Software Matters

Our portable devices can do a lot. Play music, take pictures, even make voice calls! Moreover, at this point they can even do it fairly well - mp3s sound crisp and one can carry lots of them, pictures are sharp and videos near DVD quality. When purchasing a new gadget, we often consider what it can do - but more often than not, end up not fully using its capabilities. Usability issues aside, a huge factor is often not considered - the quality of software that brings together the pieces of the puzzle known as "digital media".

Consider my D900. It takes decent pictures in bright environments, but getting them to the computer is anything but trivial. Find them on the phone (photos can only be saved on its internal flash memory), copy them to the memory card (painfully slow), insert the card into the PC card reader, import into Picasa. Sounds complicated? How about this - every time I move the pictures off the device, it starts counting them at "1".  Eventually, multiple pictures with duplicate names are produced, causing even more confusion. Often I don't even want to create pictures because of how much work is involved in using them (and we're not even putting them on the web yet, just copying to the computer)!

The same is true for mp3 playback. iPod wasn't the revolution - iTunes was. Here's my process right now - acquire mp3s somehow, copy to memory card, insert the card into the phone, create playlists (only 4 allowed, maximum 30 songs each). Repeat every time I want to add music. Compare to the amazing iTunes + iPod combo, where updating your collection is all about "drag and drop". 

The list goes on and on. One might be in the right place at the right time and capture some quality media... But if the software isn't up to par, it will never make it out of the device. Inspiring people to create won't go far if they can't easily share the results of their work. Some sort of iTunes-like application, based on open file exchange standards could bring us one step closer to this goal.

Managing media is crucial, but another important task is its discovery. iTunes allows one-click purchases, something few other applications are able to implement correctly. A novel approach to this problem can be seen in services like Myxer, which use a browser plugin to adjust and send any kind of media to your phone within seconds (no more cables, only data charges!). Browser-based solutions are probably the way to go, as more and more activity is centered around rich Web applications.

 All in all, the device manufacturers have yet to realize the importance of good software on the PC side. If Apple is able to leverage its iTunes for a better iPhone integration, industry will have to evolve to match this high standard.