Gadget Poll

[jennythereader]

I have a theory about who's willing to carry what gadgets around with them. Take the poll and help me test it? Tell other people about it too.

[Poll #1472041]

(Yes, I need to suck it up and get a sociology degree already.)

Comments

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

My "other" is my PalmPilot.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I considered adding PDA's to the list, but wasn't sure how many people still used them.

[seawasp]

Isn't that what an iPhone IS? A PDA with phone, camera, and iPod built in?

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

That's more or less why I wasn't sure if folks still used them.

[seawasp]

I guess it depends on which one you see as the dominant device.

[jry.livejournal.com]

me too. Palm LifeDrive used as todo list, e-reader, diary, light-weight database. Most recently have carried that, phone, and camera. Sometimes take the ipod instead of the camera. Hope to soon upgrade to an iPhone and carry just that. Worried that it won't do my pda stuff well enough.

[gwenlianna.livejournal.com]

Depends on why I'm carrying them around. When I was in grad school and using the laptop, I took it most places with me. The camera really only comes with me if I have an expectation of taking pictures (so it doesn't get lost or broken). At which point we'd be down to the cell phone which is much smaller.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I'm looking for "typical day" answers. When you're just out running errands or going out to dinner.

[gwenlianna.livejournal.com]

well... then my answers are all wrong. Actually, I think that might be another useful category. How many people actually *do* carry all their gadgets all the time, rather than just the ones they need for a specific situation. I have an mp3 player... but I only take it to the gym, because it doesn't plug into my car. Even if I had pocket-sized gadgets that allowed me to play games/read/or play on the internet, I would consider it inappropriate to have them out when having dinner with friends.

[seawasp]

My iPhone is always with me except when I'm home. My laptop is always near me unless I'm just going shopping or something like that. But the way you asked the question sounded just like whether you used these things at ALL.

For instance, I actually rarely use the iPhone to play music at all; my computer does that.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I phrased several of the questions badly. I might re-do this survey at some point with better ones.

[seawasp]

Other: I use a non-portable game console, which is still a personal electronic gadget to me.

I would prefer one gadget that did everything IF IT DID EVERYTHING WELL. The iPhone does a bunch of things halfassed and some things well.

Ideally, I want the "Proteus" gadgets described by Brian Daley in his Floyt/Fitzhugh series.

(EDIT): I'm willing to carry around my laptop in a bag all the time. I *do* carry it around almost everywhere, even at conventions, when flying, etc. You will rarely find me more than 20 feet from my laptop except in my house, and even then, not often.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

If (in a perfect world) you'd prefer one good gadget to multiple good gadgets, than I'd say that option one would have been a good choice.

I'm not familiar with the Floyt/Fitzhugh series. I'll have to look into it.

[seawasp]

A cell phone? My iPhone does several of the things (thus I checked "cell phone, mp3 player, and digital camera" since it does all of them), but it SUCKS at some things.I hate cell phones anyway; I got the iPhone for the Shiny and because both my wife and my work wanted me to have a phone.

The series is "Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds", "Jinx on a Terran Inheritance", and "Fall of the White Ship Avatar". In my opinion the best things Daley wrote, but alas he found that Robotech books paid better (he was half of "Jack McKinney") and then he passed away prematurely.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

The ereader I use is a Rocket ebook Pro. Long orphaned, but still functional.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever heard of that one. How big is it?

[slrose.livejournal.com]

The screen size is about like a paperback, but it weighs about a pound or so. http://www.yourdictionary.com/computer/rocket-e-book

[shannon730.livejournal.com]

I use my laptop on a regular basis but I don't carry it around with me. I use it at home...if I go on a trip I might take it depending where I'm going (like frankenmuth where there's like 5 channels on TV and everything closes at 7pm).

And technically my cellphone does everything, but I never use it for music or games (well unless extreme boredom has set in when waiting for my mom to leave work). I do use the email feature if I'm out...and the calendar/planner one because it's connected to Google Calendar and makes it easy to keep up with.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I think I should have replaced the first question with two separate ones: "what do you use", and "what do you take with you."

Oh well, too late now.

[shannon730.livejournal.com]

After I hit submit I realized you probably meant taking it with me. As much time as I spend online I see no reason to take it with me....well since I have a gphone and therefore get my email on my phone I sort of do take it with me....

[nounsandverbs]

Thing is, I buy gadgets when I can afford them, with a specific purpose in mind, so I wind up having separate gadgets for everything -- but if I had enough money not to worry about it, I'd get a gadget that does everything, like an iPhone.

[seawasp]

Depends. To me, an iPhone is a good phone, a decent music player (if I have headphones that work with it), a passable camera for casual or emergency use, but other things it isn't particularly good at. It's better than NOTHING for a lot of things, by a long shot, but it's nothing like a gadget that does EVERYTHING in the lists above.

[sioneva.livejournal.com]

Carrying my laptop around makes me feel vulnerable (or paranoid of dropping it) so I'm glad that I don't have to. Currently I almost always have my iPod Touch with me, as well as a cell phone (considered an iPhone but the monthly contract is too damn expensive). I *might* carry a Kindle around with me if I were convinced that it were worth the money but nothing larger than that if I could help it.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

Personally, I take my Kindle with me if I think I'm going to use it, but leave it home if I don't. It's small enough that you can carry it around, but a little bigger than is convenient.

[chamisa.livejournal.com]

When I go somewhere, I always have my cell phone with me (but it's usually on vibrate and I don't talk on it all that often!) It has has a camera built in and an mp3 player, but the camera part isn't all that great, so I rarely use it.

I don't have a separate mp3 player and I usually forget that I have songs in my cell phone--but I've been wanting to have an mp3 player (where thats the only function it has).

Still, even if I got one, I doubt I'd always have the mp3 player with me. I don't really feel the need to listen to music at all times. I dunno, maybe I should just put more songs in the phone and try to remember that they're there.

I sometimes take my digital camera when I'm out and about, but it's an SLR, thus too large and heavy to always carry with me. I've been thinking of getting one of these tiny little digital cameras to carry with me all the time just so I have a decent enough camera.

I kind of like my gadgets to be specific to one purpose--my phone to be a phone, camera to be a camera, music player (and I'm old enough to still have my cassette tape Sony Walkman) to be a music player, etc.

I very rarely carry the laptop anywhere.

[lilianafriendly.livejournal.com]

My other was an iPod

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I figured an iPod would fall under "MP3 player".

[lilianafriendly.livejournal.com]

Guess I just didn't see that/didn't register it as the same. I carry photos and other files on the iPod as well - not sure if that's a feature of most mp3 players or not.

[dragonydreams.livejournal.com]

I purposely bought a cell phone that was also an mp3 player so that I wouldn't have to get a separate device to listen to music. Also, lately it takes better pictures than my digital camera, so it's been my main camera.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I have an elderly but very functional camera flip-phone, which does many more things than I use it for (it has all sorts of calendar/organizer functions that I can't be arsed to remember to use), and a 30GB iPod Classic that is nearly full (all music, no photos or videos or anything, even though it could do those, and also claims to have a calendar function which I do not use) and is rapidly losing battery life, and besides that, I carry a very small wallet, my keys, and a Sharpie. This allows me to exist without a purse in my working life, and I enjoy this.

[tehuti.livejournal.com]

I selected "Other": My Macbook pretty much goes with me everywhere I go.