Smartphones – back to the linear – but mashed – future of social media

In my last post I discussed my recent acquisition of a new iPhone 4. It only takes a short while to realise the revolutionary implications of these devices for the future of social media and Web 2.

Facebook iPhone interface

Checking tweets or Facebook and LinkedIn updates is a no-brainer. The linear nature of most social media interfaces also means that there is comparatively little difference in the user’s experience between a smartphone and a PC, despite the latter’s vastly larger screen real estate – and of course you can add comments and updates anytime, anywhere.

The same, linear, slightly retro feel applies to switching from app to app and to opening multiple files within the same application – just like the early versions of Windows, or the first time you fired up Internet Explorer (obviously the experience is a little different on tablets such as the iPad because of their larger screens).

On the other hand, the ability of smartphones to integrate different applications with social media is probably their strongest feature next to their portability and for ease of use beats computers hands-down. The most obvious example is the act of taking a photo to email or to post to a social media website, both of which are accomplished in a few seconds and just two or three steps on most smartphones.

This is a major advantage in terms of convenience and time saving, compared to using a digital camera, uploading the picture to a computer and then sending it. The quality might not be as good and you may not have the range of tools available on a PC to manipulate the image, but for most day-to-day purposes, who cares?

This mashing of applications on the iPhone can be used in less obvious ways. Recently I had to scan a receipt to email as part of an expenses claim. Again, it was far easier and quicker to use one of the many iPhone scanning apps rather than crank up a high-quality but slow scanner and turn on the computer.

 

Dragon Dictate iPhone app interface (recently released in an Australian accent version)

OK, the iPhone’s scan image wasn’t as great as the scanner could have done, but I didn’t need OCR quality and it was certainly good enough for my purposes. The same triumph of convenience over quality applies to a host of other things involving applications and social media which are easy to accomplish on the iPhone, from emailing voice recordings to posting movies to YouTube, or using the Dragon Dictation app to compose your next Facebook post.

 

 

As a result, I think we are at the beginning of the next wave of innovation in social media and the web generally – and as smartphones become ubiquitous and are increasingly the weapon of choice for going online, the potential for all sorts of combinations involving apps and social media seems almost limitless.

Smartphones, “dumb” phones, dumber phone companies

It was the call my ageing Windows “dumb” smartphone made to the police - by itself - that finally convinced me I had to get a new phone.

Despite me locking the keyboard, my phone had taken to making random calls from inside my pocket. In the main these were to the somewhat-bemused people who I had recently rung or who had just rung me. Then the calls became more random, depending no doubt on whatever combination of shortcut keys were pressed at random after the phone somehow managed to unlock itself. Finally it was the police who were summoned; when the call was made then promptly terminated by the phone they turned up at my house while I was away to check on my health, which not surprisingly caused general consternation.

So it was off to the  (Australian carrier) Telstra shop for a new phone. My Windows phone was with Telstra; we were already committed to a Telstra home bundle to which I wanted to add my new phone, thereby gaining a discount. Telstra at the time also had a good deal on data packs, which meant I could get 3GB of data for less than $20 a month. I had already decided on a 32GB iPhone 4 - at the time I felt that it was significantly better then the Android phones then on offer (just two months later they are more evenly matched). What could be simpler than setting this up?

Actually quite a lot, as I discovered on one of the more bizarre days I have experienced. To cut a very long story short, my old phone was linked to Telstra’s old billing system while our home bundle was in the new system – and there was no way to link them, or even to transfer my mobile number to the new account. Furthermore, the discounted data packs were available only through numbers linked to the new system.

The only option was to port my number out of Telstra to another carrier, wait an hour or so then port it back in, whereupon it would be welcomed with open arms in the new billing system - or so the theory went. In practice it took over four hours as I wore a path across the shopping mall, backwards and forwards between the Telstra and Vodaphone stores. At one stage my (old) phone was in some sort of telecom Limbo – announcing itself to be a Vodaphone while its billing system was still in Telstra land. Eventually, after I had walked between the two shops transferring various incantations involving account numbers and numerous bits of phone shop-speak, I was duly signed up back at Telstra with my shiny new iPhone.

I should say that despite my dismay regarding this whole process, the staff at both phone stores were very helpful – especially those at the Vodaphone shop, who netted only $2 from the whole transaction.

A few observations about the process and my new phone:

1. Telstra really, really needs to get its act together regarding the whole account transfer business. I will never get those four hours back.
2. Things have really progressed in two years; my new iPhone runs rings around the old Windows Palm Treo.
3. One obvious improvement is the iPhone’s greatly superior interface - not quite as intuitive as some claim, but relatively easy to grasp once you have a few basic rules explained.
4. Still, I miss being able to write emails with a stylus as I once did on the Palm – although I have to concede that the voice dialling and control on the iPhone are pretty good.

What’s this got to do with Web 2.0 and social media? I’ll talk about that in my next post.