The In Your Faceness of My iPod

So why does my iPod have better persistence than the PDA I used to have?
One point that has to be made is that I am a different person than I was back then. I get things better than I did back then. I “get” the idea that I need to keep track of things and make the decisions that need to be made when they need to be made. However, that doesn’t really do the differences justice.
The biggest difference is the raw level of computing power that exist between the two. The device I’m typing on right now is more powerful than the first computer I owned, and I didn’t buy one until the nineties. It can access the Internet through my wifi connection, which attached to the fiber optic line that runs into my house. By all accounts, this device is faster and easier to use than the older one, and that makes me more likely to want to use it.
The other difference that makes me more likely to use the device is that it has more things for me to use. I have music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, books, calendar, e-mail, web access, games…you get the point. If it was actually an iPhone, I would probably be on it even more, because then I would have constant access to even more. As it is, I have no easy wifi access at work.
The point of that…point is that I actually look at the device more, and when I do, that Toodledo app comes into view, with that little badge that says I have seven things left to do. The e-mail icon tells me that there are three items in my inbox. All in all, it’s like having a little friend that I play with that reminds me of what I have to do every now and then. A friend that cost me money, sure, but at least my friends come cheaper than Elliot Spitzer’s.
So there you go. Two key changes that make this technology different enough to make it actually useful in my attempts to be productive.