IT Curmudgeon

Google desktop applications are growing quickly in functionality and usefulness. They offer capabilities not available in the big-footprint desktop applications. The most notable of these features is on-line file-sharing and collaboration. People who work with small groups are discovering this very rapidly.

Android is Google's open source operating system for cell phones. It offers great potential, and is growing consistently. New, well-tested versions of Android are being released regularly. A new netbook is preparing to enter the market using Android as the operating system.

There are two perceived limitations to Android cell phones today:

• T-Mobile is the current provider
• Syncing with Outlook is painful

T-Mobile has many satisfied customers, but its coverage is not consistent across the whole US, as is the coverage of other providers. If you live in an area where T-Mobile is strong, you'll love them. In areas where coverage is spotty, it can be frustrating. This issue is likely to be solved as more providers elect to provide Android service offerings.

A perceived limitation of Android devices is the difficulty at present synchronizing calendar, contact and email with Outlook. People who are not in the big Microsoft Corporate world wouldn't be concerned with this, but a lot of shops are still running Microsoft Exchange Servers and can't seem to escape. I say this because every Exchange/Outlook shop I've ever seen suffers from lost meetings, lost email, delayed email, security holes, chaos with every daylight-savings shift, etc. It's sad that people see it as a limitation that it is difficult to sync systems that work and communicate well with Outlook accounts.

For my money, I'm betting that Android will get better and better, and a few shops will give up on Exchange Server/Outlook and find better services that are free or much less expensive. Then a select few corporate minions will be able to join with their brethren in smaller IT shops and enjoy the fruits of new cloud network technologies.