Today I decided to start a new experiment. I’m going to see how long I can go without using my laptop for personal Internet – instead relying on my Nexus One.
I’ve done something similar, on Symbian-Guru.com, called ‘PC-Free For Thirty Days’. However, that was more trying to see if a phone could truly replace a laptop. It can, but not without some major sacrifices. No, today’s experiment is more of a personal one. I want to see how long I, personally, can go without using my laptop for personal Internet. This will force me to change ways that I use my phone, bit will also force me to really assess how I use my laptop (and hopefully convince me to rely on it less).
I am allowed to use my laptop still, for a few tasks. I obviously need it for syncing my iPod, storing photos, and watching movies. I’m also going to allow myself to play Lord of the Rings Online. Aside from that, all of my email, RSS, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc, will be done from my phone.
I’d like to think I can go at least a week, maybe two, with just my phone. Of course, it would be even cooler if I could go an entire month, but let’s take things slow. I’ll be reporting my frustrations and discoveries here every few days, if you’d like to keep up.
I can already see that blogging is going to be frustrating. Android has a nice WordPress app, but entering that much text on such a small screen will be,… interesting. I do have a Bluetooth keyboard that I will probably set up, so maybe that will help.
Is there anything specific that you’d like to hear more about with this experiment?
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Ricky Cadden 
Good luck Ricky. I can’t wait to hear what you think as well as if you’re able to connect your BT keyboard to your N1.
Jeb
Hey, I too use my nexus one for most of net related tasks, but not for all…
Anyway, why dont you give swype a go?
It really makes typing easier and faster!
Oh, BTW, do you miss symbian? I too have made the same change as you, a lousy N97 for a great N1.
Follow you since your symbian days hehehe
@Ricky…I have (not by choice) been using my phone for the majority of my web based needs (I have the Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant) and it has without a doubt changed the way I go on line. I bank, email, youtube,facebook,tweet,game, read and watch movies and listen to my music. It has without a doubt replaced my mp3 player, my PSP Go and my laptop and net tab. I use to carry my nettab, my mp3 player and my PSP…now I only use my phone. I have all the books I like to read on my phone so I don’t carry those any longer as well. Even this reply I’m doing from my phone using the Swype keyboard on my phone which makes writing a breeze. All I can say that having been leery about going completely mobil this phone has made it possible to be almost totally free from my laptop and net tab. And I’m liking it very much.
Back when I lived office life (and in a few offices) this was something that I had done on-site in order to keep some of the network eyes away from my browsing habits. Because I tended to sit a long time in Google Reader, it made a lot of sense for me to do personal browsing off a PC and to use my mobile. For the most part this went very well, though I had to explain to a number of people that this option and type of use was a lot better than sitting there doing nothing (which many times was the case on site with clients).
I will admit that my N97 made it a lot easier to type and view sites since most of my input tasks weren’t taken over by an input panel. This kind of use also made me want to use more gesture-based and front-camera based input methods as I didn’t want to necessarily touch the device when navigating applications or screens within applications. This tech is still a ways off, but hopefully some things will come soon.
I’d like to hear about your issues, challenges, and successes with input and with pushing information to your mobile’s browser/device from your work PC. Those are some aspects of computing that we see in some future demos, but not too many mobile folks tend to talk about it much with normal usage patterns.