In August 2014, I had to travel. I dutifully packed my bags and carried my laptop with the wires in my cabin baggage. While transiting through airports, I realized the weight of the laptop. I was beginning to tilt on one side. Battery drained faster than it could be re-charged, and the heat sizzled my lap. Disadvantages outweighed advantages. My smart phone did the same thing as my laptop, but on a cut down version. I admire the ingenuity of the electronic companies. They had conned me into buying a device which was touted as a travel companion, but in reality was not. I should have got a desk top instead, which would have stayed at home.
Now the question. How to get another device which is truly a mobile computing device, which sits in between a smart phone and a desktop? The answer was a tab. So I got myself a Tab, 3g + wifi. It is a great performer, low on power consumption, easy to carry, not heavy, especially if it is in a duffel or a back packing bag. So far so good. But it had a terrible downside to it. Someone got the number of the Tab sim and decided to call. I was surprised to hear the Tab ring, and I felt ridiculous keeping a book sized device to my ear. Apart from being unwieldy I had to use both my hands, lest it fall and break. How do I stop the tab from ringing? The answer lay in removing the sim, which would make it just a wifi device, not 3g, it will be wifi + 3g when I travel. Easier said than done. The Tab had a micro sim slot and the smart phone had a normal sim slot. When I carry the Tab and smart phone I had to carry the cut out piece of the sim card carefully. That small piece of plastic would determine whether my Tab became a 3g or not. And God help me if I put the sim wrong side in or forced it into a micro SD slot, which sits alongside. It will go to the factory for surgery. Why don’t they keep both the slots on either side, or on top portion of the tab, instead of the side? Why can’t the word ‘sim card’ be written more clearly? Why can’t the tab hold the normal sim instead of micro sim, when the smart phone and Tab had come from the same company, why the difference in sim slots? Maybe I should write to them and enlighten them on my discovery. But when a message comes, they both beep, where should I look? First it was confusion, then a eureka moment. I will look at the smart phone first, if it needs a detailed look then it would be the tab. Now I carry both – smartphone within reach and tab slightly out of reach. What happens to the laptop? It has become the unofficial desktop. Destined to sit in one place, and do my bidding.
rajansomanathan 