GPS in a notebook - do we need it? and more .. (Lenovoblogs)

[gator]

Excellent article by Matt at Lenovoblogs:
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=149

He honestly addresses one of my 'hot' buttons with modern consumer electronics. I am a great beleiver in the unix philosophy - individual items to do specific things really well. All-in-one units are rarely good in all the things they do - if they do well in all they do, they are too expensive which beats the purpose of getting one. The iphone is a great example: it is a good phone and has a nice feature set but it is too expensive (even the newer realease is pretty expensive).

I don't want a crappy camera in a cellphone. I don't want a alarm clock stuffed in a radio (unless you like waking up to music on not-so-good speakers, we are talking about affordable items here, not BOSE and like). I don't want a zillion functions in my digital wristwatch. I don't want crappy music capabilities on my PDA. I could go on and on. I hate it when I have no options but to pay for features that I will never use in a product I need.

Sometimes integration is GOOD, when it makes sense. (shampoo and conditioner, anyone? ). Wireless (celluar or regular) is good in a laptop. CD player + radio in good a stereo reciever. Touchpad and Trackpoint. Radio/AC in a car. Lights in a ceiling fan. I wish I could say 'and so on' but sadly I this list would fade compared to the one above.

Options (standalone or all-in-one) are always nice to have, and so is integration - as long as it makes sense and not just a gimmick.

What do you guys think?

[dsigma6]

Well, with all this integration, it appears that someone wants all this crap crammed into our devices!

I prefer the middle ground. A good feature mix, no compromises...but not overdone. When a device has a million functions but all of them are garbage, I'm not even going to use them.

I believe that GPS in a notebook is overkill. I've never heard anyone say that Streets and Trips on their laptop gives better directions and is easier to use than their TomTom, Garmin, etc.

[erik]

admittedly, i haven't used GPS in my X300 for anything productive.   google earth or a good turn-by-turn driving app are about the only major uses i'd have for it.

geotagging photos is another use but i certainly don't want to have my X300 with me every time i get my camera out.   that's something that should be built into the camera instead—although i'd prefer not to have the ability to be tracked in every device i own.   heh

[qviri]

I think the problem lies with the "doing it well" part. My PDA-like device happens to be a good music player as well, and that's just fine with me. I wouldn't mind if it had cellular capabilities as well (though with the data prices as they are on this continent, it's not exactly a priority). It is possible to include a good digicam in a cell phone, the problem is that our requirements for "good" are pretty high these days. In the end, less devices and weight to carry are generally better.

GPS especially is one thing we see built into things more and more - probably not the least because it's pretty easy to implement. Personally I don't have much (if any) use for GPS, but as long as it doesn't eat too much battery, I don't mind it.

[k2jsv]

I could see GPS being absolutely essential for anyone in the GIS field doing anything with addressing for 911, site survey for road construction projects, etc.

But with everything technology you will get someone who will get all the bells and whistles "just because" and then others who get them because they truly have a use for them.

[j-dawg]

As these things become more and more standard we will no longer consider them "integrated" bits of other devices but as essential components. Recall, if you will, that a hard drive was not always expected in a personal computer. Who can imagine a PC without a hard drive today? Even EV-DO and 3G internet access seems like an "extra" in a computer today; I am sure someday it will be indispensable.

Of course, these are things that are directly related to computing, whereas a GPS may seem like frivolity. The prices, though, will drop with increasing popularity to make it worthwhile, especially as integration with other software increases.

The analogy made in this thread--that of cell phone cameras--is perfect: camera phones are not up to the same photographic standards as regular cameras, but they're now so common that you can hardly get a phone without a camera, and it's well-integrated into the software, so you can assign picture IDs, send picture messages, etc. I'd say we're better off for it, and if you don't want to use the camera you don't have to: most providers will give you a camera phone for free. I use mine to document all the nice cars I see. I wouldn't lug around a camera just for that, but since I have a camera phone I have a photo of that Maserati Merak I saw the other day.

[Puppy]

Even EV-DO and 3G internet access seems like an "extra" in a computer today

A computer without Internet access is useless. The problem of integrated mobile Internet devices is compatibility. Local operators sometimes uses various obscure technologies so you need proprietary hardware for it. This is going to be ridiculous with Lenovo's idiotic policy of blacklisting devices in BIOS. If standard 3G/EV-DO module doesn't work with your operator (btw there are four operators over here and none of them use any standard technology) you are stuck. I'd rather have a chance to use hardware I need than have a practically useless GPS in my notebook.

[Rob Mayercik]

The analogy made in this thread--that of cell phone cameras--is perfect: camera phones are not up to the same photographic standards as regular cameras, but they're now so common that you can hardly get a phone without a camera, and it's well-integrated into the software, so you can assign picture IDs, send picture messages, etc. I'd say we're better off for it, and if you don't want to use the camera you don't have to: most providers will give you a camera phone for free. I use mine to document all the nice cars I see. I wouldn't lug around a camera just for that, but since I have a camera phone I have a photo of that Maserati Merak I saw the other day.

Whether we are "better off for it" with respect to cell phone cameras is debatable, IMHO.

There are many places of business that, while they might allow cell phones, do not allow them if they have a camera in them. I've personally encountered several of these. Admittedly, it's not a major inconvenience, but it's an inconvenience nonetheless.

Then there's all this brou-ha-ha of late with teenagers sending pictures of "questionable content" to one another and having them end up on the Internet, or one kid doing it deliberately to humiliate another ("Picture This!" on ABC Family is an example - watch the trailers to see this scenario in all its "glory").

Additionally, it's been my experience that you generally have only two choices relating to cell phones and cameras these days - either get the one with the camera in it, or forego all the other advanced features (GPS navigator, MP3 player, QWERTY keyboard, etc.).

I have used my cell phone camera a couple of times, so I'll concede that it's handy. On the other hand, the only reason I have it is because all the non-camera phones I had to choose from at the time were bargain-basement low-end ultra-cheap models. The only way to even get a display on the outside of the phone (allowing me to see who is calling before flipping it open and answering) at that time was to get a camera-equipped model. Matter of fact, it's become all but impossible to get a decent phone that doesn't have a camera and nineteen other advanced features rammed down your throat. It's gotten so that the original function of the device - making a bloody phone call - has almost gotten lost beneath the crush of camera, text/picture/movie messaging, web browsers, MP3 players, watching TV/movies, and so forth.