Viswanathan K's Thoughts

In an earlier blog , I talked about some techniques on how not to be drawn in by the siren call of the Internet when on vacation. It must be even tougher for journalists where even regular surfing can cause you to stumble onto something related to work! So Melody Kramer, a journalist, asked her colleagues how they handled that temptation (expectation?) during their vacations. One guy tried reading by not responding to stuff. How did that work out? “This has, in practice, turned out to be the worst of both worlds. I’m still glued to my phone and my mind is clearly occupied by things other than the people around me, perhaps even more so than if I just took the time to respond, because I’m seething about what I’m going to do or say when I get back.” Can you even separate work from non-work sources anymore, asked another: “Having work email on my phone, as well as work social accounts, has blurred the lines considerably.” Others try slowing down the inevitable succumbin...

With the collapse of Nokia, it’s easy to imagine that they just missed spotting a trend tidal wave of the future (smartphones for non-corporate users). And to also feel sympathetic since, after all, things are obvious only with hindsight. Except that isn’t how things happened, as per this Finnish journalist, Lauri Malkavaara. He wrote a letter to Nokia about how Nokia’s ease of use had deteriorated. He pointed out that his first two Nokia’s from 1996 and 2001 were easy to use (“To call, press the green handset symbol, and to hang up, press the red one. ”) but the E 51 he got in 2008 was impossibly difficult: “At first I did not even know how to make calls without consulting the manual, and I still understand very little of it.” What had happened? The one word answer: iPod. It had changed expectations of usability! “I ordered my own iPod touch, turned it on, and knew immediately how to use it. I have been using the device on a daily basis for over six months now, without...