Clouds

You know, over the years, I've spent much time (not to mention money) trying to get my perfect device. As you know from reading this blog, I've thought on more than one occasion that this Nirvana was finally reached, only to find that there was something not quite right about the current toy. This has left me with a sometimes minor feeling of "Oh, what a pity they didn't just add..." whatever it was.

The 5800 is a really superb phone, and blew away the N78, which, as you know, took me to a whole new realm of geek-gasm when I bought that. But there I was in bed last night trying to IM a friend of mine using Nimbuzz (I'll go into that in a minute) on a phone with no physical keyboard. Now, on the Palm I'd have been writing the message on the screen with the character recognition - at which I got pretty damn quick, I can tell you (although moving from graffiti to graffiti 2 was a pig, because writing a "t" suddenly became much more of a deal - after all, it's one of the most used characters on the keyboard, and to have to put 2 strokes, well that just makes it more annoying. That and the "i"), but the character recognition on the Nokia is weird, and I've not had the time to get used to it that I'd had with the Palm.

Inevitably I began to think that maybe, just maybe, I'd got the wrong phone, and I should have gone for the N97 mini, a gadget I was able to get my hands on at an evening out with my brother and some other Nokia people not long ago. The reviews would have you believe that the touch screen, not being capacitative, is a completely unresponsive thing, fit only for the very ham-fisted amongst us. However, it turns out that I LIKE this kind of screen - my lack of desire to spread my fingerprints all over my niece's iPhone brought home this point. On the iPhone I have to use the pads of my fingers, I can't use my fingernails or a stylus - somehow I think there'll be few former Palm aficionados converting to the glossily good-looking iPhone! I found the keyboard on the N97 mini to be usable, even for my sausage-fingered self, and the touch screen did what I wanted with a small tap of my nail.

However, I've waxed lyrical about hardware for long enough (it might even be suggested that I'm a little over-enthusiastic about gadgets). I'm here to talk about something completely different. No! Not Monty Python! It's something which, somewhat sneakily, I suppose, has found it's way into my every day life without me really thinking about it that much. And what is it? It's The Cloud.

I may have the wrong interpretation of cloud computing, but for me it's all about being wherever, and having access to my stuff. My documents, my internet shortcuts, my music - my STUFF. It started off slowly with my introduction some 2 or 3 years ago, to Googlemail. There it was - all my mail, available wherever, whenever, and on whatever hardware I happened to have. And lets face it, I'll have some kind of hardware available - always.

Then I got the blog - all my thoughts for anyone to see. I mean, sure, I don't update it as often as I should, but it's a great place to throw my thoughts. I know that one person reads it - anyone else would be a bonus! There are times when I would love to be able to sit down and write a Harry Potter, but really, what the blog has taught me is that I'd be better off writing something small and snappy. I'd say "Watch this space!", but I wouldn't want to get your hopes up too much. Anyway, the real beauty of the blog is for summer updates. It's like an online, slightly geeky diary of holiday events.

Then last year I found Delicious. And it is! I can't believe it took me so long to find something so useful - that's ALL my interweb bookmarks right there - whatever the hardware, however often I re-build my machines (and I can point to a previous blog, and say it's not infrequent - in fact, its been mentioned that I should blog as often!) I don't lose my favourite internet sites.

It has to be said that a lot of my Cloud stuff is with Google, the new Microsoft of World Domination, so when they decide they've given enough away for free, I'm completely boned! I've got my calendar on Google syncing with my phone, so I can either enter appointments with Google (and a proper keyboard) or on my phone, with the not quite so easy to use touch screen.

Part and parcel of my Gmail account are my contacts. And then there are my Skype contacts. Of course, by it's very nature (Voice Over IP), Skype's going to be a Cloud type thing, but I love that I can use those contacts from any machine on which I can log in to Skype. And this is where we get back to Nimbuzz, mentioned so briefly, yet enticingly, at the beginning of this post.

This is, essentially, a social networking client. Sure, if I had a Facebook or Twitter account, I'd be able to use Nimbuzz to sign in and do whatever it is one does with those accounts. But it's Gmail/Orkut (it appears I've got a social networking account despite every attempt to avoid them) and Skype which are the important ones. (and, if I ever remember the password to my windows live account, I can get to that from Nimbuzz too.) Nimbuzz will sit in the background on my phone, connected to the world, telling my contacts on Skype and Gmail that I'm available to chat and call. And thus we return to the beginning! There I was, trying to type in a message to one of my mates on the phone, using the on-screen keypad, and I realised that the keyboard, fine for the odd text is inadequate for the rigours of a quick back and forth conversation.

The search continues...