Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sometimes you just got to stop innovating


I had the most beautiful ergonomic, rounded, shiny silver presenter gadget made by Targus (Google images only finds the new ugly version), which I lost. It had a specially satisfying feature whereby the USB key would slide right into the handle when not in use. Obvious really. Tried to get a new one today in Office Depot, and was confronted with a barrage of overspecified pointers. The one I unwillingly got in end was by Microsoft and it is just a classic example of that Apple vs. Microsoft design philosophy video doing the rounds last year.


This ugly ducklying is bigger and heavier than necessary, has a raft of features which I had to consult the instruction booklet for advice on how to use (dual mode between mouse pointer and clicker, mouse controls, on/off switch, buzz-alert timer...) and most annoyingly of all (don't people do competitor research before launching stuff?) it has a separate USB dongle that does not fit together with the clicker, but gets its own pocket in the natty little leatherette case that comes with it. Of course I'll now lose just one element, and the remaining twin will taunt me.

One final thought, I'm disappointed they didn't put a little belt loop on the cover, so that corporate flunkies such as me could strut around with this gadget on our hip, nestling next to our phone pods, like an emasculated Rob0Cop put on parking duty.

OK, this is just procrastination. I really should be reviewing my notes for the presentation I'm giving tomorrow on Social Networks. Right, off to work...

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