Here's the deal: I'm a quasi-geek at heart but I'm not a fan of Bluetooth earpieces. Over the past couple of days, I've seen a couple guys walking around with them. While I'm sure they're convenient and work well, they do not look cool at all. In fact, they say "loser" (gosh, that's harsh, isn't it?). I mean, does it really take that much work to reach for your wireless phone as opposed to using a Bluetooth earpiece? If you're driving, I guess you could justify it, although driving while talking on your phone is bad, bad, bad - particularly those SUV-driving-we-rule-the-road types. Anyway, I feel much better now. Carry on.......
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Mark Evansthe blog - examines the world of telecom and technology from a distinctly Canadian perspective.the person - lives in Toronto, CA with his wife and three children, and works as director of community with PlanetEye Inc. 
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Wednesday, August 30
Rant o' the Day: Bluetooth Earpieces
by
Mark Evans
on Wed 30 Aug 2006 10:43 AM EDT
Thursday, June 22
Real Cellphones For Real People
by
Mark Evans
on Thu 22 Jun 2006 08:45 AM EDT
 Are cellphones getting too small and too difficult to use? Are the buttons way too small for anyone other than a child to manipulate? Well, help is at hand with a company called GreatCall that promises its phones are far more user-friendly with bigger buttons, easy to read screens, loud and clear sounds and easy to retrieve voice-mail messages. The company was started by Arlene Harris and her husband, Martin Cooper, who is often credited as the cellphone's inventor. Anyone who's tired of teeny-tiny phones with teeny-tiny buttons should check out GreatCall's JitterBug model. I'm not sure which carriers offer the JitterBug but there's definitely a huge market out there among the 50+ set that just wants a cellphone that works without all those unneeded bells and whistles.
Tuesday, May 30
The "Q" is Cool
by
Mark Evans
on Tue 30 May 2006 12:03 PM EDT
Kevin Restivo, my editor, Ian Karleff, and I just got a sneak-peek at the Motorola "Q", which will be available in the U.S. this week through Verizon, and, hopefully, for sale in Canada within the next few weeks. In a word, it's extremely cool. Okay, that's two words but the "Q" is the closest thing to the all-in-one device that I've seen. The quality of the screen for video is impressive, the MP3 player sounds great, the Web browser is real a Web browser (as opposed to the Blackberry's continued so-so efforts), and it's super-thin. One of the few downsides is the "Q" has pull e-mail, which means you have to fetch e-mail rather than having it automatically delivered but that's not a deal breaker. All in all, the "Q" has few negatives so I expect it will resonate with many consumers who have found the Blackberry too expensive, too geeky or unnecessary. Whether the "Q" can meet Motorola's aggressive sales targets (750,000 units in the first 90 days, 1.5 million in the next 90 days and three million in the three months after that) depends on how it is priced by carriers, the cost of data plans and whether any bugs emerge such as inferior telephone service/quality. So will the "Q" be the next Blackberry-killer? I doubt it because there will be power users that want the reliability of the Blackberry's mobile e-mail and have no need for the frills of the "Q". But I do think the "Q" will do very well because it appears to be very user-friendly - kind of like a Blackberry for the rest of us. For an extensive review on the "Q", check out Geek.com. My column in the National Post about the "Q" can be found here. Update: Here's the Verizon ad for the "Q". Friday, May 5
Stuart MacDonald's Blackberry 8700 Woes
by
Mark Evans
on Fri 05 May 2006 07:59 AM EDT
Saturday, January 14
An Alternative to the Blackberry? Not Yet.
by
Mark Evans
on Sat 14 Jan 2006 01:15 PM EST
 In a continuation of yesterday's Top Dog post (Google), it's fascinating to see the energy spent by the media trying to push a Blackberry-killer. The latest contestant is the Wall St. Journal, which had a story earlier this week suggesting Reseach in Motion's "lingering" legal woes could provide an opening for rivals such as Samsung, Nokia, HP and Palm. Well, the legal battle has been "lingering" for four years, and the Blackberry is still thriving despite it all. (3M+ subscribers; a new deal with Google, etc.) Like Google, eBay and Amazon, RIM's Blackberry has hard-to-get but difficult-to-lose default status. The Blackberry has captured the top spot because it works well and has managed to do abetter job than Palm moving into voice. Say what you want about the Treo 650, Treo 700 and other devices but all they're trying to do is match the Blackberry's functionality. If read through any of the reviews, including the New York Times' recent review of the SCH-i830, the Blackberry is the standard to beat. While some devices may match or come close to the Blackberry, nothing has surpassed it yet. While not trying to wave the RIM flag too vigorously, the Blackberry-killer crowd's determination is laughable. If the day ever comes that a new device outshines the Blackberry, I'll be the first one to jump off the bandwagon. Until then, the Blackberry killers should stop trying so hard.Update: The Financial Post has an interesting story on how RIM founder and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis is helping Intel tackle the uncertain future of Moore's Law, which could be obselete by 2018. |
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