What madness is this?

Allen and Mike present and then challenge the notion of Google offering a mobile phone of their own.  Whether or not you agree with the notion, we think the assumptions that go into our respective opinions are food for thought.

I learned first hand the challenges of using your cell phone as a content foraging device.

In NY, I tried the mobile Web on my phone to find the location of a play that was in the vicinity of the restaurant at which we had lunch. OK, I think we all know the little screen stinks as an interface, but the inability to intuitively search is awful. And it’s amazing the number of sites that are not formatted properly for easy viewing on this peephole-sized interface. Ugh. And how many times can you get the error message “unable to connect” before you look for a nearby copy of the print Yellow Pages ®.

I tried again yesterday to find out the flight status of my daughter’s delayed trip from California. I had the big 5-Bar salute on my phone (top connectivity). I tried to type in the URL of her airline, but I kept getting the error message that no such URL existed. Yikes.

The cell might be OK for headlines, blasts and news alerts. As a foraging device for serious content (at least in the U.S.), I need to see some improvements in interface, reception and navigability before I try again.

Will I look at video on a cell phone? Are you kidding me?