T&T: Aircard

[Jeffrey Siegel]

> In the dink, I have no time to look at a
> computer screen while running at full bore...
>

The moment you need it, trust me, you'd slow down (and wish you had a
navigation device).

A couple of years ago, we anchored off Shell Key for a week (near Islamorada
in the Florida Keys).  It was a breathtaking place to just hang out.  When
we got there, we decided that when we got tired of the view, we'd leave.
After a full week, we decided that the view was still perfect but we wanted
to go to other places.

There is a wonderful restaurant/bar/nightclub a couple of miles from there
called Lorelie's.  The entertainment was too good every night.  We'd take
the dinghy across Steamboat Channel and back down to Lorelie's about every
other day.  It was a three mile trip.  Dinner always turned into hanging out
and enjoying the bands.  By the time we left, it was pitch dark.  A fair
amount of that area is less than a foot deep.  I'm really glad that I had my
Treo with me to show the way each night back through the channel and onto my
boat.

Another example is when we pulled into Block Island's Great Salt Pond last
year.  We anchored and wanted to get to Champlin's Marina on our dinghy.
But none of the marinas were labeled and we couldn't figure it out.  Out
came the phone...tap, tap, and it showed me the ActiveCaptain marker for the
marina while showing me where I was with the GPS in my pocket.  All of the
"mystery" was gone.


> Now here's the ultimate deal breaker for me - these 
> mini-computer/phones are too big to be a convenient 
> cell FOR ME and WAY too small for ME to see or
> operate.

They really aren't too big any longer.  Not the ones available for the last
couple of years.  Hold a Centro in your palm and you'll understand.

Now being too small could be an issue.  Heck, I wear reading glasses to see
them too.  I don't think that the keyboards are too hard to use though.
They look like they are - but they aren't.  When I met Ben Ellison
(www.panbo.com) a couple of months ago to show him the Centro, he said the
same thing - the keyboard is too small.  So I popped the phone into a text
mode and had him type a paragraph.  He typed it without any error - and
pretty quickly.  No one would want to write a book on the keyboard.  But an
email...no problem.

Smallness can also be dealt with in the user-interface.  The email program I
use allows text size changes that anyone could read while increasing the
size of targets so you can use your fingers to do the pointing.  The Apple
iPhone is giving developers a lot more ideas about how to deal with all of
that too.  There are also new companion devices for mobile phones like
RedFly that provide a real keyboard and larger screen when needed
(http://www.celiocorp.com/).

I know these things can all be geeky.  The same thing can be said of email
just 15 years ago.  Today my mother spends hours a day writing and returning
emails.  Some of it even on her phone...


==================================
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53PH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine

www.activecaptain.com
Content, Communications, Community

 
 
 

 
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