Monday, 2 July 2012

THE AIRPORT TEST

Dick Pountain/18 March 2002/15:36/Idealog 92

I don't consider myself an eccentric because I always have a good reason for not doing as others do. For example I avoid food fads, from vegetarianism to 'organo-mania', because as an ex-biochemist I know more than most about metabolism and nutrition and am less susceptible to media food hysteria; I don't use Microsoft Outlook as my mail client because its user interface is a nightmare and it's also the cat-flap through which most viruses enter nowadays. This reflection was stimulated by suddenly realizing that once again I appear to be out of step with everyone else in the matter of PDAs.

I've been a staunch fan of Palm's products ever since I saw the very first Pilot prototype at CeBIT in 1996, and I remain a fan despite the fact that people are now deserting in droves to Pocket PC solutions such as the Compaq iPaq. I have no sentimental attachment nor special loyalty to Palm, but I continue to believe, as I believed then, that they are the only people that have ever really understood the vital parameters of PDA usability: namely size, battery-life, size, battery-life (and don't forget size). For fifteen-odd years I tried every pocketable computer that was ever made, and none of them stayed the course until the Pilot. The point about a PDA is that it has to be with you all the time if it's to substitute for a paper notebook as your prime source of addresses, appointment and telephone numbers. If it's too big to fit invisibly in your best suit pocket, no good; if its battery life is such that you can't be 100% sure it will come on, no good.

When I occasionally do consultancy on PDA usage, I dramatise these truths in the form of a test scenario, drawing on incidents that have really happened to me. The scenario is that you have just arrived by plane at a crowded airport in a country whose language you do not speak well and where your mobile phone doesn't work. You're carrying a large suitcase and heavy shoulder bag, you are very jet-lagged and slightly anxious, and your first task is to telephone a friend or colleague using one of the public kiosks - which are buried behind a scrum of waiting people - to let them know you've arrived. Their phone number is in your PDA. The following questions immediately arise:

~ Is your PDA in a reachable pocket or is it at the bottom of your shoulder bag? This depends very much on its size and weight. Of all the currently available devices only PalmOS devices feel light enough to carry in my pocket at all times, and god knows I'm not excessively clothes conscious.

~ Having located your PDA, does it come on or is its battery flat? Perhaps you were playing games or reading an eBook on the plane: many Pocket PC devices have a battery life not much longer than the best laptops and barely adequate for long-haul flights.

~ Assuming it does turn on, can you read its screen under the ambient lighting conditions, with or without your specs?

~ Can you access its Contacts list without having to put down your shoulder bag (where it might get snatched)? Was that a single button press? Did you have to extract the stylus from its holder, or could you use a finger (or fingernail) to enter the first few letters of your friend's name?

~ Having found the name, is it your friend's latest phone number - they moved last month - or their old one?

If, like me, you work all day at a PC which is your main route for entering new contacts and changes of address, then this last question depends crucially on how often you synch your PDA. That was a fatal weak point for Psion's machines (with their clunky PsiWin) though not for either PocketPC or PalmOS. 

My test is only really concerned with the PIM functions of a PDA, but they are the only functions that matter to me (and I suspect to 90% of non-techie, non-hobbyist Palm owners.) What's been happening over the last two years is that other priorities, especially the playing of games and other multimedia content have begun to obscure these basic truths, not only seducing buyers away toward Microsoft's colourful and noisy PocketPC offerings, but also forcing Palm and its allies to also cater for these dysfunctional desires, with colour screens and ever-decreasing battery life.

Note that none of my questions mentions data input: PDAs for most people remain 'read-mostly' devices and if their PIM functions don't work super-efficiently under difficult real-life condition you are unlikely to persevere with them at all, let alone discover any of the more advanced functions. I've noticed more and more hostility to Graffiti among magazine and online writers, and growing enthusiasm for the proliferation of mini-keyboards on the market. This trend comes to a head with the new Treo PalmOS mobile phone, where you must choose between a keyboard or Graffiti model. The truth remains though that it was Graffiti input that made Palm small enough in the first place - people who really needed a keyboard bought Psions (and it appears, regrettably, there were not enough of them).
The way I see it, if you want to play games buy a Gameboy; if you want to listen to music buy a Napa or a minidisk; if you want to type novels buy a small Viao. But given present screen and battery technologies, don't expect these functions from your PDA and then be surprised when it fails the Airport Test.

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