Is technology really a distraction?

With the release of tablets and modern gaming technology, people have started to conclude that modern technology is a “distraction.” That logic has to be questioned. I believe that technology itself is not a distraction, but rather how the technology is used, that may be the distraction. People still tend to ignore that technology alone is not good or bad, and they blame technology in general for “ruining their productivity” or “forcing people to lose focus.” I hear complaints about technology and computing a lot. Believe it or not, it’s not just parents who complain about technology. Now in the technology world, people are arguing amongst each other that PCs are legitimate and the newer methods, such as tablets or smartphones, are distracting from important tasks. Just as people worried that computers were going to distract from reading and writing, now people are worried that tablets and smartphones will displace the old methods and become a distraction to real computing.

I’m trying to beat the stereotype because this attitude could potentially ruin innovation in a currently innovative industry such as digital technology. Remember what I said in the last paragraph. Technology itself isn’t a distraction, but the utilization of the technology that could be a distraction. Take the new Android tablets, or the iPad for instance. These tablets themselves were not designed to limit productivity, but rather make certain tasks easier, or in some cases, more enjoyable to do. Although tablets seem to be a great toy for people of all ages, and yes, tablets are mostly useful for games, there are still a few productive uses for tablets and smartphones, whereas a traditional desktop or laptop PC wouldn’t be a perfect solution for the task. Sure, tablets have very few productive uses, but those few still count in my mind. So to say that a tablet is only good for gaming is disingenuous. Digital technology has the ability to offer multiple use scenarios for products and serves many of those purposes quite well.

This is not the first time in history, when people have had concern about newer technologies. Remember when PC gaming began? When gaming finally took off and started consuming some of the gaming market a few years ago, people started to stereotype PCs because PC gaming was the new “trend.” They thought if you gave a child or a teenager a brand new PC a few years ago, the PC was going to be used mostly for amusement. And of course, everyone tried to assure you that the PC was almost strictly for “homework” and “schoolwork.” Unfortunately, that stereotype might’ve been true for most children or teenagers at that period in time, but it still would’ve been used for some work.

If you were to apply that stereotype to tablets and smartphones today, then the same outcome would occur. It all comes back to this statement. It simply depends on the person. If the person is serious about productivity, then technology, especially tablets and smartphones, could make a big difference. But if the person was simply looking for an excuse to buy a tablet, then that tablet would be a distraction to them. I think that technology is unfairly judged. If all someone hears about is gaming, then they’re going to assume that technology was pretty much exclusively used as a “productivity killer.” So in order to eliminate these unfair accusations and assumptions about certain digital technologies, people need to own responsibility for their productivity. They’re blaming technology unfairly because they don’t have self-control to stay focused on the important task. Thus, technology itself is not a distraction. Thank you very much!

State of the mobile tech industry

Apple has revolutionized the way we think of mobile devices. Both with their iPhone which they first launched in 2007 and their iPad in 2010. No doubt each technology has uniquely influenced the tech industry. Since then, there has been a blossom of competitors to Apple's mobile ecosystem. Starting with Android which started in 2008 and since that point, has nearly doubled in market share and has been an evolution of what we saw with Apple's iPhone. So today, I thought I'd give my mobile technology industry analysis.

If you're not familiar with why Apple has gained in such rapid numbers, this is a good time to reflect on the pros and cons of Apple's mobile offerings. The new trend the media has applied is to classify Android, Google's mobile platform as "open" and Apple's iPhone (iOS operating system) as "closed." I hate to say this, but I kind of agree with Steve Jobs. That stereotype is quite "disingenuous" as Steve Jobs has famously said. Apple isn't necessarily more closed than Android or all the other competitors, Apple simply has less choice is all. With Apple, they choose the hardware, not you. With Apple, they choose the software, not you. Before iPhone came to Verizon, AT&T was the only option in the United States. Now you finally have choice of carrier, but you're still quite limited in choice. However, if you're not really that picky in hardware or software, then iPhone and iOS (The operating system) is not a bad choice. iOS has a constant reliability rating. Unlike Android, where everything is nearly unpredictable. One day, your device would function as normal, but the next day, or the next hour, it may just decide to crash on you, randomly restart, or even freeze. Whereas iOS and iPhone and iPad seem to be quite a bit more reliable. With iOS, you have a centralized place for content. Applications, music, TV shows, and movies all can be acquired from within the iTunes Store.

Android, as I've compared to iPhone earlier, is quite more diverse in both hardware and software. Android is a mobile operating system designed by Google with the Open Handset Alliance. Unlike Apple, which keeps tight lock over its platform, Google's Android can be run from practically any device. This allows you to choose the carrier first, then the device. In 2008, when Android first launched, there were barely any apps (or applications), now that is not the case. There are more than 200,000 applications from games to productivity to medical to business to utilities and so much more! The variety of applications you can get on Android is amazing now! Many of them free or relatively affordable. Unfortunately, Google doesn't have a centralized place for content at this point in time. They do have an application "Market" but it's really poorly organized. Amazon has introduced cloud storage along with an Android application marketplace, but it has a long way to go before anybody is willing to use it primarily over Google's Marketplace. Nonetheless, it's a great effort by Amazon. -- Android has great integration with Google's services. Makes sense right? When you login with your Google account on your Android device for the first time, your contacts are automatically downloaded onto the device and any changes of the contacts on the device are synced with your account online. If you have a GMail account, then you can choose to receive email on your device through the GMail application. Unfortunately, if you do not use GMail or use a corporate email system, the separate email application for Android is mediocre. Luckily, you can fix that through external solutions that you can download through the market. (I recommend K-9 Mail as a solution to this problem.)

It may be too early to judge, but I personally predict that Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system is going practically nowhere right now. The software update fiasco has really injured the platform's reputation. Despite the recent update that has implemented copy and paste (not consistently), Windows Phone 7 still is far behind Android and iOS in functionality and capability. And as far as I can tell, the Windows Phone 7 application store is quite limited in quantity, quality, and variety of applications. If this is any indication, Windows Phone 7 may be stuck back in 2007 for a long time. Frankly, I tend to agree with Mr. Leo Laporte of the TWiT network, "If Windows Phone came out before the iPhone, I would've thought this was amazing!"