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PC-Free – The 2 R’s

By The Guru on April 16, 2007

Well here it is, Day 2, and I’m already changing things up a bit. That’s what’s fun, though. Things are always changing. I realized, after some thought, conversation, and experience, that the "PC-Free for 30 Days" project is neither Realistic nor Relevant for anyone. I realized this mainly after I read Ken Camp’s post today saying that I was perhaps "[getting] started before [I am] fully prepared." The more I thought about this, the more I realized that my initial purpose, to prove or disprove the Nokia Marketing Tagline of "It’s what computers have become," was flawed from the beginning. If I have to prepare as much as I did (and did not, as I’m learning), then I think that particular goal failed. At least in my eyes.

So I’m going to change things up. I’m going to use my PC for blogging still, but only where I have to. I still want to make an effort to post more from my phone. Posting on the N800, in my opinion, isn’t feasible with the touch-thumb board or the stylus-keyboard. (Yes, I could buy a bluetooth keyboard, but in reality, how many of you would do that? Thus, it’s not realistic or relevant for me to do it.) And I will still keep IM on the device. Email also. And most of my RSS. And…

I have already learned some things, though.

1. I’m more productive at work when I keep myself from opening an internet browser and IM. They’re both definite productivity killers.

2. I CAN do things from my phone that I didn’t think, and without nearly as much difficulty, such as posting personal rant posts and reading RSS. News and whatnot, to be properly linked, simply aren’t feasible at this time, in my opinion.

So this is what’s to come. I’m going to take specific tasks, and study how the N73 or N800 can accomplish THAT task, as opposed to doing it on the PC. Is it something you could realistically do? This is more beneficial because many of you may be considering purchasing a device for that specific feature. I’ll let you know if it CAN be done, and if so, is it easy to do on the device, or better on the PC? This, I think, would be FAR more useful for the blogosphere than simply reading me whine about not having a pc, and watching me suffer for a month.

Some of these "mini-studies" may last a few days, and that’s fine. So if you have something that you wonder if an S60 (or N800) is capable of replacing your PC to do, let me know. I’m here to test your whims (within safety for both myself and my toys).

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The Guru

The Guru, aka Ricky Cadden, started Symbian-Guru.com in November 2006, out of his excitement for the S60 3rd Edition version of Symella. The Guru has used Symbian devices since the Nokia 6620, and is known for his perspective as a power user. You can follow The Guru on Twitter at @Rcadden

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  • http://mobileministrymagazine.com/ Antoine of MMM/Brigthhand

    I am sorry to hear that the project has already taken a turn so soon in. Granted, I cannot blame you, nor anyone else for at leat giving it a go and then coming back and finding that it doesn’t work as well for you.

    As I stated in a previous post comment here, I’ve been using a Palm Treo for the bulk of my computing for the past year plus. While I have had many difficulities, such as keeping the complex formatting in my Word docs when editing on the mobile, there has been a considerabl amount of time freed because I am not on the computer as much.

    I do disagree though on your R&R premise. This is not only realistic (think folks not in westernized nations who do use and need a near computer without the expense or fraility of a laptop/desktop; think folks in Westernized nations that could turn their phone into their computer – tv-out on the n95 leads to this kind of use) and rational (just think what happens when your computers go blank and you really do have nothing but a desktop/laptop except at work and finacnes do no dictate getting a new one right away), but is something that should be explored more and more. Should you (or anyone) do 30days? Probably not, but should you at least go a week and literally change your computing paradigm and do things differently enough to see those irrational and imaginative sides? You bet, and I think that Nokia and others will be right here cheering you on.

  • http://mobileministrymagazine.com Antoine of MMM/Brigthhand

    I am sorry to hear that the project has already taken a turn so soon in. Granted, I cannot blame you, nor anyone else for at leat giving it a go and then coming back and finding that it doesn’t work as well for you.

    As I stated in a previous post comment here, I’ve been using a Palm Treo for the bulk of my computing for the past year plus. While I have had many difficulities, such as keeping the complex formatting in my Word docs when editing on the mobile, there has been a considerabl amount of time freed because I am not on the computer as much.

    I do disagree though on your R&R premise. This is not only realistic (think folks not in westernized nations who do use and need a near computer without the expense or fraility of a laptop/desktop; think folks in Westernized nations that could turn their phone into their computer – tv-out on the n95 leads to this kind of use) and rational (just think what happens when your computers go blank and you really do have nothing but a desktop/laptop except at work and finacnes do no dictate getting a new one right away), but is something that should be explored more and more. Should you (or anyone) do 30days? Probably not, but should you at least go a week and literally change your computing paradigm and do things differently enough to see those irrational and imaginative sides? You bet, and I think that Nokia and others will be right here cheering you on.

  • http://mobileministrymagazine.com/ Antoine of MMM/Brigthhand

    Oh yea, the more you use your mobile, the more you find that its not the device that’s the issue, its the software that hasn’t been developed (well enough) for the device that’s really the issue. That’s something I hope Palm, Nokia, and a host of others will address much better than just refreshed hardware a few times a year.

  • http://mobileministrymagazine.com Antoine of MMM/Brigthhand

    Oh yea, the more you use your mobile, the more you find that its not the device that’s the issue, its the software that hasn’t been developed (well enough) for the device that’s really the issue. That’s something I hope Palm, Nokia, and a host of others will address much better than just refreshed hardware a few times a year.

  • http://profile.typekey.com/symbianguru/ Ricky Cadden

    Antoine – Thanks for the feedback. I agree 100% that it’s not so much a physical device limitation, but a software limitation. Take for example uploading videos to Blip.tv. There’s not really a convenient way to upload videos larger than 4MB.

    However, I agree that perhaps not 30 days but maybe a shorter timeframe will still allow me to find workarounds without continuing the dependency on my PC.

    That’s why I’m continuing that. Truly the only thing that I have used the PC for is posting. I have kept IM limited to the device (and found increased productivity as a result) as well as web browsing (with the same finding)

    I am still committing to exploring how different specific tasks are performed mobile-only, and will continue to explore. However, if my posting, and therefore updating of the community of the results, suffers, then it would have been more than a simple failed experiment. If I’m unable to share what I’ve learned, then in reality I might as well not have learned anything.

  • http://profile.typekey.com/symbianguru/ Ricky Cadden

    Antoine – Thanks for the feedback. I agree 100% that it’s not so much a physical device limitation, but a software limitation. Take for example uploading videos to Blip.tv. There’s not really a convenient way to upload videos larger than 4MB.

    However, I agree that perhaps not 30 days but maybe a shorter timeframe will still allow me to find workarounds without continuing the dependency on my PC.

    That’s why I’m continuing that. Truly the only thing that I have used the PC for is posting. I have kept IM limited to the device (and found increased productivity as a result) as well as web browsing (with the same finding)

    I am still committing to exploring how different specific tasks are performed mobile-only, and will continue to explore. However, if my posting, and therefore updating of the community of the results, suffers, then it would have been more than a simple failed experiment. If I’m unable to share what I’ve learned, then in reality I might as well not have learned anything.

  • http://mobileministrymagazine.com/ Antoine of MMM/Brighthand

    You said:
    “However, if my posting, and therefore updating of the community of the results, suffers, then it would have been more than a simple failed experiment. If I’m unable to share what I’ve learned, then in reality I might as well not have learned anything.”

    I don’t know if it would be a failure per say. You might just expose some things about mobile communities that the *big* web wasn’t made for. And even then, you’d be extending the mobile sphere towards thinking about mobile-centric issues just a bit more than having a cool phone and then just looking at info about it when away from the phone.

    It does sound like you’ve learned a good bit so far, and in my book, any success is good success :)

  • http://mobileministrymagazine.com Antoine of MMM/Brighthand

    You said:
    “However, if my posting, and therefore updating of the community of the results, suffers, then it would have been more than a simple failed experiment. If I’m unable to share what I’ve learned, then in reality I might as well not have learned anything.”

    I don’t know if it would be a failure per say. You might just expose some things about mobile communities that the *big* web wasn’t made for. And even then, you’d be extending the mobile sphere towards thinking about mobile-centric issues just a bit more than having a cool phone and then just looking at info about it when away from the phone.

    It does sound like you’ve learned a good bit so far, and in my book, any success is good success :)

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