Denver Post Interviews Treonauts
Last week I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Michael Booth at the Denver Post for an interesting article that he was researching around the theme of 'The cost and benefits of being wired'.
Below you'll find the unedited questions and my answers:
I'm curious first of all, what capabilities does your PDA have, and what do you frequently use it for?
I own a Treo 650. Although it is categorized as a 'smartphone', a more apt title would be 'the smallest portable computer' as there is little that I can't do with it. Listing the communication, business, information and entertainment capabilities that I use it for could fill a page but I'll try to give you an overview below.
- Communication: phone, SMS, email, IM
- Business: contacts (over 3,000 in my database), appointments, tasks, notes, MS Office documents (view & edit), business audiobooks and ebooks, RSS news feeds, voice memos
- Wireless Information: stocks, weather, quotes, 411, cinema listing, maps & directions, news
- Entertainment: listen to music, view & take photos, watch movies & TV programs, play games, wireless connect to my photoblog, streaming Shoutcast radio
I may not use all of these applications every day but in a typical week I will likely have accessed all of them at least once.
Does portability mean you spend less time with electronic "static" or chatter, such as junk e-mails or nuisance calls, or do you spend more time on that because you always have it with you?
In my experience one typically spends considerably less time with 'static' as the 'distractions' that one could encounter on a smartphone are considerably fewer than the barrage of messages from any web page or even inbox. Also, the responses tend to be shorter than from a PC.
This reminds me of the Japanese company CEO (I forget which...) who required that all of his senior team report to him using only a phone or smartphone to streamline communications as the messages would typically need to be shorter and thus require better synthesis. Less time wasted overall.
Is your work time shorter because of wireless and portability? Or longer, because you always have work with you and you could always be reading or deleting messages?
I don't try to make my day shorter but instead to make the most of my day. My Treo 650 allows me to 'work' whenever and wherever I want thus saving me the time from having to find a dedicated place where I could make use of a PC or laptop to conduct business. It actually becomes easier to filter out unwanted activities or calls when you're not deskbound.
About how much do you spend a month for this device and its connections?
Based on the past quarter my typical monthly voice and data plan averages $200 but this includes significant international travel. The actual cost of the Treo 650 ($699) and the couple of dozen applications that I have installed (estimated value $400) as well as the accessories (estimated $600) amortized over a 12 month period (by which time I will upgrade) add about another $150 per month to the equation (even though the software can naturally be used beyond this period).
Do you consider wireless to be freedom, because you can go anywhere? Or another tether to mundane duties, because you have to take them everywhere and people know you are never really "out of touch"?
Without a doubt I fall in the camp that considers wireless to equate to total 'freedom' and I can't wait for a future 'wireless everywhere' world so that I can connect when I want where I want.
Are you interested in other monthly-fee technologies, whether it's Netflix or TiVo or streaming MP3s, etc?
Of course I'm interested in these because they provide me with similar 'freedom'. I subscribe to Netflix, own a TiVo and listen to streaming music (among many others). Netflix provides me with the freedom to watch my movies when I want without the hassle of deadlines or having to go to my local video store. TiVo has been a godsend with my hectic schedule and for some two years now I have been able to watch my favorite programs at my leisure at the time and day that I want.
Michael has now posted his article entitled 'The high cost of being hip' in which our beloved Treo features prominently (but where there's no direct mention of our Treonauts blog...)
I'm curious to know what your own answers to the above questions would be?
