Phablets Phablets Phablets
For the longest time we were fighting for the smallest, thinnest phones, laptops, and other pieces of technology. That trend appears to be reversing itself in recent years with the advent of "the phablet." When I first saw the gigantic Galaxy Note I almost lost the Coca-Cola I was drinking out my nose I thought it was so insanely huge. Now I have an iPhone 6+ and I'm officially a Phablet owner. What does this mean?
For somebody who thought that the size of the Galaxy Note was obscenely over sized, I now find the size of my 6+ to be perfect for me. Perfect in ways my previous phones have been imperfect. First of all, I no longer feel as though I need to carry around a laptop and a tablet and a phone. I now have my phone, which is big enough to be a small tablet, and my laptop.
It's easier to carry around than either an iPad Mini or Nexus 7 (or any of the other smaller form-factor tablets) and I find it's more useful than a tablet. I also ordered myself an iWerkz folding keyboard with phone stand for when I want to use the phone for productivity purposes, which I now do frequently. With Office now available on mobile devices and Microsoft having their Remote Desktop Connection software available as well, my phone is about the only piece of hardware I need to get a good deal of my job done anymore (and all these applications are also available on Android and Windows Phone, so it doesn't matter which platform you're using).
I'm finding myself searching the app store less and less to find applications that appeal to me. If I'm in the app store these days, it's to find little games. More likely, you'll find me looking for ebooks and music than productivity apps. Honestly, Microsoft still has that market cornered and still makes the best software to perform those tasks (PowerPoint aside - that's still terrible and always will be - same with publisher).
I've done a lot of jumping back and forth over the past few years, dabbling in Android and Windows and always ending up back on Apple products. More recently, however, the reasoning behind the jumps back to familiar ground revolve around the fact that A) Most of my family uses Apple products, so keeping in touch with Apple tools is a snap, and B) I find that I have little time to really delve into the new (to me) technologies and really learn how they work and how they can work for me.
I've begun using my Windows 8.1 install on my MacBook Pro more frequently again because I honestly prefer the interface to the Mac, though I still find it frustrating to get certain things done in Windows that are so simple on a Mac (some of these being anything regarding networking).
One of the weird truths regarding Windows is the fact that the windowing system it uses is better than any other OS out there. I don't know how, on the same display set to the same resolution, Windows always manages to give the feeling that there is much more space available.
If you know anybody who has an 11" MacBook Air with a Windows Install, check out the MacOS side and it feels just a little cramped on the display, while the Windows install gives the feeling that there is space to spare.
On the Android front, I still have an HTC One (M7) that I love, though hardly use simply because trying to keep up with two phones is just too much for me with everything else going on (two year old, fifteen year old, long commute, etc.) I still find the Android Operating System to be far superior to what Apple has to offer, though Apple seems to be taking some queues from Android now (instead of the early days when that was reversed) and trying to make iOS a little more robust, it's still missing the mark in a big way. My big pet peeve with iOS is the lack of widgets.
Yes, they added widgets to the Notification Center, but that's still very broken and doesn't really help in the great scheme of things. I should be able to put a preview of my calendar, a giant clock, and a weather app on display on my home screen - and I should be able to arrange my apps freely as I would on the desktop of a computer instead of having them locked into a particular layout that shuffles the apps around every time I want to move one somewhere else.
For somebody who thought that the size of the Galaxy Note was obscenely over sized, I now find the size of my 6+ to be perfect for me. Perfect in ways my previous phones have been imperfect. First of all, I no longer feel as though I need to carry around a laptop and a tablet and a phone. I now have my phone, which is big enough to be a small tablet, and my laptop.
It's easier to carry around than either an iPad Mini or Nexus 7 (or any of the other smaller form-factor tablets) and I find it's more useful than a tablet. I also ordered myself an iWerkz folding keyboard with phone stand for when I want to use the phone for productivity purposes, which I now do frequently. With Office now available on mobile devices and Microsoft having their Remote Desktop Connection software available as well, my phone is about the only piece of hardware I need to get a good deal of my job done anymore (and all these applications are also available on Android and Windows Phone, so it doesn't matter which platform you're using).
I'm finding myself searching the app store less and less to find applications that appeal to me. If I'm in the app store these days, it's to find little games. More likely, you'll find me looking for ebooks and music than productivity apps. Honestly, Microsoft still has that market cornered and still makes the best software to perform those tasks (PowerPoint aside - that's still terrible and always will be - same with publisher).
I've done a lot of jumping back and forth over the past few years, dabbling in Android and Windows and always ending up back on Apple products. More recently, however, the reasoning behind the jumps back to familiar ground revolve around the fact that A) Most of my family uses Apple products, so keeping in touch with Apple tools is a snap, and B) I find that I have little time to really delve into the new (to me) technologies and really learn how they work and how they can work for me.
I've begun using my Windows 8.1 install on my MacBook Pro more frequently again because I honestly prefer the interface to the Mac, though I still find it frustrating to get certain things done in Windows that are so simple on a Mac (some of these being anything regarding networking).
One of the weird truths regarding Windows is the fact that the windowing system it uses is better than any other OS out there. I don't know how, on the same display set to the same resolution, Windows always manages to give the feeling that there is much more space available.
If you know anybody who has an 11" MacBook Air with a Windows Install, check out the MacOS side and it feels just a little cramped on the display, while the Windows install gives the feeling that there is space to spare.
On the Android front, I still have an HTC One (M7) that I love, though hardly use simply because trying to keep up with two phones is just too much for me with everything else going on (two year old, fifteen year old, long commute, etc.) I still find the Android Operating System to be far superior to what Apple has to offer, though Apple seems to be taking some queues from Android now (instead of the early days when that was reversed) and trying to make iOS a little more robust, it's still missing the mark in a big way. My big pet peeve with iOS is the lack of widgets.
Yes, they added widgets to the Notification Center, but that's still very broken and doesn't really help in the great scheme of things. I should be able to put a preview of my calendar, a giant clock, and a weather app on display on my home screen - and I should be able to arrange my apps freely as I would on the desktop of a computer instead of having them locked into a particular layout that shuffles the apps around every time I want to move one somewhere else.
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