The Mobile Web - Part I

The mobile web. The term sounds cool but what exactly is it?

Really it could be different things to different people. I'll throw out what I use it for.

First my tool - A T-Mobile MDA phone. It's a PDA style phone with a hidden keyboard. It also has a stylus and touchscreen. The phone is nice and runs on Windows Mobile platform. My main complaints are boot up time and not having a manual keypad. The keypad really can't be changed and the boot up problem is solved by leaving the phone on.

I've had several people tell me "I hate that phone." I can see that. It's almost a love or hate item. The more I use it the more I like it.

Email-
First I use it to check email. The phone will go out and grab the first bits of your email so you can check your email from anywhere. This is nice and saves time in finding a computer to check email and lets you get back quickly to urgent messages.

Text Messaging
I also use text messaging. At first this seemed like a teeny-bopper application. But text messaging has it's place. Think about it. If you call someone to ask a quick question the call usually turns into various chit-chat. A quick text message can get you an answer without all the baggage. Also out of the country I've used it to stay in touch where it was to costly to call.

Picture Messaging
This also has a teen fell to it but I try to use it in a more "mature" manner. Some may disagree. I can update one of my blogs with an image and text. I've had to purchase something and sent an image to make sure I was getting the right thing. You can also use them for fun such as keeping friends and family updated with a quick picture.

Stayed tuned for next article where we dig deeper into the Mobile Web.
EB

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Laptops - the smaller the better

Laptops are nice and for some a necessity. They actually have enough power these days to do some actual work.

One thing gets me though. Why would anyone buy a big laptop? If I have a laptop I want it to be light and portable. I do not want to tote a semi-desktop computer around. Yea, I know you are a power user and you need that big screen.

I use Photoshop daily, create videos, and do my Internet junk on a small Dell laptop. That's not to say it doesn't have some power. I threw 2 gigs of RAM in it and the processor is decent. For extra storage I'll use the USB powered Western Digital Passport USB drives.

Yes those are all extra little gadgets to tote but I would have them no matter the size of the laptop. I like backing up my stuff to a separate drive.

Get a big screen and cool looking desktop for home but for travel go light. Correctly configured the small ones are less money and have enough horsepower to do just about anything you need.
Plus you'll spare your back.

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Blogging about Blogging

Blogs are everywhere. They aren't a bad thing. In fact many are quiet useful.

Back in the day I owned an ISP. This was before blogs and even when a 28.8 modem was considered fast. Even though the term hadn't evolved, Blogs were in use. Essentially a Blog is some form of web editor that lets you update a web page easily. It probably has some form of backend database, a bit of coding to connect to the database, and voila, Blog.

People, this was happening way before Wolf Blitzer thought about saying "So let's see what the blogs are saying.." on the CNN Situation Room.

Many of the pages I created for our Intranet and main Website could be updated via a web browser and had a database for the backend. I am not going into the technical details but my point is: Blogging is great but it's been around.

That's how most technology is anyway. Someone or a small company will invent a widget and it's useful and cool and the nerds may play around with it, but when corporate gets a hold of it and gives it "a name" then it's the latest and greatest.

So create a Blog, read a Blog (mine please), but just remember Google, or typepad, didn't invent the Blog they just made a nice package and threw to the masses. Somewhere the nerds are cooking up the next "new thing".

Later
EB

visit my website earlb.com for more goodies

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