Can someone please explain what is wrong with if it aint’ broke don’t fix it

Recently I’ve asked myself this question when a lot of the things I use in my daily life had changed. One of them being, Gmail while most like and the new look I was always a hold out for the old look it just worked better and was great and when it kicked me into the new look I always reverted back to the old look because of the poor use of space and bigger buttons for no real apparent reason.

I also liked the fact that I could see a whole lot more messages in the main view then I do now 20 vs 100 you do the math. Additionally I now have to choose between my contacts and my calendar before I had both why must I choose now? That’s RUBBISH! So I was notably miffed when I was kicked into the new look and the option to revert was gone I checked everywhere for the option to revert back and I think they have abandoned it completely which makes me sad but what gets my goat even more is the fact that in Google’s spring cleaning they will officially stop supporting their Google Sync product on my much beloved Blackberry. This is one of my must have apps on my phone it pulls in my Google calendar and puts it right into my phones calendar seamlessly and with little effort on my part, its brilliant in every way. But since Google has a horse in this smartphone race this little unknown thing called Android they are starting to make sure their products don’t work on anything but their own products. The fix is that they want you to use the built in syncing with the Gmail account tied to the phone so I turned it on for a few days recently and the damn thing near wrecked my calendar, I mean LOOK AT IT

Before those were one event each no its duplicated itself at least 8 times that’s just the all day events and reminders it not even the regular stuff so after this I had to promptly turn that off.  ! I thought their motto was do no evil but apparently that’s no longer true. But it’s not just Google doing it.

Now when Facebook announced its new timeline profile I thought it looked cool but very annoying because it made it near impossible to find something in the past because of the two column layout. Compare that to the single column stacked in order of event to the new two column where the timeline is in the middle and events are randomly placed along each side by some geometric time scheme that makes no sense at all

While it makes sense for quickly skimming for a recent post finding older positing is a lot more work because  you have to try to remember when you posted that photo you want to now take down because you want to make your profile look better for a job maybe. (Because a potential employer really wants to see your pictures of you wild crazy college parties you vaguely remember because you were let’s face it drunk) Or spend the better part of an hour or so scrolling through the confusing timeline attempting to find what you’re looking for either way making it more graphical and multi column isn’t the answer.

I do like new things when they improve on what already was good. But what Google and Facebook have done was taken what worked well and thrown it all out and in place put something that is worse.  Sometimes reinventing the wheel is not necessary just improving it will do and that is why quite simply these redesigns have failed.

EDITORIAL: why modern smart phones make terrible “phones”

I do take some heat from my friends who think Steve Jobs is their lord and savior  by bashing apple products like the iPhone. Even with a Verizon model now available i am still of the belief that the iPhone is a terrible phone. While i have a slightly more open view of Android  most of them are still plagued by the same problem have we all completely stopped talking on our phones? Is having a bigger screen and lack of physical dial pad or keyboards make us less likely to talk to others? Sadly I think yes.

You might think I’m crazy for saying this but this baffles me because i think the 3-7 presses on a touchscreen to place a call is unacceptable because these should be phones first, texting and email a strong second and games and apps should be and added bonus. however, i think the current priorities of smart phones is vice-versa. Think about it you first have to unlock the device tap the phone icon and if the person you want to call isn’t in you recent calls  you then have to scroll through your contacts to find their name then you have to select the number you want to call. It should not take fewer steps to do a foursquare check in then it does to make a phone call. Also these big phones with 4″+ screens baffle me as well their fine for watching video on but  they’re like holding a pop-tart to your ear.

Which gets me to my point while iPhone and Android have all the apps and other stuff there is a smart phone manufacturer who has it right and of corse they aren’t american they are Canadian yes i am talking about humble Research in Motion makers of the Blackberry. Who have been doing smart phones longer than anyone else since the first pager style email only device in 1997. Now if you have made it this far you might think i have gone completely mad but hear me out. The one thing RIM have always done right is their keyboards the keys are properly spaced and in a QWERTY layout like your computer keyboard and it is a key part in phone operation to place a call you press the send key and either type in the name of the person you want to call and press send or look through your call log, or just press and hold the contacts personally assigned speed dial key it’s just that simple. Email and text messaging is also just that easy too it is neatly organized to get you in and out without all those unneeded steps. The Blackberry also has all the essential apps Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Weather bug and Amazon. RIM has used its years of experience tweaking the experience to make it simple and logical to operate and it also just works. it might not be the best looking or most popular smart phone choice out there right now but it’s the best.

(Yes I know about the Blackberry storm lets just admit it was a massive cock-up )