As non-techno-savvy as it may sound, it took me a long time to see the benefits of all-in-one phones.
As recently as two years ago I refused to own a mobile phone with a camera in it. It seemed like one more thing to go wrong, one more thing to worry about. What if I had to go into a secure facility (as I only occasionally do)? One more thing to have to leave with security.
A year and a bit ago I was looking for a phone and an MP3 player at the same time. I decided to go for a phone with an MP3 player built in, and wound up with a Nokia 6275i. It also had a two-megapixel digital camera built in, and it was a good all-around unit. I even made some use of the WAP browser.
As I began to rely more on text messages for family and work functions I began to year for a proper (QWERTY) keyboard and a larger screen. This brought about the Motorola Q.
Initially I resisted getting a data plan for the phone. It seemed too expensive and I thought I could live without the mobile browser and could do everything I wanted via the unlimited SMS plan I had going. There was just one problem, though — messages from Nagios sent through the e-mail gateway would render the phone unusable.
After much profanity and pulling of teeth with my mobile provider I got a data plan. Ironically, I got the most expensive one. I knew that once the floodgates opened I’d use quite a bit of bandwidth, and I don’t want to get huge bills for going over my plan transfer limit. I retired my Palm T|X and amalgamated everything on the Q.
A ssh client, a better web browser, a better PIM, a better e-mail client, and a few more bits of software later I’m a very happy camper. I’m even using the media player to review my Gàidhlig course materials, and I’m going to record Scottish radio programs and put them on the phone.
In short, a scant two years ago I believed in not putting all of these eggs in one basket, but now I can’t imagine living without my smartphone. I may not be too old, but I guess you can teach a stubborn dog new tricks.
kjw/code 