Symbian - never again
Do we really need to have our cell phones
turned into computers?
Not so long ago, cell phones were are
regular “utility” devices. Just like TV, radio, refrigerator
or microwave owen. You plug it in, and it works. There are few options
that you can understand without even reading the manual. Everything
works as expected. Not only that, it is robust, and rarely malfunctions -
when it does, you probably need to buy the new one, as old one is…..
well, too old.
Back in those days, you had what you need: dialing
a number, receive a call, send and receive SMS messages, and have
addressbook for people you know (or you believe so). I admit some
features in newer phones are really useful: GPRS, different audio
themes for different people, etc. But, it’s getting to be
much more than “few new features”.
On the other
side, there are computers. They have a lot of features and a lot of
ways to brake things. We have viruses, adware, spyware… you
name it. Even without those (I’m using Linux, so I should know),
there are bugs in regular programs. Any thing that gives you power and
control must grow in complexity. Managing complexity is hard.
That’s one of the reasons the software has so many bugs.
The other is that programmers are often pushed to release new
versions without enough testing. Most software companies force
users to be beta testers. The companies that did testing on they
own and release software when it is really ready found their products
lose market share to competition that doesn’t do
that (IBM’s OS/2 comes to mind as a great example).
What
pulled me into writing this is that I own a Nokia 3660 phone. A very
good one. It has all the basic features you can find in Nokia phones,
plus GPRS, bluetooth and IR connectivity. On top of all that, is has
Symbian operating system. A new promising technology that will turn
our cell phones into computers. Why? Because market demands it. In
fact, I think that they couldn’t grow by selling cell phones
as they are. Something was needed to create a hype, so people would
buy new cell phone even if their old ones are fully
functional.
Symbian seemed like a great thing at first, and
I even liked and used some applications a lot. One of those is Agile
Messenger, for example (a very good multi-protocol IM client). Well,
only at first. After a year, I don’t think I was using any
Symbian application anymore. I was using it solely as a cell phone.
If I needed to browse the Internet, or read e-mail, my notebook was
always around, and I just used the GPRS+bluetooth combination to get to
the Web.
And recently, the problems started. I always hated that
I have to wait 70 seconds for my cell phone to turn on, but I understood
the reasons - it had an OS. Lately, it would pop some errors while
booting (Application closed - Etel. server). However, everything was
functioning properly. Until one day, it wouldn’t boot at all.
It would get to the main menu - show it for a second and then restarted.
I really don’t understand why? I had bluetooth turned off all the
time. Except sometime while GPRSing to the Internet, but that was
months before first signs of trouble begin.
People are
the service shop made a full reset, as there was no other way to
get it to work again. They said it might have been infected with
the virus. I don’t need to tell you that I lost the entire
address book and some other data as well (not that much important).
After all this, I’ll probably sell this “smart”
phone, and buy a “dumb” one. Perhaps I don’t
like machines being “smart” and doing stuff on their
own. Perhaps, that’s what “smart” stands for?
The “smart” machine would go it’s own way and
explore the unknown, without even telling you.