Somehow we got into a discussion on the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning at dinner tonight. We have an erudite crew at family dinner around here (my mother-in-law Elly just finished War and Peace, for the ninth time). I guess it began with our listening to our favorite radio show during mealtime, SaysYou (“The game show of words and whimsy, bluff and bluster!”), and a segment on differences (e.g., “What is the difference between ambivalence and indecisiveness?”).
It seems most of our political discourse is an unfortunate result of faulty inductive reasoning, which is a process of making general, unsupportable conclusions from specific observation. A lot of syllogistic silliness can result, and every political persuasion is guilty.
I belatedly realized something similar at work in my search for a new cell phone. I loved having GPS in my last car rental. There are cell phones that offer direction finding. Therefore a new phone is what I need, I inductively concluded. I also want to have my address book on my phone, and my calendar. Just like my search for a President, I want it all in one package. And I want to get rid of my current annoying phone with too many buttons that get me into weird modalities (“Please Say A Command!” it tells me brightly, for no apparent reason). I can never figure out how to get out of that quagmire.
For a short interval I was smitten by the iPhone. It was smaller than I thought (good), there were no buttons on the side to accidentally push (very good), and boy, did it do a lot. It doesn't give directions, though, but it does have a neat follow-the-crumbs map to where you want to go, and it tells you where you are. Completely useless while driving, but still really cool. But what about all that other stuff on it I'd never use? And what about the coverage of the AT&T network when I'm driving around in the boonies?
A trip to the Verizon store was even less conclusive. Too many choices, too few criteria. Verizon has a GPS-like service that you have to pay extra for. When I cited everything I wanted the salesman steered me to a Blackberry, but I have bad memories of my Treo. Plus, there's an additional charge for the Blackberry service. And then we found that a Blackberry wouldn't sync with a Mac. When we looked my account and I learned that I was still under contract for 6 months, I gave up. I don't want to be handcuffed for another 2 years, particularly if I still want to flirt with the iPhone. I moved from ambivalence to indecisiveness.
The logic that won out: Who needs a new phone? I ordered a Garmin Nuvi 350 car GPS unit. It's tiny and portable, and it will do what I want out of the box.
Blackberry's DO sync with Macs (free PocketMac application) ...I've been doing this for over two years and it works great. Frankly, I'm just not happy with touch screens and they can be very fragile. The Blackberry thumb wheel and now the "joy stick" interface works great for me ...I actually prefer the thumb wheel. Also, my Blackberry 8700G is the most robust durable phone I have ever had (I've had many). I've dropped it, kicked it and left it in the hot sun ...still works great!
Posted by: CWM | February 06, 2008 at 08:37 AM