Cell phone timeline updated

It's about time I update my cell phone timeline, after my purchasing my iPhone 4. Thus 2 new phones have been added to the list since the last cell phone timeline post.

• Samsung SCH-1000
  
• Neopoint 1000
• Sanyo SCP-5000
  
• Treo 300
• Treo 600
• Treo 650
• iPhone 3g
• iPhone 4

Google Chrome

Every now and then, there comes a time when one must switch from a product you know and love to something that is new and better. These moments dont happen too often, for once product loyalty is established, switching to a new product requires a lot of work. The last time I did a major product switch was when the iPhone 3g was released. Back then, I had an old dusty Palm Treo 650, but since Palm hadn't made any progress on their software and hardware in 5 years (the Treo 600 had the same software/form factor), that switch was more about Palm dumping me, instead of me dumping Palm. Well today, I've made another switch that I know will last a long time - I've fully switched over to Google Chrome from Firefox.

Actually, this switch has been in the works over the last few months. It all started when I read about bookmark sync and extensions in the PC version of Google Chrome - those were 2 features I absolutely loved about Firefox. At the time, I had just been given a new work laptop, so the time was ripe to give Google Chrome a full trial by only installing Chrome and not relying on any other browsers. With the extensions and bookmark sync all the necessary functionality that had been missing in prior versions was available to me. However, there was a subtle difference that made Chrome totally superior to Firefox, and that was the performance. The performance difference doesn't seem to be that important after a short browsing session or even after a full day of us. But after a few weeks of usage, the performance difference is large and I wondered how I could have used the slow and pesky Firefox for so many year. The little gains in speed and the time saved each day accumulates and the difference between the two browsers eventually becomes large. There are other subtle differences and niceties that make Chrome a better browser, but the performance is the key. In fact, I consider Chrome to be "luxury browser" akin to a Lexus, while Firefox is the more generic browser with all the features, but none of the polish (like a Civic).

So why is today the point of no return for my switch to Chrome? Well, I have a Mac at home, and today Google released a Mac version of Chrome with bookmark sync and support for extensions. So when I got home from work, I updated my version of Chrome, installed some extensions, and realized that I will probably never feel compelled to use Firefox again on any computer that is mine. Of course, on a PC, I'll use IE for sites that fail to render properly in Chrome, and on the Mac, I'll have an occasional use for Safari for the same said sites, but that leaves no place for Firefox, a product that I've used for several years.

Now, some of the naysayers may think that I'll switch back when Firefox releases their next version, but I doubt it. Switching products is often expensive in terms of time and/or cost so in order for me to switch back Firefox will have to become much better than Google Chrome, which is unlikely, given Google's vast resources. In fact, I can only think of one product where I switched back to a product I had dumped, and that was my return to an Apple Mac back in 2007, after a ten year hiatus with a PC.

The end of an era

So its 2010, and based on my computer buying trends, I'm due to buy a computer this year (or maybe next year at the latest). However, a lot has changed since 2007, which was when I bought my last computer, a 15 inch macbook pro. The current state of that macbook pro is actually respectable, especially for a laptop. The biggest problem with the laptop is that the battery is kaput, even though it has been replaced once during warranty. I thought Apple would produce better batteries than the PC makers, but I guess that was unrealistic. However, the rest of the laptop is holding up fine. The hard drive has plenty of space (I use a network drive to store most files), the ram seems adequate, and the computer is fast enough for most tasks.

However, despite the MacBook pro faring well against obsolescence relative to newer computers, it has been the least used computer I have ever bought. You see, when I got the iPhone 3G in the middle of 2008, the laptop became obsolete. The iPhone basically allowed me to do all my key computer tasks, such as email, web browsing, news reading, social networking. In fact, my iPhone allowed me to do those tasks with a higher level of performance, because the time to walk to my desk and sit down was cut out for all those operations. Not only that, the smaller screen forced most app developers to do only a few tasks and do them well, which has led to superior performance on the iPhone even when excluding the time to walk to my desk. For example, using facebook on an iPhone is a lot easier than on the web. Checking the weather with "The Weather Channel" app is easier as well, since the iPhone preserves the current location with GPS. Google maps is a helluva lot easier on the iPhone than the web, again mainly due to the iPhone being location aware due to the GPS chip. In fact, the only activities that are better on a computer vs the iPhone are work related activities, such as software development, running VMs, photo editing, and writing. My wife handles the photo editing, and I try to do all my software development and VM management at work, so that leaves me with little use for a home computer.

So, I'm not sure I need a new computer this year or maybe ever. The newer computers dont really seem to offer much of performance gain to my nearly 3 year old MacBook pro, and my iPhone seems to pretty much outdo any personal computer for about 90% of the "computing and internet related" tasks. All in all, I have to say the personal computer is just about obsolete, and that the PC era is pretty much over.