Space the Final Frontier

I may be ranting on about my smartphone for a few posts so be patient with me, I will be just venting until I have completely bonded with it.

Last week I blogged on the purchase of my Wildfire S and getting consumed by the Android's Apps market, over the last week I have managed to drop my rose tinted spectacles. The two most important things about any smartphone is memory and battery life and unfortunately, this phone lacks in both departments. This means it needs charging everyday, my old phone lasted about 3 days so this is a bit of a shock. I have read many an HTC forum and there are some reassurances that this will calm down a bit without having turn everything off that makes the phone a smart phone - which some forums have recommended!

However, my most frustrating battle has been excavating phone storage space. Episodically I have had to free up the cache, contemplate whether I really need Google Docs as it uses 5mb and/or Tweetdeck - which I use on the a daily basis and was excited about accessing on my new phone. My additional frustration is not being able to remove apps to memory card to free up phone storage or even delete the app completely because it comes with the phone...rrr...rrr.... So much for my aspiration for new phone being my 3rd work station after the office and home.

You are all probably scratching your head and thinking why did she not go for a more powerful phone or even the iPhone. I still have an issue about buying into expensive contracts but I do wonder if I should have gone for the Samsung Galaxy S2, but it was too late and I didn't really like the thought of having to carry around something the size of a family size chocolate bar, although that is a slight exaggeration as they are not that big. Also, I had quite a scare a couple of months ago trying to synch my friend's iPhone in an attempt at showing her how easy it is and getting thrown into back-up hell.

I may have bitten off my nose to spite my face. On the positive side dealing with problems enhances your knowledge and having to deal with these issues has meant I have become pretty familiar with the phone's workings in the last week and smartphones in general.  And I did have a bonding moment at the weekedn when I watched Project Runway All Stars on YouTube.

Interestingly, I was listening to the Archers on Sunday heard Pip getting a smartphone for her birthday, which she gleefully received, saying lots of people at college had one and you can get loads of apps for it. The first thought that entered my head was, which smartphone is it, does it have enough memory for all the apps Pip wants, will there be an Info-Archer next week that enlightens the listener to the considerations of buying a smartphone...it could go something like

Ruth: How's your new phone Pip?
Pip: It's great mum...it's just that I can't really download all of the apps I wanted because I don't have enough internal storage on the phone and some apps you can't put on your memory card, so I have had to really think about which apps would be nice to have and which ones I really need...but that's ok it is still a great present
Ruth: I think that's something to remember in the future your dad and I did quite a lot of research on what would be the best phone within our budget but nobody mentioned that some apps would clog up your phone's memory...Josh is now hassling us about a phone for his birthday so I suppose we will be more knowledgeable next time

...Another thought that also entered my head if it is a high spec phone how could they afford it with their slurry problem!

Entering the Smart Phone World

So my Sony Ericsson final died on me, my attempt to fix it failed, the phone repair person said it was a problem with the operating system and too difficult to repair. After procrastination, research and decision, I finally opted for a HTC Wildfire S on contract - still not being sure what side of the Apple fence to stand on and wanting to gently wade into the Smartphone water - also, historically I have been a little bit clumsy with phones and didn't want something too big and expensive.

I have spent the weekend familiarising myself with the phone and have already found out I cannot access BBC iplayer - which I moaned about for 1 hr, but would I want to watch programmes on such a small screen? I then started to do my Android app shop - I was a bit disappointed I could not find one for Google Scholar, but stocked up on my usual diet of  Google docs and reader, Tweetdeck and Grooveshark. I have yet to try out viewing office docs and pdfs but that's next. It's odd once you start entering the App market it is cognitive chain reaction with respect to what you should get next, and then you start thinking about how do you create an app and how useful an app for feedback, assessments would be.  

I presume once you enter the smart phone world there is no going back as you start to think how creative you can be with mobile learning in general. The challenge is developing mobile learning that is not exclusive, using flash that is not supported by cheaper models, providing apps that are only Apple compatible. It is a challenge eLearning Developers have had for some time - how many media formats to do you provide and which ones, when do you stop supporting a format, ensuring that learning is inclusive.