Steve Jobs' Next Invention

Great Minds Think Alike

I think I've got Steve Jobs' next invention.

It's portable.

It's disposable.

You can write on it.

It never crashes or has a weak signal.

And it's very, very cheap.

Give up?

A piece of paper.

Steve, call me . . .

P.S.: the foregoing prompted by a week of virus-fighting headaches, "smart phone" crashes, etc.

From Gunslinging to Data Slinging

Still Working on My "Draw"

While I break in my new Smart phone, I'm temporarily carrying around my old one, too.

So, for the time being, I've got smart phones holstered on either hip.

Fortunately, whereas gun slingers slow on the draw . . . got killed -- I just miss a phone call (Phew!).

Smart Phone Overload

Shopping for a Smart Phone? Better Have a Spreadsheet

You can have any color you want, as long as it's black.

--Henry Ford, describing the colors that the Model-T came in.

We've certainly come a long way since Ford's day -- maybe too far.

As part of my due diligence picking a successor to my trusty (but very old) Sprint Treo, I've now checked out the "Bold," "Curve," "Storm," "Tour," and the "Storm II" (you know you've been shopping awhile when you start to get "lapped" by the sequels and knock-off's).

And that's just the lineup of smart phones from one maker, Blackberry.

For one carrier, Verizon.

(Apparently, Blackberry makes different models for the other carriers -- or was it just that they go by different names??).

And I haven't even gotten to the equally labyrinthine coverage plans (voice, text, data and various permutations of same).

You literally need a spreadsheet to keep track of it all -- which increasingly seems like the point.

Drawbacks

The downside of all this "choice" is that consumers are left overwhelmed -- and paralyzed.

Paralyzed customers keep what they have, delivering the carriers a fat, monthly annuity.

Maybe that explains the tsunami of advertising by Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. touting their advantages.

P.S.: Oddly, the cell phone companies' marketing strategy is starting to resemble the mattress companies' (Simmons, Serta, etc.), who make it virtually impossible to compare one model at one retailer with another model at a competing retailer.

"Technology Losers" . . . and Ostriches

Technology Adapters: Early, Late . . & Never

If you've yet to "Facebook," "Twitter," "Link In" (yes, they're all verbs) or otherwise seriously partake of the orgy of social media apparently going on out there, I'm sure you'll relate to the following:

If Caroline Cua’s iPhone looked anything like her closet, where she keeps her dozens of pairs of shoes, she would have screen after screen of applications. But instead her iPhone is nearly empty.

And that’s just fine with her, until she finds herself among friends whose iPhones are studded with icons. When a fellow iPhone owner asked recently to see her apps, she grew self-conscious. “I said to him, ‘O.K., now I’m officially feeling like a loser,’ ” she recalled.

--"Skirting the Glut of iPhone App's: When Phones Are Just Too Smart"; The New York Times (1/2/2010)

Actually, there's an even more antediluvian state than the self-described "technology loser" (above): "technology ostrich."

That would be anyone putting off buying an iPhone because they don't want to be one of the technology losers walking around with only 5 app's installed on their smart phone.

Like me!

In my defense, I know lots of other seasoned Realtors walking around with not-so-smart phones because . . . they still work!

In my case, they also open up Realtor lockboxes (because my Treo has an infrared beam, I don't need to carry around a separate "fob"); and synch, reliably, with my calendar and contact list.

If it ain't broke . . .