Living the Google Life – Day 1

Over the past few years I’ve noticed a few things about how I use my technology. Although the majority of the devices I own bare the markings of a certain California based fruit company (no not Apricot for you old-timers like me out there) the software I use has a distinctly Googly flavour. Gmail handles my communication, Google calendar attempts to bring order to my chaos, I write the articles that feed my family on Google Drive, Google Search aids my research, Google Maps help me get where I’m going, and Google + is fast becoming my preferred destination for social networking. If only the company made devices. Well, actually, it kind of does now. With the current range of Nexus devices we have tablets and phones that are intended to show us the mobile world as Google thinks it should be, and Chrome OS running on Chromebooks showcase how this translates to a full blown desktop operating system (stop that sniggering at the back!). So I thought, well, why not try living with them? Not piecemeal, but entirely.

I already have a Chromebook, which has proven itself over several months to be an excellent writing machine, and the Nexus 7 joined our family at Christmas. So it wouldn’t take much to skip over to the green fields of Android and complete the lineup. Armed with my univendor flavoured scheme I made a call to Google UK, who took pity on this impoverished freelance tech writer and agreed to loan me a Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 10 tablet for two weeks, possibly out of interest in my findings, but mainly to stop me calling them again.

And here I am. Nervous? Yep, just a little.

My iPhone 4S has been de-simmed and placed carefully in a dark draw, not to see the light of Facebook again for 14 days. The iPad 4 which accompanies me pretty much everywhere I go has been surgically removed from my hands, leaving the phantom tingles of a once present limb in its wake. Now I am in the company of strangers. The Nexus 4 will be my phone, the Nexus 7 my Kindle and handy sidekick, while the Nexus 10 takes on the challenges of the heavy duty tablet assignments. The Mr T of this technological A-Team if you will. Ensuring all the lovely plans come together is my Samsung Chromebook – you know, the really cheap one that I think is pretty damn wonderful.

How will it all work out? I don’t know, but I’m hoping that by the end of the two weeks I’ll be a little wiser in the ways of Google Fu. I also hope you’ll join me as I take these steps into a fruit free fortnight. Time for a technical adventure…

Are you an experienced Nexus user? If so what apps should I be running? I’ve already downloaded the standards – Kindle, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Wunderlist, Pulse and Audible, but are there others that make life on a Nexus device a glorious thing? Let me know in the comments below, and please feel free to ask any questions or offer suggestions on things I can try while exploring the world of Google living. 

 

…or are you just pleased to see me?

In the early days of the mobile phone you weren’t worried about styling, screen size, data tariffs, or when the must-have app would finally arrive on your platform. No, life was simpler then. All the pioneer mobiler had on their mind was whether they could get through a five minute call without ending up in traction. You see the original phones where big….really big. You know those inflatable, joke ones you’ve seen wacky individuals sporting? Yeah, that big, but made out of lead with black hole linings. You could always tell those fortunate enough to live on the cutting edge of telecommunications as they invariably had one enormous arm, not unlike the genetic disaster that roamed the power plants at the end of Resident Evil.

A man, yesterday.

Then, in the interests of public safety, manufacturers set about reducing the burden that phones put upon their customers and finally normality was restored. Over time we were treated to diminutive models such as the Motorola Razor, and those teeny tiny Nokia ones that were impossible to dial due to the buttons being only an atom wide. Surely it was only a matter of time until they were so small they’d be built into our watches and we could live out our Dick Tracy fantasies?

Can you help me? My normal-sized fingers are just too big.

But no…

Recently a strange reversal has begun to take place. The Apple iPhone bares upon its delicate chassis a 3.5″ screen. It’s compact, neat, and looks like a phone, albeit a slabbish one. Over in the Android camp though we have seen the emergence of colossus’ such as the dangerously named Titan, Nexus, Galaxy S2 (ok that’s not so dangerous, just a bit dull), and the One X (come on, it sounds like something Wolverine would use!), with screens that technically qualify as surfboards. What’s going on? Have we not learned our lessons from the past? Due we want a nation of uni-armsters once more?

Ok, I’ll admit, it’s a bit different this time around. This new breed of phone isn’t built from recently collapsed stars, instead their waif-like frames are composed of baby sighs and fairy wishes. They positively lift you up as you use them then return you gently to the ground as you make your goodbyes. The girth isn’t simply a casket for an enormous battery either. Nowadays the size is there to accommodate gorgeous displays which act as portals to the internet with all its video laden riches. We read books upon the devices, record our adventures in stunning HD, and store more CDs than still seems feasible. Some of them even make telephone calls. It’s astounding!

A women with a phone the size of her face.

So why is it then that I still find it odd that the size is on the increase? We’ve seen tablets of various sizes emerge that would seem more suited to the purposes of viewing. Even laptops are becoming lighter and slimmer. Why do we need our phones to meet them? Is it the convenience? I’m not so sure, even with the larger models on offer I’m not convinced I’d ever want to watch a movie on one, whereas on my iPad it’s a very pleasant experience. Is it for photography? Maybe, but the results are not dependent on the screen size, and we pretty much always download pictures to a PC if we want to keep them. Is it a male need to compensate for some other deficiency? Of course, but that goes for any kind of technology. We’re just big kids after all.

In the end I’m left wondering whether it’s just because we’ve done small and now need to go somewhere else? But I’m all up for being convinced otherwise. Maybe I’m just stuck in the past and need to embrace the cult of the big. Please, teach me your ways…

What do you think is the ideal size for a phone? And how big is too big?