Sometimes it’s not about easy or difficult. It’s about efficient vs. cool. This is the exact dilemma I run into with my new phone, which has a feature that lets me take a picture of a business card and add the number into my phone book directly from the card.
At first, I thought this was a brilliant piece of technology, and that it would make my life a whole lot easier. I showed it off to my friends, who thought it was really hip.
Then I finally realized that it was just a strict novelty. It actually made the process of getting someone’s information into the phone more cumbersome. Sure, it gave bad readings sometimes in dim lighting, and if the card moved around too much during the shot, it would be too blurry for the words to be read. But it wasn’t even all of that. The total time for me to get someone’s card (out of their wallet or card holder), under the camera (holding it steady and getting it perfectly into the frame), making sure the lights were bright enough (flashlight anyone?), and then waiting for the software to analyze the information ended up taking about 2-3 minutes.
The efficient way? Enter name. Enter number. Hit save.
Every time I add a new number into my phone I have to decide whether or not I should use this feature. It’s fun to show to people, but ultimately it adds too many seconds.
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