Obligatory Obligation Explanation

After my previous post where I ranted about how "I'm not really very interested in any of this software." That's still true, I guess, but it seems like I should try to explain it a little better.

Because he's very polite, Josh wrote to me saying "I don't want you to feel obligated to actually USE the infernal device against your will." This makes me feel like I've given people the wrong idea. I certainly don't feel obligated to use this thing, let alone write a whole blog about it. The activities being discussed here, including the discussion itself, are all things that have some sort of appeal to me, even if all I wind up saying is that everything sucks and I hate the world.

To sum up, by paraphrasing words from Radiohead: I'm doing it to myself.

So here's some of what I do like:

The hardware is pretty cool. There are certain things about it that annoy me, like the on-screen keyboard and Apple's "simplified" user interfaces, but in general this little device really is the spiritual successor to the Newton, which I loved. Josh and I have discussed this in the past, since we were both Newton users, and anyone who understands the situation will see how using an iPhone or iPod Touch or iPad will be a bitter sweet experience for a Newton user.

Quite a bit of the built-in software does seem very cool. I've been trying to use the built-in Notes app to write my posts about the games and, despite the huge learning curve involved in figuring out how to type and edit text on this thing, that's been going pretty well. I set up an email account in the Mail app, which seems pretty well done, if somewhat simple. I'm excited to see the Pandora app is already on this device and am looking forward to giving it a try (partly because I've been meaning to give that service a go). The Weather app is pretty sweet (hm, hot today but better the rest of the week -- haha!) and I've set it up to tell me how the weather is in cities where my family members live. The Clock is pretty cool, I've set it up for every applicable timezone where I know people, similar to the Weather app. The Calculator is cute as hell, with a color scheme lifted from the classic Texas Instruments Little Professor calculator. Finally, the Google Maps and YouTube apps seem entirely useable.

All this has been exciting enough that I'm considering ways that I could replace half of my cellphone with this device. Bluetooth tethering for data access? Can I get used to the on-screen keyboard? What about text messages? I'm going to consider this idea further.

The thing I am most skeptical about with this device, and the thing I'm planning on focusing on with my writing here, is the idea that this thing can be a gaming platform. On that front, I'm really not convinced. I've expressed this position to Josh and Dave, and I think it's a good idea to explore further now that I actually have a device and can make more specific complaints.

And that sounds like fun to me, too.

(Sorry for the longish post, I'm really going to try to keep the word count down now. Posts about actual games will definitely be shorter!)