stupid, stupid tech lust...
Jun. 9th, 2008 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prusikI've been searching forever for something that fits in my pocket that I can take notes and write with. The best I've come up with so far is a Moleskine notebook. (I made a lot of progress on the story of moment writing in it while waiting at Motor Vehicles to renew my driver's license.) However, it's hard to search through, my handwriting is awful, and whatever I write I have to transcribe into a computer. (The latter bit may be an advantage in disguise. However, it feels like enforced rewrites.)
Pretty much everything I've looked at is almost what I want, but not quite. In most cases, it's something that wasn't designed to be an electronic pocket notebook, but might serve as one. Of course, there's also some mission creep. e.g., gee, everything can play audio and get on the internet these days. It'd be great if this device also did the few things I use a laptop for when I travel. Then I wouldn't have to take the laptop. Never mind that I don't travel a whole lot.
The Moleskine solution isn't great, but it's cheap and it works (as long as I can read my handwriting). I figure I can just keep this up until either I find I'm diligent enough to actually copy text out of my Moleskine onto my computer or I find what I'm looking for.
That was fine until I realized that my current cell phone contract would expire at about the same time the new iPhone would become available. (As it turns out, by near coincidence, my contract expires the day after the new iPhone becomes available.) Now the sane thing to do is to go month to month, Or given how little I currently use my cell phone, see if I can find a pay as you go plan which lets me use my current cell phone.
However, the iPhone is almost, but not quite, what I'm looking for. If it doesn't work out, then I've bought a moderately expensive cell phone (and increased my monthly cell phone bill by $30, including internet access which I don't currently have via cell phone). If it does work out, I have my pocket sized electronic device which lets me take notes and write. At $200, the price isn't not cheap, but it's not horrific. An additional $30 a month for internet access might actually be worth it.
Of course, this is techno lust talking.
The stuff I need to know about the new iPhone is unsexy stuff that no one would ever mention in a keynote. e.g., will it have cut/copy/paste or the moral equivalent? Will I be able to sync text between my phone and my computer in both directions? (Or am I stuck either email to myself or using Google Docs? Is that good enough?) Is there some way to read PDFs besides mailing them to myself? (This whole "filesystem? what filesystem?" thing can get old quickly.)
I'll find out in a month. Ultimately, nothing has changed. Whether I get a new cell phone or not, I'm using my Moleskine notebook for the next month. For some reason though, the indefinite wait was much more bearable than the short term wait to see how close iPhone is what I want. (Using a cellphone as my pocket-sized note taking, story writing device seems like kind of a long shot. I'm pretty sure this is not what Apple had in mind.)
Pretty much everything I've looked at is almost what I want, but not quite. In most cases, it's something that wasn't designed to be an electronic pocket notebook, but might serve as one. Of course, there's also some mission creep. e.g., gee, everything can play audio and get on the internet these days. It'd be great if this device also did the few things I use a laptop for when I travel. Then I wouldn't have to take the laptop. Never mind that I don't travel a whole lot.
The Moleskine solution isn't great, but it's cheap and it works (as long as I can read my handwriting). I figure I can just keep this up until either I find I'm diligent enough to actually copy text out of my Moleskine onto my computer or I find what I'm looking for.
That was fine until I realized that my current cell phone contract would expire at about the same time the new iPhone would become available. (As it turns out, by near coincidence, my contract expires the day after the new iPhone becomes available.) Now the sane thing to do is to go month to month, Or given how little I currently use my cell phone, see if I can find a pay as you go plan which lets me use my current cell phone.
However, the iPhone is almost, but not quite, what I'm looking for. If it doesn't work out, then I've bought a moderately expensive cell phone (and increased my monthly cell phone bill by $30, including internet access which I don't currently have via cell phone). If it does work out, I have my pocket sized electronic device which lets me take notes and write. At $200, the price isn't not cheap, but it's not horrific. An additional $30 a month for internet access might actually be worth it.
Of course, this is techno lust talking.
The stuff I need to know about the new iPhone is unsexy stuff that no one would ever mention in a keynote. e.g., will it have cut/copy/paste or the moral equivalent? Will I be able to sync text between my phone and my computer in both directions? (Or am I stuck either email to myself or using Google Docs? Is that good enough?) Is there some way to read PDFs besides mailing them to myself? (This whole "filesystem? what filesystem?" thing can get old quickly.)
I'll find out in a month. Ultimately, nothing has changed. Whether I get a new cell phone or not, I'm using my Moleskine notebook for the next month. For some reason though, the indefinite wait was much more bearable than the short term wait to see how close iPhone is what I want. (Using a cellphone as my pocket-sized note taking, story writing device seems like kind of a long shot. I'm pretty sure this is not what Apple had in mind.)
