Day 96 - A Mobile Weekend

There's all this chat, doncha know, about how mobile is the next big thing, we will soon be jettisoning our lap tops and (for some unfortunate souls) desk tops to work solely from a smart phone.

I love the concept of this. Concept. The fact of the matter is, while you might have the phone and apps to pull this off, the rest of the world isn't quite ready for your mobility. And by rest of the world, I pretty much mean websites. (Yes, my world is small.)

For example, a conference took me to Chicago this weekend. The internet connection in my room didn't work, which basically made me think, "Wow, how totally useless my over-sized lap top is right now." No worries, right? I'll have my Droid so I won't completely be in the cave, wearing animal skins and dreaming of that fire substance the tribe across the river has.

I was surprised by how often I'd get frustrated. 

Basic tasks - no problem. I could Tweet, post on Facebook, check my e-mail, read docs - it's all good. But then I had to check in to my flight. United's website was a PAIN on my phone, with scrolling and retyping, etc. (And no Droid app.) Then, when the process was finished, I still would have to find a kiosk at the airport to print out the boarding pass because United doesn't accept passes on smart phones.

Even Blogger let me down. Yes, I can post to my account by e-mail. But, honestly, that is sooooo 2005. I need my app fix!

Maybe it's just me - user error, learning curve, blah blah blah. But by the end of the trip, my fingers were itching for a keyboard - positively itching.

And PS: Having a poor internet connection at the airport is like waving a beer in front of an alky. I can smell it, but actually ingesting? Two minutes to pull up search results? It's frackin' cruel. CRUEL! Hmmmmm. Speaking of beer ....