[SweetBearCub]

I responded to an ad on Craigslist about a month ago regarding a paid focus group for users of smart devices.

After a couple of lengthy telephone surveys and journal detailing a week of typical usage, I was invited to a focus group in an upscale area of San Francisco with 5 other people.

After I arrived, they plied us with free food and drink and then we were directed to a room where we seated in front of a large section of 2-way mirrors. While no names were mentioned, we were told that our focus group would be observed for what might be the genesis of future smart mobile technologies.

We discussed what we liked about our current phones, what we dis-liked, asked we chose these phones over over others on the market, and a large portion of the 2 hours was spent discussing what we wanted to see in 5 years if technology were not an obstacle.

Along with one other member of the group, I played the power user angle. My position was that a phone that retails for $550 should be MUCH more powerful. For example, it should have a solid state drive in it that can store a few hundred gigabytes, not 8. Or someone with a PSP that costs about one quarter of the price can do much better gaming. I also lamented about the serious lack of RAM. I specifically mentioned that a phone like the Titan should 256MB of program memory, instead of 64MB.

When we were done, the best part came - We each got paid $225 in cash!

I hope that some of what we discussed becomes reality!