Nokia N91 Writeup Out

Tuned for Tunes is out, where I write about the Nokia N91.

Trying out any N-Series phone is a really special experience. I take a great deal of time trying to figure out what exactly they were trying to do with it before writing it up, and N-Series phones always have a lot to say. Their designers and engineers spend a lot of time dreaming it up, and sometimes I think they’re given a clean slate when it comes to N-Series. What I want to do is to figure out the goal they were trying to achieve, and after using it, determine if they’ve achieved it.

That’s actually the key difference, I think, to writing for Lifestyle and writing for Tech. Writing for lifestyle is in effect, explaining products to ordinary people. That means I avoid jargon as much as possible, and stick to how an ordinary joe would find value in it.

If tech publications are at fault in anything, it’s that they’ve marketed these things as ‘must – haves’, sometimes as tools to use to make headway into social groups. that is completely way off the mark, and misses the point of technology entirely. In fact, I interviewed for a magazine post a few weeks ago, and decided that I didn’t want the job when they said it’s a prerogative to mention a few key jargon or two, for the purpose of ‘mentioning these over a beer or two at a bar, for impressing their friends‘. I almost choked.

Technology is supposed to help us do our daily things better (and I suppose if your daily thing is to impress your friends, then yes, go ahead and buy an N-Series). However, that is such a shallow, wasteful and potentially dangerous (because it sends the manufacturer the wrong signals, that we just want to impress people and develop products to that end) way of looking at tech.

I’m fairly determined that writing about gadgets for the ordinary folk to understand is the way to go, and the most fulfilling and, at the end of the day, most effective way to explain it. Techies must never forget that they need to reach out to non-techies in order to best preach the value of these, consequently increasing its users and the number of people it helps. And the best way is to immerse it into your daily life and see how it works out.

But this is waaay too much deep thinking at 9:31am. Especially when I’m just plugging a Nokia N91 review. Must be the coffee. It tastes extra strong today. I think I put too much sugar. I hope Inq7 doesn’t change URLs again. Read my review of the Sony DSC-W50 digicam next week, or an interview with a heavy MS Office user (I’m not sure which will come out first).

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