When one considers all the technology that may come down the pipe, it is difficult to really imagine what our lives will be like in even 5 years. Suffice to say every advance in technology will reap an unexpected and sometimes unwelcome harvest. Look at how quickly our habits change. Next time you are standing in a Starbucks line-up notice how many people have their heads buried in some sort of mobile email device, most likely a BlackBerry. Access to email has become such a part of many people’s day to day lives that they are more addicted to their email than to the coffee they are lining up for! Just ask any one if they would rather go without their BlackBerry for a day or no coffee; no question, they will forgo the jolt of java in favour of being connected.

There is a really compelling new direction our wireless world is taking. From a technology perspective it is compelling, that is, not necessarily from an ease of use perspective.

Many of our mobility devices are now designed for hybrid networking. These devices work on more than one network. For example I am testing out the Blackberry Bold, a new Blackberry that actually looks almost exactly like the older Blackberry. The difference is the Bold has WiFi built in. So you can log onto your home or office network and use the Wifi connection. 

New interfaces are tough to come by. I spent several days recently with Apple’s iPod Touch. It has an entirely new interface, which it shares with its more press-worthy sibling, the iPhone, which we are still waiting for in Canada.

For both the Touch and iPhone, Apple has developed an interface they are calling Multi-Touch. It is a touch screen that also understands gestures. For example sliding your finger will cause a different action than merely tapping. This opens up entirely new concepts of navigation and control.

One of the frustrations I have with the whole computing scene is the fact we are for the most part interfacing with our computers exactly the same way we did back in the late ‘80s.

Think about it, Apple (through Xerox) released the Macintosh (after the failed Lisa) and the graphical user interface was delivered to the mainstream. We were introduced to the mouse, to the desktop, to “point and click”, and ease of use became the buzzword.

Any road warrior is only as good as the weapons in his holster. This past few mointhsI have been road warrior extraordinaire with my new wonder weapon of mass communications by my side through several typical eastern road trips.

RIM sent me one of their new Blackberry Curves to try out.

I took a bit of time to warm to the Curve. The main issue I had was the roller ball interface. There is a small roller right above the thumb keyboard that you use to navigate. I was partial to the older Blackberry interface of a thumb-wheel on the side of the device.

At first I found the roller ball a little finicky to manage and the hand position less than optimal. After about 3 days that faded and now I do believe I prefer the roller ball.

Initial set up of the Curve was facilitated by some new additions to the Blackberry Desktop software. There is a migration utility allowing you to move all your data, settings and preferences from one Blackberry to another.

Some things just drive me batty about technology. Nothing more so right now, than cables and power supplies.

I am currently on vacation, touring the Maritimes, but like any self respecting totally connected computer dude, I am equipped with every electronic convenience one could imagine.

I have a DVD player for the long rides, 2 iPods, my notebook, a GPS, my BlackBerry, noise canceling headphones, an EVDO wireless card for the notebook, and 2 digital cameras. I am having trouble finding room in my briefcase for a book or 2 with all this gadgetry.

It is all coming in very useful, but the cables, my goodness, the cables. Connecting all these devices to each other, and to the wall for power is becoming, well, not becoming it is ridiculous.

I have been getting calls from several PR agencies trying to get me to do a story on a new service for mobile phones. “Movies on you phone Steve, it will be huge!” So due to popular request, I will be happy to do a story on movies on your mobile phone.

Movies on mobile phones is without question one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard.

While this is probably not the publicity the PR firms were gunning for it is nevertheless my take on movies on phones. There is not a single thing wrong with the concept, there are dozens of things wrong with it.

Where to begin? Screen size, battery life, connection speed, cost, battery life, screen quality, battery life, did I mention battery life?

Do these people who constantly add features to our phones realize that occasionally we want to use the phone to make or receive a phone call? To do that we need the battery to be out of the red, and all these additional activities, listening to music, taking photos and watching Men in Black Part 2 suck up battery life leaving little for making an receiving phone calls.