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Painful transitions(Jordan Times, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) By Jean-Claude Elias Transferring an address book with all its contacts and not finding the information exactly where it is supposed to be, how it is supposed to be, or being unable to perform the tasks you got accustomed to in the same manner - this is the dark side of computer and telecommunication technology. If you have recently made the upgrade from one version of Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office Suite to a newer one, or if you have changed your mobile phone, you know that this is rarely plain sailing. In the best case it is just an annoying, time-wasting operation. In the worst it can prove to be a traumatic experience ending with data that is misplaced or formatted differently. Sometimes the commands and the functions you have become familiar with are not found again, causing you frustration and anger. This has been going on for many years, but the industry leaders have hardly done anything to improve the situation. Promoting and selling new equipment and software apparently is their only concern. Despite the availability of “migration tools” and various software utilities that are supposed to make shifting from one given equipment to another easier, it remains a painful process. All these tools hardly alleviate the pain and are as efficient as a tablet of aspirin can be for a severe, persistent migraine. Nokia has recently introduced a truly powerful, innovative smartphone, the new N900. It is as much a computer as it is a cellular phone, if not more. Many see it as a serious contender to Apple’s highly successful iPhone. In every aspect Nokia’s N900 is an amazing machine, if only for its pioneering operating system named Maemo. Along with HTC and Google, the Finnish phone manufacturer, still the world leader in the field and by far, has made it a priority to introduce a completely new operating system for mobile phones. Whereas HTC and Google are pushing Android, Nokia is betting on Maemo. On paper, and from what can be seen in the very little time they have been released (a few months only), both Android and Maemo are excellent systems. However, they are new and behave quite differently from Windows Mobile and Symbian, the two main operating systems for smartphones that have been around for many years now. As great as Maemo and Android can be, people are not familiar with them the way they are familiar with Windows Mobile and Symbian. It will take some time and effort to get there. It is worth mentioning that Maemo is based on Linux, an open source computer operating system that professionals have learnt to appreciate for its stability and that is often installed on large server computers. Confirming that the industry is still not doing it right, transferring your contacts and calendar from any “old” Symbian-based mobile phone to the new N900, even by using Nokia’s very own PC Suite software that is supposed to ensure full compatibility between Nokia’s devices, results in less than perfect data transfer. For instance: After the transfer is done fax numbers stored in a fax field are seen as “invalid” entries, and recurrent calendar tasks such as periodic renewals and birthdays are seen as one-time only tasks, therefore losing a precious, important part of their properties, and forcing you to review and edit all the entries in your device. Given that smartphone users typically have at least 300 or 400 entries in their contacts list, editing them makes a long, tedious work to do. Naturally all telephone numbers are transferred in full integrity and are perfectly preserved, but this is the least one can expect. These are computers after all, not washing machines! Nokia is also penetrating the computer market with its own small netbook, this time fully bridging the gap between smartphones and computers. It should rather focus on making it easier for its users to upgrade from its Symbian system to the new Maemo, even if the latter is only available on a very limited number of Nokia’s models. As for HTC’s Android based smartphones, with the company’s superb Touch HD in the lead, it is yet to be seen if making the transition between older units and new ones will be easy or difficult, and how well data will be preserved. Not so long ago telephones used to be simple! French philosopher Henri Bergson once said: “Man should exert the same effort at making things simple as he does at making them complicated”. Don’t software companies care for philosophy at all? (c) 2010 The Jordan Times. All rights reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |