graphics, videos, and professional layout needs. And that is changing quickly. I see adding accessible storage to my home network, and would like to have something sort of like Hiroku or Google Apps on my private LAN, but (1 that's not normal, (2 my current three tier architechture is fine, and (3 tablets are only getting better. They also replace TV for me, so perhaps I'm abnormal. Take this for what you will.
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From: len (Jun 04 2012, at 14:09)
I don't have a cellphone much less a tablet. My studio computer is maxed out (it's my time it's saving, not yours). My at-work-PC is miserably underpowered (hey boss, it's your time it's wasting, not mine).
A tablet and cellphone may say more about what we do for a living or want to be perceived as living than how we ought to live. I am a luddite to my kids and certain colleagues, but my blood pressure amazes my doctor.
What? Me worry?
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