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Mobile Imagineering

May 30, 2007

Nothing you do for today is likely to survive progress. To make it survive, you need to think ahead, into the future, imagine the way things could/will be done then.

Then develop solutions for that today.

Why do I bring this up?

Many “mobility products” today tend to address present day needs. We tend to take the desktop paradigm, and build products around it. We take present-day situations, and then try to invent a better mousetrap.

From my perspective, that is wrong. The desktop is a paradigm beaten to death, and if you look closely, it has never attained the kind of traction that …

Mobile Connectivity

April 15, 2005

Now if there is one thing that scares me, it is loss of connectivity for any period of time. Whether via my notebook or my PDA - if I am not connected, I feel lost.

I need not have worried.

Sitting in the train, I was able to stay online for almost the entire trip, without having to pay a single penny more than I normally would. In fact, even when I reached Calicut, and there were issues with the campus WiFi (I could connect in the corridor, but not in the room), I had connectivity whenever I needed it.

On the way …

WiFi Q&A

July 1, 2004

As wireless networking becomes more and more interesting to organisations, the questions naturally start flowing. Here’s a list of questions from IS managers of mid-size companies-and some answers.

We already have a wired network fully in place. Does it make sense to consider Wi-Fi?

Your should consider Wi-Fi if you have laptop users who need to carry their laptops into common areas, like conference rooms, where wireless is far more convenient than wired access; or if you have executives who travel across offices and want connectivity in another office. Even with just one or two laptop users, the low cost of Wi-Fi …

Personal Digital Adventure - Part 4

September 20, 2003

Rumour became fact as Palm announced the Palm Tungsten C and the Palm Zire71.
Tale of two PDAs
The Tungsten C was probably everything a business person would want. 64 MB of memory, a fantastic high-resolution colour screen, and two rather unusual things: no Graffiti writing area (and a small mini keyboard instead), and wireless (WiFi) connectivity. All this came with two “warts” - a high price (street price $500) and monophonic sound.

However, the lure of a wireless PDA is almost irresistible. Wireless hotspots were springing up all over the world - at a airports, in offices, at coffee shops, at home. …

Personal Digital Adventure - Part 3

September 19, 2003

By 2002, almost two years after I acquired my Palm Vx, there were a lot of new models and manufacturers in the market. Colour models abounded from Palm, Sony, Handspring, Toshiba, HP and other manufacturers. PalmOS based models continued to rule the market with unassailable market shares, vindicating my stand that there are things that make a PDA usable, simplicity being one of them.

Ramming an entire Windows or Linux desktop into a small form factor doesn’t improve the user experience in any way. PalmOS was designed to deal with issues that were never on anyone’s radar when designing a desktop …

Personal Digital Adventure - Part 2

September 18, 2003

Now that I had room to grow, I did.

First of all, I subscribed to about almost 2 MB of channels from Avantgo. The service itself was just growing, and every day new stuff could be found, so you can imagine that there quite a few changes in my lineup over the next few months as I settled on what I could call my steady set of channels. These included BBC News, Reuters News, Slashdot.org, PalmInfoCenter.com, CNET News.com, Beyond 2000, and quite a few entertainment and technology channels.

Several times a day, whenever I had a few minutes, I would place my …

Personal Digital Adventure - Part 1

September 17, 2003

In March 2003, I picked up a new Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) to replace my late (and seriously lamented) Palm Vx that has served me so faithfully since 2000. I can no longer conceive of professional or personal life without a PDA nestled in hand, and being without one was like going Cold Turkey!

This makes it the perfect time to tell my readers how I got into the “PDA” habit.
Electronic Diaries
I was introduced to the concept of “Electronic Diaries” way back in the early 1990s, when I picked up a Casio Digital Diary to track the lengthening list of telephone …

Do we want to WiFi today?

September 15, 2003

As I sit here, using my notebook to write this article, several things work silently in the background, making sure that I have access to information I need, when I need it.

The single most important technology in this case is the wireless network - WiFi for the initiated - an 802.11b based network that lets me stay connected to my LAN and the Internet no matter where I am on the premises.

Which, in this case, is my garden, where I sit with my notebook in my lap, writing these words, while at the same time using an Instant Messenger to …