In the Beginning
Welcome to Gali, a new blog I’ve decided to put together as somewhere to express some of my thoughts. I suppose it will be considered to be something of a technology blog, but since I find myself primarily in a situation where I only have access to a selection of gadgets.
The purpose of Gali will be to look at a range of gadgets, technology, hardware, software and perhaps a little entertainment media along the way. There’s always room for another blog in the vastness of the Internet, but I intend to very much focus on the actual use of things to achieve certain results, mostly pertaining to day to day life.
A blog that takes the newest technology and reviews the areas in which it excels and disappoints is useful, and a number of these will go on to describe who these factors might appeal to. My intention is to review, examine and discuss technology being applied to certain tasks. In fact, I hope to actually review each piece of technology from the perspective of the task, rather than the genre of technology in which it fits.
If I’m speaking in riddles, its perhaps because this isn’t the type of writing that comes easy to me at almost 1am. I shall offer an example therefore. I am considered among many to be a fanboy of Nokia or Microsoft products. Despite this, I have been exploring other technology to see whether I can make aspects of my daily life easier, more efficient or simply more convenient. Take, for instance, the task of finding out some information while out and about (just the other day, I was discussing with friends the NQT year a teacher must undertake to qualify to teach 5-16 year old children in the UK). The readily available wireless networks and pocket sized devices that can connect to them makse accessing the information easy in this modern age.
To find out what I needed immediately, I had three options: reach for the netbook in my bag, reach for the iPod touch in my left pocket, or reach for my Nokia N97 in my right pocket. I opted for the iPod touch. It allowed me to launch a web browser, and along with Google allowed me to search for what I wanted within seconds. For more in-depth research outside of a social situation, the netbook would have been better suited, but would have taken time that would have interrupted the flow of conversation at the time. The N97 would have been more than capable of searching for the information, and may have been the device of choice away from a wireless network. However, despite the higher resolution screen and the advances of Symbian’s web browser over recent years, it simply doesn’t live up to Apple’s offering for a quick check.
Of course, this is just a quick example. I plan to write more detailed, reasoned reviews of activities and the tools used in time.
As a final note for this first post, and it may go without saying, but this blog will contain my personal opinions. Comments are welcome to disagree with them, and I will try to remain unbiased as much as I can, but I am quite aware that I do not have access to every piece of technology out there, and that I am writing purely on the basis of my own experiences.