"I'm still waiting for a great, portable text entry solution for phones, which is why I remain a big fan of BlackBerrys."
We can see that physical keyboard embeded phones such as BlackBerrys still have a loyal audience, but the trend towards touch screen to much stronger and RIM cannot rely ony on its "physical" keyboard phones to maintain a viability in the market. Having said that, I also agree that cellphones will indeed be as powerful as laptops in a few years to come, if not already.
I agree. A phone is much better than nothing. With BlackBerry's keyboards, I haven't had too many problems capturing text blocks and cutting and moving them. I'm not a fan of touch screens for anything more than a few sentences.
Some Websites, though, don't recognize carriage returns when entered on phones. So the text on the site is displayed in one large text block, rather than in paragraphs. I'm still waiting for a great, portable text entry solution for phones, which is why I remain a big fan of BlackBerrys.
We've had docking stations for years now, but they didn't change with the new technologies. What you mention that we could someday use our phones in docking stations might be just what the Dr. ordered.
Get your employees a phone and just deal with a monitor, keyboard, etc in the workplace. That gets rid of multiple devices being obsolete after a few months/years.
I think that if RIM can pull it off, it could revalidate itself as a mobile enterprise provider.
My problem is editing. Trying to capture blocks of text to move or try to get the pointer to play nice can get annoying. I guess, no real "Right Click" is another issue. All said, I have been able to log in and alter an article while many miles from home. Not that long ago, I would have needed to return home.
I agree that it's great to have the capability to use a phone for rather advanced work, hence a reason for my blog!
It's too bad that for lengthy writing or data entry, it's necessary to have some type of physical keyboard, although there are exceptions. Some people can type quickly and extensively on the iPad's keyboard and I have typed hundreds of words on many BlackBerry keyboards (the physical ones!) for individual e-mail as well as writing ideas for articles and even parts of articles. I've also used BlackBerrys to edit, re-edit and return articles.
I've also used voice input for text entry, which sometimes works well, but it's not appropriate in most public situations. Too bad the problems with virtual keyboards that display a full keyboard on a flat surface haven't been overcome.
Do you actually use the phone + keyboard for typing articles (freelance or otherwise), with or without an external monitor? That's pretty interesting.
I guess it's a way you can do personal stuff with a lightweight rig instead of carrying your own notebook computer for personal use, and without using the company's equipment. Of course, an 11.6-inch Chromebook or MacBook Air is light, but not compared to a phone + external keyboard.
I do not use the work computer for anything other than work. During lunch I write articles and/or take care of personal stuff.
The phone itself is ok to use, but I would not want to write a 1000 word article using just it. That's why I have a rollup bluetooth keyboard for my phone as well. I can forego the monitor and use the phone's screen, but they keyboard is important.
I was going to get a tablet, but my notebook weighs about the same and I would still need a keyboard for the tablet.
What's the value of employing the Samsung Galaxy S III with a monitor for your personal use? I can hear people saying that the phone already has a large screen and you also have a regular computer (or computers) at work, so why would you need the phone/monitor combination.
Also, do you think there would be any value attaching a Bluetooth keyboard to it? I've connected Bluetooth keyboards to phones and PDAs, but more "because I can" rather than for significant value. The Galaxy S III + monitor + Bluetooth keyboard is one of the configuations I've pondered. However, taking this on the road is rather impractical!
And, what do you think about phone-as-computer configurations for enterprise use?
I had a docking station for my IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC that I used as my main computer. It worked well, especially with an external monitor and keyboard.
I don't know of any Bluetooth monitors, but did you read Michael P. Kassner's most recent post? He uses a Samsung Galaxy S III, which has an HDMI port to connect a monitor. Nice!
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