WARNING! - Mobile devices (iPad, Zoom, etc) may be hazardous to your (psychological and financial) health

Hey All,

I am in the middle of rebuilding my entire NDPS printing system so I thought I would take a little break.  So I pick up my iPad, read a little, I turn on my laptop connected to my TV and play a little music.  And then it happened, and I realized I am going crazy.

I heard this little "bing".  I have about 45 apps, some free, some purchased, on my iPad.  It is so easy, even a 2nd grader can do it.

I look down at my iPad and there are 22 application updates.  The book I was reading was suddenly gone.  Six of the applications would not install.  They were needing and "upgrade" for a price.  NO WAY!  I'll just keep using the version I have, right?  WRONG.  Every two minutes or so I get a little pop-up letting me know that there is an upgrade to the app that will improve performance, fix bugs, and remove the reminder of the upgrade.  Try reading anything with an annoying update ever two minutes.

So..I bit the bullet and typed in my password which is tied to my credit card.  About $50 later all is good.  However, I noticed that the music stopped.  I looked over at the laptop and saw that my 'subscription' has expired and if I want to continue listening beyond the 2 hr limit, I would have to "upgrade" my subscription.  AHHHH!

I think these mobile devices are bringing us back to the past.  There was a time when we had to manage HUNDREDS/THOUSANDS of installed applications on workstations.  Many things would conflict with each other, DLL issues, screen resolution, hardware problems.  YUK!  Take away administrative rights and we are golden again.  Someone had the great idea of web enabling, providing SaaS, and other options requiring some plug ins.  Overall, not a bad idea.

I am pretty sure programmers don't like being restricted, so, they come up with this neat novel devices that truly can not be administered very well as they are intended to be personal devices.  Yet, many organizations require personal devices to be managed.  So....HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU MANAGE something that was never intended to be managed!!!  Answer.....You don't!  Personal devices should be personal.

But I digress.  I can see these devices becoming free someday as the applications themselves are going to consume more money, and time, than the devices themselves.

So now it has been an hour or so and my applications FINALLY are updated and the music is back on.  Time to get back to work.