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Blogging my conversion 1
By Rosie Perera | June 15, 2011 at 12:58 am
I think I might be going through a change in the way I use technology and I want to observe myself going through it and reflect on it as it’s happening, if that’s possible. I’m going to try to balance caution with exploration, which is very difficult.
What is the catalyst for this possible “conversion”? I just bought an Android tablet today — my first touch-enabled device. My main reason for buying it now is to test out the new Logos Android app which is in private beta. But I know already that by using it at all, I’m going to adapt to new ways of interacting with information. I haven’t had a chance before to reflect on such a change as it was happening, hence this new series of blog entries.
The tablet I bought is an Asus Eee Pad Transformer 10.1-inch 32GB. My initial reactions out of the box are:
1) It comes with absolutely no unneeded junk in the box, unlike every other desktop computer or laptop I’ve bought. Just the Eee Pad itself, the USB power cable and transformer/plug, a warranty card, single page of tips, and a tiny user’s manual. The box itself was only 30 x 21 x 6 cm.
2) The only downside I’ve come across so far is the charging cable is too short (about 90 cm / 3 ft). So you pretty much have to leave it charging unless you want to sit right next to the outlet with it. I did, as I was eager to get started playing with it.
3) It charges pretty quickly, and is a cinch to boot up the first time and go through some initial setup things (WiFi connection needed).
4) I like the feel of it. The back has a nice grip surface so you can hold it up with one palm and read from it. You can rotate the device into portrait or landscape mode and the screen will rotate automatically so everything is right-side-up. (EDIT: I have now discovered that not every app supports this auto-rotate behavior.) If I’m running it with the charging cable plugged in, I like to hold the screen completely upside down so that the cable comes out the top rather than the edge closest to me.
5) As with any of these devices (I played with a Samsung Galaxy Tab, Acer Iconia, and Motorola Xoom in the store before settling on the Asus), fingerprints on the screen are a given. They don’t make problems for visibility, though, at least as long as you’re looking straight at the screen; it’s bright enough to make them invisible. You can see them if you look at an angle. I guess I’ll be wiping this thing regularly just for cleanliness, though. I was told by my friend who helped me pick this out that the touch screens on display models of tablets are about the worst place for germ-spreading, so I washed my hands as soon as I got home from the shopping trip.
First observation about how I’m changing: I was willing to log into this thing with my Google ID, which I’d previously been kind of wary about sharing around for multiple purposes (I had been using it to log in to Blogger and Picasa only thus far, two Google properties). But I felt myself kind of sighing internally and saying to myself “Oh well, here we go, entering a new world. Gotta get with the program.” Of course I knew going into this that Android is a Google platform, and part of the reason I bought the thing was to have access to all the neato Google apps like Google Goggles, so it came as no surprise to me that I was asked to identify myself with my Google ID. But there’s one more step down the privacy slippery slope that I’ve willingly advanced. Interesting. That’s all I’m going to say about it for now.
I crashed it the first day, BTW. It told me I needed to download Adobe Flash Player for something I was doing. I wanted to read the Terms and Agreements before agreeing to download it (silly pedantic me; yes, I’m boldly going where I’ve never gone before, but I’m keeping some of my old safe-computing habits with me, and you’ll have to pry them out of my cold dead hands if you want me to let go of them). But when I tried to click on the link to view the document, I was told I needed Adobe Flash Player, and I got into a vicious cycle. I was stubborn and didn’t give in. At some point, the download app crashed. Not a very good sign. However in the end I was able to read the T&A and downloaded Flash Player and all is well.
A couple of other things I chose (intentionally, thoughtfully) to be more laissez-faire about in terms of privacy were: (a) I accepted the default to let it back up my data, including Wi-Fi passwords (Yikes!) to Google servers; (b) I allowed it to use GPS satellites to determine my location and use that location to improve Google searches. These two things I know a lot of other people are doing with their mobile devices, and they’re not freaking out about it. I am expecting that I will learn to let go of some of my reluctance about storing things in the cloud after using my Android for a while. We shall see, and I’ll be blogging about it.
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