Living your life by your phone

It's the dream, for a lot of smartphone users. To live your life by your phone. In Japan they already achieve this.

See this post over on the S60 blogs, and see the list of things they use their phones for (And check out that great 'Boo-Hoo' video clip):

1. A wallet--it's tied to some sort of electronic payment system
2. A way to consume MANGA--extremely important
3. Your way to check-in at the airport for a flight
4. Your keys for your house
5. Your work badge/access card
6. Your cinema tickets
7. Your public transport pass
8. A fingerprint authentication device
9. A face recognition/authentication device
10. Your coupon at stores
11. A way to experience scents
12. A fashion consultant
13. Your video iPod with access to live TV
14. A mobile GPS
15. A reader for 1D and 2D codes for marketing and even on fruit and veg labels

I'm not sure about the MANGA thing, but it's an impressive list. Paying for tickets, opening doors, TV, music, etc.

A lot of the phone features, like MP3 player and GPS are available on phones in the UK. Mobile TV is also available. But Japanese services are way in front of what we have available to us.

One thing that I do wonder about is how do they manage? I mean, take the N95. It has an amazing array of features, built in GPS, high quality camera, video and music player, plus a web browser that gives access to the net in a viewable usable format, WiFi access, HSDPA, etc, etc. But the battery life sucks.

Just imagine a normal day. Go to work on the train, listen to a few tunes, maybe download a podcast, or watch a video clip. Access a few emails. Watch the news. Then you work, make a few calls, send a few SMS. Come home, repeat the entertainment usage on the train. Get to your front door to find the battery has died. How do you get in, if your phone is your front door key?

I guess there must be a back up system (does anyone know how that works?) but the point is, for all the services available and promised in the coming months for the humble mobile telephone, I remain less excited than I would be because I can't see the top end phones with decent battery.

There are a few S60 phones with acceptable battery performance, I can name the N73, E60 and E65 (although the battery was only just acceptable in performance). Battery performance really does need to be brought up to date to keep up with communication technology.