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What Are You Missing With Your Mobile Gadget Solution?

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So, here’s a question for you. What can’t you do that you want to do with your mobile gadget scenario? What’s missing? What do you want to do, that you can’t do right now with whatever gaggle of gadgets you use daily?

OK, that’s several questions, but hopefully you get the point. As the focus of the gadget world has shifted from desktops to laptops to Tablets and smartphones, my suspicion is that most folks have probably aligned themselves with one platform or the other, but some may still be in search for the perfect piece to finish their own puzzle. Before you move on with your answers, these questions aren’t meant to provoke fanboy platform wars. Rather I’m curious as to what you, using whatever gadget or platform you use, think is missing. And I guess, what features or functionality might drive your next round of decision making when it comes to making purchases.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit since Kevin posted how his iPad makes him hate paper and has saved him quite a bit of money, and the excellent discussion that has been flowing around that post. In my case, as I thought about writing this post I realize that there isn’t much that I need to do, or want to do that I can’t already. In some cases, I can do things that I wouldn’t have thought of thanks to the continued evolution of technology. (Side note: I’m reminded of a comment made by one of my nephew’s on Christmas one year. In opening some present he enthusiastically proclaimed that whatever the gift was it was what he always wanted but that he never knew he wanted it until he had it.)

I’m not looking for answers that focus on I want quad core this, or higher res that. Those things will inevitably come to whatever platform you choose to play on. Instead, I’m looking for thoughts about what you want to do that you can’t with whatever you’re using. Be as specific as you can. And don’t just focus on the gadget in your hands or under your hands as you type. Connect the dots with the things that make them work like your broadband or wireless service, or the Apps you use, or the peripherals that extend functionality as well.

Here’s hoping this will spur an interesting conversation.

13 Comments

13 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    05/06/2011 at 3:29 pm

    Multiple profiles.

    Not so much with phones but definitely so with tablet class devices.

    Much like a desktop these are often shared by more than one family member at different times.

    It would be nice if you could sign into different profiles or accounts on the device for the different users so everyone had the ability to set their own layout/theme etc, as well as have separate data, and of course differentiated messaging/e-mail/etc setups.

    Second choice would be built in IR transceiver.

    Cloud services management types may lay awake plotting how to get me to subcribe monthly to some new service or put all my data in their cloud and then download it again whenever I need it – but honestly my world does not work that way yet.

    I have a television and stereo and dvd player, etc.

    It is silly that my couch surfing tablet cannot utilize its really big brain to help me change a channel or hit mute or move the next track on the stereo.

  2. Maxime Gousse

    05/06/2011 at 4:22 pm

    As an enthusiast photographer, what I miss most is a mobile version of Aperture.

    I have posted a blog topic about it here: https://maximegousse.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/aperture-for-ipad-my-wish-list-for-a-mobile-ipad-version-of-aperture/

  3. Willem Evenhuis

    05/06/2011 at 7:38 pm

    Inking!
    Ink to-text-recognition!
    A GOOD capacative stylus/pen!

    • JMYoung

      05/06/2011 at 8:44 pm

      YES! I’m hopeful that the Lenovo Ideapad Slate will be the device. But frankly, I would love a Samsung Slider or Asus slider if it was WACOM enabled and had the handwriting recognition. But I’m probably asking for too much to have a slide-out keyboard AND a stylus.

  4. bbcamp

    05/07/2011 at 1:01 pm

    I want real inking (active digitizer) within the Apple ecology, and a bigger SSD for my MacBook Air. And above all, OneNote for the Mac OS.

  5. Paladin238

    05/09/2011 at 4:32 am

    I wish that apps were cross-platform. I live in Multiple ecosystems, and as such I have had to buy the same app twice. Say, Shazam for instance. Why if I buy it on iOS do I have to buy it again on my android device or my Windows Phone? So yeah one day I’d like buy once have everywhere. Kind of like Amazon’s Kindle.-which I love!

    I’d like to see Microsoft bring the ENTIRE Office suite to all platforms. It makes sense you are a software company Microsoft! bring Word, Excel, Onenote, everything to iOS, Android, Linux. and Im not talking viewers or halfhearted ports. Give us true tailored programs, oh yeah and buy once as mentioned above.

    I just bought a MBA and I wish it had double tap as click like Windows laptops. LOL

    I wish Apple would add active digitizer to the iPad. ( and Onenote magically appears the next day in the app store. ( I would even pay to have this!~)

    True sunlight readable screens… In everything.

  6. GTaylor

    05/09/2011 at 2:29 pm

    To concur with Paladin238, compatibility. If the device is so blasted clever then it should be able to figure out how to run what stuff from which purveyor on whatever system while remembering what I did on my other device ten minutes ago.

    And your statement Warner about side stepping fanboy pickyness is much appreciated. That behavior in the market place is what drives the marketing with all its associated turbulence and roadblocks. That to the benefit of the hardware, software, and service providers and only to the user’s benefit at a rate well over $150 per month.

    So what do I want in my mobile computing environment? Simple unflashy utility, clear and useful service, and interoperability that would let me pick up the device that is correctly sized for the work at hand.

  7. Cuhulin

    05/09/2011 at 5:45 pm

    Gee, where to start?

    I agree about compatibility. At app-style prices, I’m less concerned about buying the app again than simply having it available on multiple platforms. I hate to think about the time that has gone into finding todo programs that are compatible with Outlook 2010 64-bit and work on both IOS and Android. Even if I switched entirely to an Apple platform, IOS still is not OSX, and there are compatibility issues between them.

    I agree about inking and would expand that to say Notes! I want to be able to grab a stylus, write like I’ve been taught at a hearing or meeting, and painlessly get the notes into my filing system. A lot of this would be solved if there were good Windows slates at Ipad sizes, weights and usability, but we’re not there yet.

    I also would like a database system on IOS, Android and Windows — Filemaker comes close right now, but I haven’t tried it enough to be sure.

    Finally, I’d like easily available keyboard access — the ASUS Transformer is a good modern adaptation of the Compaq 1100, but it has its own limitations.

    I think there is a lot that is not yet right.

  8. Chad

    05/09/2011 at 8:43 pm

    Inking of course, it’s not a tablet with out good data input, we are almost there with Bluetooth Keyboard support, but in some cases having as mouse would be very helpful as it wouldn’t break up my data input by having to raise my hand and touch the screen.

    • Chad

      05/09/2011 at 8:45 pm

      And Onenote (cloud syncing support) on honeycomb to go with my bluetooth keyboard and mouse and magical active digitizer.

  9. Anonymous

    05/09/2011 at 10:44 pm

    I’d add my vote for inking to the others posting.

    I didn’t mention it originally because I know it is scheduled to be coming from more vendors later in the year.

    But it is surely a feature which will have a big hand in driving my purchase selections.

  10. GTaylor

    05/10/2011 at 1:33 am

    Tablets have inking, otherwise it is a tablette.

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