Before I start, let me just explain something real quick. I don't usually read user guide / manual when I get my hand on a new product. I'd rather play around with it and try to figure things out by myself first. As some of you might know, I blogged a while back about listening to podcasts like DotNetRock, Arcast, & Hanselminutes on my not too old Sony Ericsson K800i (equipped with 1gb memory card) when commuting to and from work. Usually I always have about 2 - 3 podcasts ready in my HP at all time. Each ranging from 20 minutes - 1+ hours long. Before I got the K800, I used to use a Nokia 6600, but that phone just don't have the memory capacity for listening to podcast. Anyhow...
One of my pet peef about my new HP is that I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to fast forward / rewind a podcast / any multimedia file just enough to the part that I need. For example, oops, what the heck did the talk show host was talking about... I missed it because I was paying more attention to the traffic rather than actively listening. But I couldn't figure out how to rewind back 10 - 15 seconds of the show so I can listen back to what I've missed while I was distracted. I know I can skip to the next track / skip back to previous track. I know I can stop a particular track, but how the heck do you rewind / fast forward on this damn phone !*#$*? (I know, I know, read the f***ing manual, but what fun is THAT, eh?)
Sometimes, the phone for whatever reason decided to restart my podcast from the beginning again!! Sometimes, my wife used my phone to put my kid to bed (I added some sleepy tunes to it for this particular purpose)... but but... I was listening to my podcast and I haven't finish it yet!!! I only have about 15 - 30 minutes left to go. Damn it, now I have to listen to it again from the freaking beginning... Arrggh. Curses. Curses.
So, still pissed at not being able to do such a simple thing on the silly phone, I decided that I should ask the salesperson at the friendly Sony Ericsson center in the mall that I frequently go to (Doesn't matter which one, they're everywhere anyhow). They should be able to answer this simple question, right?
"Oh Mr. All Knowledgable Sony Ericsson Salesperson, do you know if I can rewind or fast-forward a little when listening to a piece of audio on this product of yours?" I asked him. After pondering for about a second, he sadly informed me that... no no, that sort of thing just could not be done on the phone.
"Well, do you know if any other of your product line, say the Walkman series, can actually do this? Because you know, before I switched to your line of product, I used to use a crappy -well, not really- Nokia 6600 and I KNOW for SURE my media player there CAN do this particularly SIMPLE thing." Again he pondered for about a second and informed me that you just couldn't do this on any Sony Ericsson. Walkman or no walkman series. Great!! What a piece of crap I thought. Design flaw... Design flaw... Well, I guess I just have to live with the limitation. Not that it will kill me or anything.
So, today, like most of the people who got nowhere better to go in Jakarta, I went to ...surprise...surpise....the mall...again. And as I mentioned earlier, you can almost always find Sony Ericsson center in any mall that you go to. So I did found one today. Being a person who is quite curious about what's the latest and coolest model that's on display, naturally I went in and took a look around. I found myself playing around with a working SE W910. Supposedly, this one can change the current song when you shake it around. Well, what can you expect.... I ended up shaking the silly phone crazy just to try the new gimmick. Hehe. I can gladly tell you that ... I couldn't give you any conclusive result on THAT particular feature. Either I am not shaking it the right way or whatever. Anyhow... I guess in the back of my mind I still was curious about the fast forward and rewind feature. So I experimented with the newer model and still couldn't find any clear way (specialized button or on display hint) on how to fast forward or rewind. Then it hit me out of the blue.... on some devices, you have to press and hold a button to set or do something. I.e. setting channel on your car stereo. Switching off car stereo... etc. etc. So, I thought... what the heck, I'll give it a try. My finger went to the W910 next track button and hold it for a while. Lo and behold. It fast forward the music!! I tried the previous track button. It rewind the piece!! Something else clicked in my mind. Hey, if it could work on the new model, perhaps.... it could work on the old model as well??? I took out my K800i and give it a try. I loaded up the music player with one of my podcasts and press and hold the joystick to the right side for a couple of second....and... the freaking thing start fast-forwarding the podcast without skipping to the next track... LOL.
PS. Out of curiosity, I did Google up the question while writing this blog entry and found out that it was in the manual on page 63, hehehe. But discovering the feature by myself did give me more satisfaction... I think. LOL.
I guess the moral of the story are:
- I don't know if this is the most intuitive design that a product designer can come up with. On the old Nokia media player, I can see the UI clearly to do this type of function, but here, without referring to the manual or my previous experience with UI on other devices I couldn't intuitively guess what to do.
- Do as I say, don't do as I do... when you get something new, RTFM if it has one, hehehe.
- I need to find more "vacation spots" in Jakarta beside the malls. Any suggestions? Like nice quiet park for relaxing or something...