Monday, July 13, 2015

The stomach of our eyes and the legs of our fingers

As an incredible and incredibly tired - to the point of puking coz - user of the smart phone and laptop screens, I have often wondered about the role of tablet and phablet (that's such a fuck-all category name, the sound of it, the meaning of it) and the distinctions between the the latter two, and the distinctions between the latter two and the smart phone especially. Without any more long sentences, here are a few thoughts.

I can see two broad categories: consumption devices and production devices.

Mobile phones? Consumption devices in 'sachet' form, literally and also for different purposes. Suited for small tasks, small talking, small give and take of messages, small viewing. (Exceptions galore. Sickening ones largely I guess. Am not a gamer, but have watched users pore into their little screens playing obnoxious games for good stretches. I find reading a decent length article on a mobile mighty difficult for my eyes.)

Laptops, PCs? Production-cum-consumption devices. When we want to do graphics, write articles, some thoughtful long posts, read at length, browse a little long for comparing and shopping things, watching decent length videos or movies and such...

Tapping on touch-screens is not the same as tapping physical keys. Imagine, if we were to lay down the keys of a piano in a touch-screen form or the strings of a guitar in a touch-screen form. How easy or how difficult? Some folks have attempted such innovations. I wonder if they are any convenient.

And a weird statement is, small screen is not the same as big screen. Eyes want certain width of landscape viewing at least to feel comfortable for long stretches of reading, viewing, coding and so on.

Tablets/Phablets take care of the viewing bit, but don't make finger-tapping any easy. The brief periods when I've had a chance to use a Tablet didn't leave me feeling any great.