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-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Allison
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 8:58 AM
Subject: Techno-fuddyduddy getting anxious
>>
On a scale of 1 to 10, Total Techno-Fuddyduddy to Totally Techno-Advanced, where you would place yourself ?
I'd put myself somewhere around a 3 or 4. Since my job doesn't require me to use a lot of the newer technologies, how the heck do I get exposure to them without spending a bundle of my own money? (Fancy phone, android or otherwise, is out because I am a skinflint, unless someone can convince me that it is absolutely crucial ...)
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You can never go wrong with solid fundamentals. Even today's technology is easy to pick up on quickly.
Our company currently has an iPhone app to partner with our product. None of us have an iPhone (they may have one in the test group that the writer focusing on the iPhone help has seen). Would we like to have one to play with? Sure. But it hasn't happened.
We were a slightly scared group when we started going in that direction... none of us are glued to our phones 24/7. There is currently an Anroid app in development for our product, and I finally bit the bullet (and figured it was time to let the old Palm handheld retire) and got an Android-based player - I can connect via Wi-fi and play with apps and all that fun stuff, but no phone element. The device isn't cheap, but there isn't a monthly contracts.
But the funniest bit has been trying to figure out how to author help for all these apps and basically realizing "Oh, so we need to go back to like 1999 in terms of the HTML code and design and all? Simple, HTML based pages?" If you depend on all the bells & whistles offered by the high-end tools, you may have trouble trying to figure out how to now live without those things that are not supported or just not desired in app help. But if, in 1999, you had to deal with simple HTML-based content (Can't use graphics because of download limits? Minimum embedded code? Etc.) it's nothing new. And clearly written statements are more important than ever.
- V
(Currently at about a 8 the techno scale. I was a solid 3 this time last year)
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