On Friday, May 10, 2002, at 10:25 , Arjen van Blokland wrote:
> Having all the data stored on your phone is quite tricky if you do not
> make
> back-ups.
> It is much saver to have all your data stored on a central position.
Particularly helpful when you go abroad and need a number which then
isn't available or only by going through a lot of trouble such as
finding an internet cafe first etc etc.
I have been traveling internationally intensively over the last 8 years
(I am more often on the road than I am at home) and I have tried all
kinds of remote address keeping/scheduling systems. Believe me - all it
does is teaching you Murphy's law. You can't get to your data just in
the moment you need it most. Speaking from experience, I have to
disagree; keeping your address book, phone numbers and schedule with you
at all times is a very good idea while central data storage should be
considered a backup only.
The best solution would appear to be a combination of PDA, mobile phone,
Bluetooth, notebook, desktop back home/in the office, link up via VPN
over the internet.
Then, when you got a new number in one of the mobile devices, you can
synchronise via Bluetooth with any other mobile device or via the
internet with your desktop back home or server in the office.
Siemens also has an interesting concept where the phonebook on their
mobile phone (SL-45?) is stored on a SmartCard like those used in
digital cameras. The phonebook can be synchronised with
Outlook/Entourage via USB or serial (Bluetooth will probably follow soon
or may already be supported) and you can make a backup onto another
SmartCard.
That's Tenthousandbazillion times more useful a feature for a phone than
a video camera!
> Furthermore, xxx enables people to share the schedules with others even
> if
> they use an other operator.
And what if I go to South America ? Any operator there to support this ?
What about Egypt ? What about Australia, US, UK, Switzerland, Romania,
Pacific Islands etc etc etc etc ?
> It is also one of the very few services where the operator allowed a web
> interface to input data.
Try to find an internet cafe in Amazonia in the Brasilian jungle ... You
get mobile phone service via Americel, but no internet.
Perhaps you carry a satellite phone to connect via 2400 bps to your
address book service. I'd rather carry a PDA or even an old fashioned
paper based address book, costs less and isn't as bulky ;-)
regards
benjamin
Received on Fri May 10 07:04:32 2002