Why not Wifi?

Your laptop probably comes with Wifi, and there are lots of places that you can find Internet access. If all you need to do is find some quick information or surf the web, any open Internet connection will do. Some restaurants and coffee shops offer free wifi as an enticement to stop in for a coffee. Some people deliberately leave their home Internet open for anyone to use as a public service. Some people just don’t know how to secure their Internet connection, and leave it available unknowingly.

There is an ongoing ethical debate surounding whether its OK to log onto an open connection, or whether you should find the person who owns the signal and specifically ask permission. When I’ve needed to look something up while driving, I have on occasion just stopped in a residential neighbourhood to pull out my laptop and see if there’s an available connection. My conscience wasn’t bothered by it, and asking permission would have meant knocking on every door in  a ten-house radius to ask each homeowner if the signal I was about to use happened to be theirs.

On the other hand, if I found out my next door neighbour didn’t have an Internet connection of their own and was constantly using mine without asking permission, I would say it was inappropriate. If they had their own, but occasionally hooked into mine when theirs was acting up, I’d probably be OK with that, especially if they asked permission.

There are times, though, when you aren’t anywhere near a wifi hotspot but you still want to get access. In those cases, it might be useful to have a secure way to access the Internet in remote locations. Also, one of the things about tapping into whatever Internet connection you find is that if there’s no security on the connection keeping you out, there’s no security keeping your information private. If you are online banking or transferring client information, then you might not want to do so over an unsecured connection. It’s very unlikely someone will be eavesdropping on your Internet connection, but being careful with confidential information is important.

Mobile Internet Adapters

Most mobile phone companies now sell Internet Adapters for use with their service. The devices are reasonably priced, in fact I’ve seen some given away for free, but the pay-per-use Internet access they provide can get real pricey real quick. If you have a mobile phone, you have one for the convenience and security of being able to make a call wherever you happen to be, as long as you’re in range of a transmission tower. A Mobile Internet Adapter brings the same convenience to any computer with a USB port.

If you absolutely need Internet access for business purposes or just because you need your net fix and you’re willing to pay through the nose for it, then one of these devices might be just the thing.

The PDA

It wasn’t too long ago that the PDA, or Personal Digital Assistant, really took off in the business community and became a must-have gadget. Before that, truly organized people did it with paper, and some still do. PDAs were small, easy to backup and useful…very useful. This one little device could carry around all of your contacts, all of your appointments, all of your task reminders and could run simple programs to calculate, convert or store important data. It allowed someone with a mobile phone to bring critical data along wherever he or she went.

PDAs could synchronize with computers. This meant that information added to a computer or the PDA would magically appear on the other device. Mobile Phones had phone books, but keeping a comprehensive list of clients on your mobile phone up to date was tedious work, typing away on a little keyboard where you had to press keys multiple times to get a particular letter. Most people only kept a few phone numbers stored in their actual phones for the people that were most important or that they called the most.

Convergence

While PDAs were incredibly handy, it meant carrying around two devices, each of which needed to have a battery charged up on a regular basis, and trying to juggle both of them to look up a phone number while dialing the phone was an exercise in dexterity. The obvious solution was to merge these two devices into a single unit. Doing this in a small, attractive package, however, required a lot of clever engineering.

For several years now, there have been a number of devices available which successfully merged organizer and phone. The new trend is to add in wifi wireless Internet capability, so that the device can use local free wireless hotspots, instead of having to access the Internet through the phone company’s service which means paying the phone company for each piece of data transferred.

A Plethora of Choices

There are lots of devices available if you want a Smart Phone. There are devices focused on business users, average consumers, the tech-minded, those obsessed with the ‘cool new thing’, and teenagers. To make a good decision which is right for you, you need to know what these devices can do, so that you can ask informed questions about which phones offer which services.

Contact Management

Every mobile phone has a phone book, to store numbers you might want to call. Consider how much information you want to store. Just the phone number? The Phone number and the address? Everything about your client? Then consider how that information gets entered and how easy it is to synchronize that information with your computer or online address book.

Schedule

A good smart phone will act as an organizer, informing you where you need to be when. Again, how easy it is to synch it up with your computer is important.

Internet

An Internet browser is more and more becoming an important feature for your phone. Various websites offer versions of their site optimized for mobile phones, and some new smart phones offer full web browsers that allow you to surf just like you would on your computer at home. Of vital importance is whether the Internet is accessed through the mobile phone towers, for which you pay for every last byte of information, or whether the phone has Wifi, which would allow you to surf the Internet for free every time you’re near a Wifi hot-spot that offers free access.

GPS

Many phones offer GPS. Some phones will not only show you where you are, but how to get where you are going either walking, driving or taking public transit. We’ll soon be at the stage where every public transit system in North America is accessible through a GPS enabled smart phone. It will tell you which bus or train you need to take to get where you want to go, how long it will take, when you’ll arrive and how much you’ll need to pay. For me, the biggest disincentive for using public transit is having to figure out which route goes where and when I need to leave and how I find my connection to the next route. I’ve seen phones already that deal with all those hassles for you instantly in cities where routes are available online. Just punch in your destination and your phone will tell you just when you need to leave your house to catch the bus you need.

Camera

I never thought I would actually want a camera phone when they first came out, but I have to admit that I’ve really come to appreciate having a camera with me at all times. I often whip out my camera to take a picture of something I’m thinking of buying so I can show my wife and record the price. I take pictures of people I meet so that when I look up their phone number later I have a visual reference and I’m sure I remember who I’m calling. Having a video camera to record the circumstances of a fender-bender might help with your insurance company down the road.

Media Player

A lot of phones now offer playback of videos and music. You can load your favourite video of your child or grandchild and have a little something to show your friends about how cool your kid has become. You can get headphones, and use a smart phone to listen to tunes at the gym or while you’re out for a walk.

Invest Some Time and Money to Get the Right Thing

Having one device that does it all with just one battery that needs to be charged makes a lot of sense. If you use it well, then you’re quickly going to find that a smart phone is an indispensible device that organizes, entertains and offers security. Spending some time and money to get a device that you like and works well is a solid investment.