PIECE OF CAKE
The first paragraph of this release from Palm.com (via memeorandum), got my attention:
"For Verizon Wireless smartphones — The Treo 700w Updater installs the latest software on your smartphone. It is designed to update your device while preserving your data. In some instances, user set preferences may not be retained after updating."
Umm, OK, you got me...where do I go for an update and what do I do?
Not to worry...Palm's got that covered. The link takes you to this very detailed page.
While on one hand, Palm should be applauded for being both thorough and meticulous in documenting the procedures and steps to be taken to update your Treo 700w, I can see how a mainstream user might think another thought.
Why do the steps required to defuse a live, ticking bomb for a movie character like, say Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, seem simpler than the steps required to update your Palm Treo?
I mean, all Mel has to do is decide whether to cut the red or the blue wire...and with the same amount of pressure and pressure through the process, as updating the Treo.
In a document with over 700 words, and over 15 steps on the "do and don't" check-list before updating, Palm does a good job showing exactly how to do the update. And that's not including the two other pages of "sub-check lists", found here and here (only 500 more words together).
Never-mind that most mainstream users' stress levels while actually doing the update , will go through the roof.
In normal cases, most sensible mainstream users would choose to postpone doing the update. Perhaps schedule it the same day they're having their next root canal...you know, to go through all that anxiety on that one day and be done with it.
So then it becomes clearer, as to why Palm would start off the release with the statement that they use above.
You gotta get people motivated...kinda like training those raw recruits to crawl through the barbed wire course on their bellies with live bullets being fired over their heads.
P.S. This is not to pick on Palm. They're doing the best they can in a world where technology companies do not control all the elements of the services enabled by their products. But it does mean more complexity for mainstream mortals to deal with in the interim.
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