Gadget Obsession

Executive's Career Change Justifies Gadget Obsession
By Jared Sandberg
From The Wall Street Journal Online


It took Lance Schneier three career changes to justify his heavy consumption of hand-held gadgets. The former attorney, natural-gas executive and venture capitalist finally founded a Dublin, Ohio, start-up called Shadowpack Inc., which develops software for cellphones, pagers and personal digital assistants.
Now Mr. Schneier has a better business excuse for toting a small Blackberry pager, a big Blackberry pager, a tiny Motorola phone from Verizon, a Sprint PCS phone (with graphics) and a Palm V with a wireless modem. He has a Compaq hand-held computer, a Palm VII in case the other Palm doesn't work, and a second little Motorola, from Sprint, which is necessary in case he can't get through on Verizon. Total number of hand-helds: eight. Total number of hands: two.

This doesn't include the 14 devices he has passed along to his wife and six kids. Nor does it count the 50 or so abandoned, lifeless contraptions sitting in his basement cupboard, a little museum of old, brick-like cellphones and failed castoffs such as the Apple Newton (he says he had the first one in Ohio). "They're less expensive than cars," says Mr. Schneier of the gear he is currently using. When he wants to carry all his apparatus, he needs a messenger bag.

Hand-held electronic gadgets were supposed to simplify our lives, putting all our communications, lists and schedules into one tiny package. But for a lot of gadget-lovers, it hasn't worked out that way.

Consider David Gang, an AOL Time Warner Inc. senior vice president who carries five devices regularly. There's the Nokia cellphone for regular calls and the Ericsson cellphone with Web access. His VoiceStream phone is the only one he can use when he is overseas. None of his gadgets has address-book capabilities to rival his Palm. He uses his AOL Mobile Communicator to exchange instant messages with fellow AOL executives, who type more than speak. His assistant has a spare Palm, pager and cellphone in the quite likely event Mr. Gang loses something. "I've been through three Mobile Communicators already," says Mr. Gang.

Michael Parekh is overwhelmed by his eight gadgets (Blackberry, Palm, Compaq iPaq, two cellphones, eBook, and two MP3 players). The managing director of Internet research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has given up trying to wear too much of this stuff for fear of looking like something out of the Old West.
Mr. Parekh has set off on an "ongoing quest," he says, for the perfect gadget briefcase, one that won't let his gizmos eat up two-thirds of the space. Something on wheels would be nice. "At some point you have to have room for work materials," says Mr. Parekh. He has bought dozens of briefcases, half a dozen in just the past year.

Bob Frankston, the co-creator of VisiCalc, one of the first consumer spreadsheet programs, has lugged around as many as seven devices at a time. He stuffs them in his pockets and hangs them on his belt. He once broke a camera in his pocket. "The zoom lens came out at an inopportune time," he says. Mr. Frankston's 18-year-old son, Seth, has pleaded with him to dump the ammo-belt look. "I'm actually embarrassed myself when I carry too many," says Mr. Frankston.

Kevin Donovan, the senior vice president of About.com, clipped four holsters for his Motorola StarTAC cellphone to the laces of different pairs of shoes. He straps his Palm on the inside of his right sock with Velcro, as if it were a small pistol used by a movie villain. He got the idea years ago while he was mountain climbing in Colorado and had nowhere to put his beeper. Using his feet "comes in handy," he says, adding that he has sold a couple of people on the idea. "No one who's tried it has gone back to the belt clip."

Others devise a gadget-management "system." Ari Shomair, an 18-year-old student in Toronto, always wears a jacket and puts his most expensive devices, his Palm for instance, in an inside pocket. The cheaper ones (phone and camera) go in the outside pockets. Hauling his devices around in an "organized fashion is really the greatest hardship," he says. And he always worries that he may have lost one of them. Also, it gets hot wearing a jacket in summertime.

And heavy. So some gadget-heads go on a diet of their own device. John Merson, 57-year-old president of online test-preparation service CollegePilot Inc., carries just five gadgets (two cellphones, an AOL Communicator, a laptop, and a Handspring Visor). Says Mr. Merson: "I'm trying to cut down on the pounds."