PDair Blog

Smartphones today tend to need charging once a day, usually overnight, to work continually and this has become an accepted state of affairs over the past few years. But, what if you could own a phone that stays powered for 3 days or more? Would it really make a big difference to your mobile usage?

You would rarely need to worry about running out of power and your nightly charge would go away, but could it have the opposite problem of causing you to completely forget to charge your phone? No matter what we haven if it works well we quickly forget that it was ever a problem in the first place.

And it is with this in mind that the conclusion remains that for most people one charge a day is more than acceptable. We tend to prefer slim devices rather than those that include huge batteries, and that is how it is likely to stay.

It is a question that continues to be debated on the web and everywhere else every single day. What is the right age for a child to carry a mobile phone, if indeed they should at all?

Parents naturally have concerns that their child will become obsessed with the phone, they will become a target if they are carrying an expensive device with them and they may break it in a matter of days. Parents naturally worry about all of these things and with good reason.

Then again, a mobile phone means that parents can keep tabs on their children if they are out with friends, the child can keep in contact with friends easier and is more likely to develop meaningful friendships earlier and there are also many other positives that can come out of mobile phone ownership.

With no conclusive evidence that phones do physical harm it is harder than ever to decide the best course of action. Only the parent knows when their child is ‘ready’ and responsible enough to own a phone.

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/

Imagine a world where you could use one file type for everything. Well, almost everything. Let’s just say that we reach a point where there would only be one file type for spreadsheets, one for documents and one for images. These file types could be as complex or as simple as the creator wants them to be and they would work universally on all devices.

It may not sound like much, but think carefully about all of the time you have spent converting files, but being able to view them on a particular device and sometimes losing content altogether because it got messed up in the conversion process. One file type for each task would completely change the way fixed and mobile computers work and make our lives a lot easier.

We have some time to go before this becomes a reality, but when it does the positive changes will be huge. It may not feel like it at the moment, but one file for all tasks would change the computing world overnight.

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/

The advances in smartphone camera technology and the services that can be used to share every photo you take have led to a huge increase in the number of photos being taken and shared. Instagram, Flickr and all of the social networks encourage the sharing of photos and consequently the snapping of moments as they happen.

The only downside is that there are literally millions of photos captured every day that mean nothing at all. The cliché of the cappuccino photo on Instagram is well founded and  a quick glance through the service will show that the majority of the snaps mean little to anyone other than the person who took it.

None of the above is a problem of course, but it could be leading some to take much less effort when snapping a shot and never taking the time to compose a photo properly even when they are using a real camera. The good side is that we are now taking photos and capturing special moments like we never have in the past. The bad side is that we are caring less about what we take, and how we take them.

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/

There will come a time when we can do almost anything we like on our smartphones and tablets thanks to a mobile data network that is super-fast, has near complete coverage and which works without data limits. It may take a year to arrive or it may take 20 years, but at some point in time it will happen and we will be able to do whatever we like on our phones.

Stream HD films, download music tracks in seconds, share video conference calls with tens of people and anything else that unlimited and very fast bandwidth allows. It will be something that we never think about and it will just work.

However, you can do all of the above now and rarely does mobile speed slow things down. When we reach the point where we have unlimited and super-fast mobile networks, we will need something else to do. Whether it is HD multi-player gaming or something completely new we will need new activities to justify the investment in such technologies. And that is the point. There are activities that we cannot even dream of at this time which will make the new mobile broadband feel clunky at times. Satellite searching of any location on earth, the ability to undertake data-heavy activities that feel like they have come from Star Trek and whatever else will come. The inventions and features we will use will always be one step ahead of the data connections and so the spiral will continue.

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/

There are countless locations and scenarios in which you will be advised to not use your smartphone. On a plane during take-off and landing, in hospitals, at the petrol station and in many other private locations where phones are required to be turned off.

The problem is that for most of the above, the technical reasons do not stand up to scrutiny. A portable CD player is reported to have more chance of interfering with hospital equipment than a mobile phone. No mobile phone has ever caused a fire at a petrol station (apparently) and the debate on using phones on a plane continues to this day. There is almost no evidence to suggest that phones can interfere with the environments in the way it is suggested.

The issue of social responsibility is completely different, however, and it is likely that the majority of the above ‘rules’ are designed to stop people being disturbed by others. Now if only they would ban phones on trains and find a made-up reason to do so. That would make many people happy.

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/

Now there’s a question. There are so many devices being released now, particularly on the Android platform, that it can be very difficult to know what to look at next. The problem gets more difficult because modern-day phones do almost everything very well indeed which leads people to wonder if they even need to bother upgrading.

But these are smartphones and we all like to have the best we can. When upgrade time comes along, there is rarely an initial charge to pay and the temptation is often to great. People will often move platforms just to try something new and then move straight back again to what they know, the sense of security makes them appreciate the phone they upgraded from in the first place. And so the circle revolves and so the industry continue to grow.

The plain fact is that none of need to upgrade our phones these days, but we want to because we enjoy using them and they make such a difference. A minimal feature bump can have a hugely positive impact.

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/

Think about the amount of time you spend viewing the web and social networks on your desktop computer in comparison to your smartphone. Obviously everybody has different usage patterns, but it would be a safe bet to suggest that people tend to use their mobile devices more these days.

No doubt you ‘quickly’ check the internet, Twitter and Facebook more often on your smartphone than a desktop, but for prolonged and detailed use a larger screen will still win. It seems that smartphones lend themselves to social networks more and to browsing the full web less. What this has done is made website owners make their sites less complex and more focused for smaller screens. This is indeed a good thing because it makes the entire web simpler.

As the trend continues, we are likely to see the web become even simpler and for extra features to be reduced. Eventually we may be able to view every web page in exactly the same way no matter what device we are using. Eventually…

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/

It would seem as though memories are staring to become a factor in the content people carry on their mobile devices. A spate of apps has recently been released for the iPhone which are designed to let you keep photos of memorable events, to list what movies you have seen and to highlight special days.

It makes no sense really because the general philosophy is to look forward, but having this media on your phone somehow makes it feel more special. Here are 4 very good examples-

memories.

Add a date and a photo and you are done. Very simple and highly effective.

Countdown+ Event Reminders

A beautiful way to remind yourself of upcoming and repeating events. So simple to use as well.

MINT Album : Event & Photo Album Manager

The photo albums on your iPhone work well enough, but presenting them through MINT will bring all of the precious memories back. Superb!

TodoMovies

This could take some time to set up, but with motion posters and an interface to die for, all movies watchers will love this solution.

PDair website: http://www.pdair.com/