Should we also cover Smartphones?

[Jason Dunn]

I think I already know what the outcome of this survey will be, but I wanted to ask. Now that Microsoft Smartphones are finally shipping in Europe, and we know they'll be in the US (and hopefully Canada) in the first half of 2003, should we officially expand the focus of this site to include Smartphones?<br /><br />So far we've been covering a bit of Smartphone news here and there, but since all of the Thoughts team has seen the Smartphone demo at least once, we're all pretty excited about it. I think most of us will want to get one when they're available, so the tendency to talk about them on this site is quite strong. Right now we post it as "Off Topic", but should this be brought into the mainstream? Another option would be to have a Smartphone meta category that could be filtered out if you didn't want to see it.

[Wuss912]

why not call the site pocket gadgets thoughts too then... :twisted:
seriously i love the idea of haveing a smartphone catagory...

[dochall]

Actually to tie this and the post around the number of updates.

You guys do a great job and PPC thoughts is a great site. Personally I would be happy if you covered Tablet PC as well. AFIA concerned all three represent aspects of the same challenge - devices to help mobile professionals.

With the number of stories however I wonder if a (excuse me while I put the helmet on) re-design may be in order. I would suggest filtering by device (but not to filter out) rather filtering the amount of story per device set up as a user pref stored as a cookie. - I'll get my coat (which means nothing if you from the west side of the atlantic)

[Ed Hansberry]

Tablet PCs are really a different animal. Runs XP, really a superset of the laptop.

Smartphones - well, as long as it is the MS Smartphone, of course! :wink:

[Willmonwah]

Having watched the Smartphone launch, I must say I am almost as fascinated by the Smartphone as I was by the Pocket PC when it was first introduced to me.

There will be a lot of issues that relate directly to pocket pc use in the smartphone world. However, I like the things just the way they are...

Jason, pocketpcthoughts.com would mean a lot less if it was only a part of a three part organization.

To be honest, I liked the old template better as well.

[Will]

PS- A Tablet PC, at least in the condition it's in now (I've tested one and it's not light at all), is much too much like a normal notebook, and shouldn't be a focus of discussion.

[Perry Reed]

I'm all for covering Tablet PCs here, too. Yes, I know they're a different animal, but I think they'd be of interest to many folks here, and there really aren't any good Tablet PC sites.

[pschultz]

I'm all for covering Tablet PCs here, too. Yes, I know they're a different animal, but I think they'd be of interest to many folks here, and there really aren't any good Tablet PC sites.

I don't think that this site should cover Tablet PC's because they are too much like a laptop, but i'm all for covering Smartphone. I think they're very interesting.

[agostumpy]

Maybe I'm just on the outside here, but I really don't care much about the SmartPhones. They're neat little gadgets, but there's no way I'm spending that much $$ on a phone! Go to the-gadgeteer.com for that kind of stuff. I've actually become kinda tired of all the phone posts recently on the front page - I just skip 'em. :?

Eh....whadda I know?

[dochall]

Well I am of course happy that PPC thoughts doesn't cover Tablet PC I do think that they could really have a tremendous impact on the way people work and the manner in which people will interact with media. In fact I think they may have more impact than either the smart phone or the PPC for some professionals my self included.

A tablet PC has the potential to totally change the way I work on a day to day and minute to minute experience.

I review a lot of documentation. Thrid party docs in Acrobat - while I can and do read this stuff on my ipaq the TPC makes this far easier and more natural.

I also review a lot of internal project documentation - usually word. Again the form factor of the TPC makes this far easier. Not something I would, or could do on my PPC.

E-books become far easier due to the form factor. Not so much novels which are fine on the PPC but technical books. I have lots of shelf space taken up by books from the like of O'reilly, Wiley, et al. I see the TPC as finally having the potential to allow me not to by anymore shelves and to carry my entire bookshelf around with me and still be able to easily read the diagrams.

I carry an A4 hard back book to all meetings. Some of my notes currently end up in there, particularly in my case system diagrams and some on my ppc. The TPC can actually pull all these together in one place and I can have my complete set of meeting notes searchable and available. - rather than having to leaf through pages I can search and not discover that I have started a new notebook and the meeting with the particular supplier I'm interested in is on my bookshelf in the office rather than with me in the meeting room.

To me the Tablet PC is far more than close to a laptop (although I will use it for those functions as well. It is a move towards real digital paper and represents a true step into the future.

Sorry if this sounds like a MS sales spiel (and if anybody from MS would like to send my a TPC it would be warmly welcomed - I'll do as much evangelising as you need.) but I really think Bill was right in this.

[AZMark]

That's a lot of folks not wanting to see the Phones. Worth thinking of trying to limit it to a side discussion. PPC folks like add ons, cameras, memory, keyborads, network, music, video. CF and sleeves rule.

Smartphone folk will be less inclined and have less availability short term for those opportunities.

No doubt we are all interested in the subject. But how much usefullness can we get from a site that looses focus?

[heov]

Maybe since you register a lot of domains, you should also register www.mobilethoughts.com

i mean maybe msmobilethoughts.com as you guys are mainly microsoft type of people (no pun intended).

Anyway, I wouldl really rather have this site be about pocket pcs only, and make smartphones more of a once or twice a week, off-topic post about new hardware, or REVOLUTIONARY/REALLY COOL software, not some new software announcement, etc.

I also think tablet pcs should be withehld from your site because they are completely different than our wince based thoughts. OR, come to think of it, you could register www.wincethoughts.com too!

[Jason Dunn]

Well, for the record, I've had tabletpcthoughts.com registered ever since I heard the official product name. I've been pondering doing a site on Tablet PCs, but not without some sort of financial backing from a Tablet PC OEM. The market is even more nacent than the Pocket PC market.

Today I just registered Smartphonethoughts.com, and I have a plan brewing.

One word: Triad.

:lol:

[dochall]

One word: Triad.

:lol:

You're going to employ chinese gangsters to extract money out of your readers? Isn't there a law against that :P

[Boxster S]

Keep it off topic. This is PocketPCThoughts.com, not SmartPhones.com.

We don't need side distractions.

[heov]

hmm.... 3 sites, eh?

www.pocketpcthoughts.com
www.tabletpcthoughts.com
www.smartphonethoughts.com

You gonna have time to manage them? I don't know what your plan is, but if this is your right, I suggest that some of the other "thoughts" pages include in-depth reviews of devices (like actual, official reviews, like on brighthand or something), and not just a news site like PPCthoughts currently is (though you do write reviews about some cases, software, etc)...

I can see where this is going, and not bad idea it seems...
make sure you register www.thoughtsstore.com or something so you can make a little money managing 3 sites, if you ever do go that route ;)

[Gen-M]

Post on smartphones only to the degree that the focus is PocketPC.

[ARW]

I would love to see smartphones included here. They're so closely related to PPCs that it's not much of a stretch. As it is, there isn't a place to go for them right now, so jump in before someone beats you to it Jason!

Thanks and keep up the always great work.

[ThomasC22]

I was kind of shocked at how many people voted against smartphone coverage...but I still think it's a good idea. They're so closely related I can't imagine you creating a whole new site to cover them.

On the other hand, I don't think TabletPCs should be on topic simply because they're closer to PCs than to PocketPCs. Although, I wouldn't mind a off-topic TabletPC post every once in a while :lol:

[Jason Dunn]

I suggest that some of the other "thoughts" pages include in-depth reviews of devices (like actual, official reviews, like on brighthand or something), and not just a news site like PPCthoughts currently is (though you do write reviews about some cases, software, etc)...

If I had the time to do detailed reviews, I would be doing them right? :roll: I know that you think you're trying to be encouraging, but it's really not coming across that way...you might want to stop now.

[Rob Alexander]

It's interesting to see how different people decide what is and is not related. Lots of people seem to figure that Tablet PCs are not relevant based on the fact that Tablet PCs run XP and Smartphones run CE. I would approach it differently and decide the relationship by how I would use the device. Smartphones seem similar because people would do many of the same things as on a PPC. I take note of City Time, eWallet, ListPro, Traveller, etc. already announced for Smartphone in addition to the built-in stuff. That could replace about 80% of my PPC usage. But I'd also put the Tablet PC in the same category. The Tablet PC will do all the things our PPCs can do plus all the things we really wanted our PPCs to do when we first got excited about them. What OS it runs is irrelevant; what matters is that you use it for similar things.

Still, on the question at hand. I think the three separate 'thoughts' sites are the best idea, having all three on this site and filterable is the next best idea, just sticking to PPCs is a distant third and putting either Smartphone or Tablet PC material unfiltered (other than the occasional off-topic as we do now) should not be considered.

[Don't Panic!]

It's all in the title: Pocket PC Thoughts.

Don't Panic!
Bobby

[ThomasC22]

Still, on the question at hand. I think the three separate 'thoughts' sites are the best idea, having all three on this site and filterable is the next best idea, just sticking to PPCs is a distant third and putting either Smartphone or Tablet PC material unfiltered (other than the occasional off-topic as we do now) should not be considered.

I agree that three sites is the best idea but that isn't really the question. Lets be realistic here, it's a lot of effort to build another site. I think that simply covering smartphones on this site would be fine, it isn't THAT much of a trial for those who are uninterested in it to simply skip over it.

[avoglio]

It's all in the title: Pocket PC Thoughts.

True !

So everything regarding the PocketPC OS should be featured. Since Smartphones run with a slightly changed PocketPC OS, they should be covered as well as everything to come.

Maybe one day only smartphones will exist and what then ? :o

Go for it ! :D

[Jonathon Watkins]

I too am surprised at how many people have voted against including smartphones as part of the site’s focus. I agree with Gen-M:

Post on smartphones only to the degree that the focus is PocketPC.


But as Avoglio pointed out:

Since Smartphones run with a slightly changed PocketPC OS, they should be covered as well as everything to come.

Maybe one day only smartphones will exist and what then ?

PPCs and smartphones are going to cross over big time in the future and the lines will blur even more. I have read quite a few articles recently talking about this.

How about posting relevant smartphone news & links and creating a new topic for smart phones so that people can filter then out specifically if they want. I am interested and would like more smartphone info – but not at the expense of losing the PPC focus. I want it all – don’t I! :D :roll: :wink:

So basically – slightly more smartphone news please.

[carlosgp]

My vote:

Do what you want and enjoy more, Jason and friends. Personally I like your style and I'm interested in pdas, smartphones and tablet pcs. So...

[Perry Reed]

Now, let me start by saying that I don't know how much work this idea would be (probably TOO much). But my idea is this...

Since you have the three *thoughts.com domains already registered for PocketPCs, SmartPhones, and TabletPCs, why not use all three to point to the same site, that has info on all three topics, but depending on the domain used to enter the site, the content is filtered for the device for that domain.

A fourth domain, something like mobilethoughts.com (which I believe someone else suggested) could enter the site with no content filtering.

This way you wouldn't have to build additional sites, just add some method of filtering to this one.

Again, I have no idea how much work that would involve, or if it's even feasable using whatever tool you're using for this site.

Whatever you do, I'll continue to read this site often as it continues to be one of my favorite websites. :)

[WialyDiody]

This doesn't really have anything to do with this conversation, but I didn't know if you were still looking for hic-ups in the new site... If you are then I thought I'd let you know that when ever I tried to vote on this topic I got this error:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 184320 bytes) in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/forums/includes/template.php(127) : eval()'d code on line 119
at this URL:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/posting.php?mode=vote&t=4286
It looks like it still took my vote though, because next time I came back to the site I could see the results' box.
Just thought I ought to let somebody know. :)

[scottmag]

Today I just registered Smartphonethoughts.com, and I have a plan brewing.



I'd like to see one comprehensive site with filtering by topic. Something like Slashdot allows.

You could have specific subdomains like tabletpc.XYZthoughts.com, etc. Or one could go to the main "Thoughts" page to see everything that you and your contributing team find interesting and relevant.

Scott

[Fitch]

My vote:

Do what you want and enjoy more, Jason and friends. Personally I like your style and I'm interested in pdas, smartphones and tablet pcs. So...
Here, here!

I think the crew here finds the best and most interesting articles, and have great taste. I love the updates on the tablet PC, but I'm more interested in the smartphone. The "topic" filters this site has implemented are wonderful, and if people really are cheesed about reading these other OS's, they can filter them out.

I think first-time visitors will see 'Pocket PC Thoughts' and realize that this site is first a Pocket PC site, and then anything "just as cool" as Pocket PCs, no matter what the crew here decides to post on.