Compartmentalizing in an Integrated World

As I get older, and define myself as an individual human, I’m finding out certain things about my personality and the preferences that are a result thereof. Some people may find most of these preferences normal, and some may find them strange. I don’t really care either way about what my peers think of my likes and dislikes, they’re mine.

One of the areas of my life where I’m discovering that my tastes are unique from, apparently, the rest of humanity is in my approach to gadgets. Namely, the amount of things that my techo-accessories can do. With the exception of my cellphone (we’ll get to that in a minute) I prefer to own a set of specific toys, rather than one or two that can do everything.

For example:

1) I still own an iPod. I also have a wicked cool phone that can hold and play music, just like my iPod. But I still carry and use “The Beast” as much as the day I got it.

I remember one day, back when I had a job at That Place, a co-worker saw my phone and iPod sitting side-by-side on my desk and quickly asked me why I don’t consolidate the two, “Your phone will play your music, you know.”

I replied that I did know, but that I wanted separate devices. He shrugged his shoulders, rolled his eyes, and our conversation resumed. Every time I have the iPod in one hand and the phone in the other I think about that exchange and smile.

2) I very rarely use the camera on my phone. It takes pretty good photos, for a phone, but it rarely occurs to me that I always have a camera in my pocket. There have been times in the past, like that trip to NYC, that I’ve actually thought to myself “Man, I wish I had a camera right now….oh wait, I do. On my phone.” Then I get out my phone, take the picture, and go on with life.

But I know from experience, that if I have an actual camera in my pocket, or somewhere equally handy, I’ll take more pictures than will ever be necessary. I just haven’t trained myself to think of my phone as a camera yet. That’s why I’ve been saving money to by this for the past 6 weeks.

3) Regarding that camera I’m about to buy: It’s very highly touted for it’s amazing abilty to shoot HD video. I could care less. I want to take photographs, not make movies. If I wanted something that would shoot HD video I’d go buy an HD video camera.

4) I’m also looking, and saving, for a new watch. My old watch isn’t broken, it still works perfectly and looks good too. I just want something a little simpler. Something that doesn’t weigh my arm down or look like it came from the 1990′s. Also, I don’t always need to know what time it is in Cairo.

A watch should tell time. It should tell me what day of the month it is. That’s all I want a watch to do. The watch I have now tells me everything except barometric pressure. My new watch will just tell me what time it is, in Ohio.

5) About that phone. It’s the Original Google Phone and it does everything but make coffee in the morning.  I use it for everything from a phone to a web-surfer to a flashlight to a level. It’s like an electronic Swiss Army Knife – a thousand functions packed into one handy little package.

But I still only consider it a communication/information device. I hardly ever use the camera or music player, like I said. It might play movies, but I already have a DVD player. It’s wicked handy all of the time, but there are some things that I just don’t use it for. Like IM. Why do I want to be signed into Yahoo chat 24/7?

I’m not sure when, or why, I became so persnickety (that word was in my spell check, btw) but I am. I might have gotten it from my dad. I might have developed it on my own.

I do know this: Cameras are good at taking photos and mediocre at everything else. My iPod is a Beast at storing/playing my tunes but is crappy at displaying photos, and my phone is the slam when it comes to gathering info or keeping in touch but is a sub-par flashlight or level or movie player or camera or video recorder.

Point of the story: Some things are mediocre at a lot of functions but a lot of things are superior at one function. I like superiority.

I have a friend who has an iPhone. He uses it for everything – to listen to music, as a camera, to make phone calls, to make his morning coffee. I’m quite sure he’ll laugh at me if he ever catches me putting my camera away and getting out my phone while listening to my iPod. He likes his gadgets integrated, I like my specialized. Different strokes, I guess.

What about y’all? Are you waiting for the day when everything you need/want will be on one pocket sized device? Or do you still have four tools to do four jobs?