Tuesday
Feb032009
QOTD: Device Name?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 4:00AM 
Today's question comes from Rui. When you needed to create a hotsync/device name for a device in what terms do you base your criteria? You go for your initials, name, coded name, pet, tv series, long name, short name... and if you have more than one device, do you have independent names or sequential somehow? Personally I'm very original as I put my name (first and last).I think a device name can reveal some aspects of a person's profile, don't you?
Reader Comments (5)
I always used "Statto" for my Palm devices, a nickname bestowed on me years ago by members of the cricket team I then played for because I did all the end of season stats. It's stuck and loads of people still know me by that.
My iPhone name is "Simon's iPhone". Original it is not.
Frankly I don't even think about device names too much.
I used my nickname of flipper on all my palm devices. I used my full name on pocket pc's, without realising I could transfer some of my application codes across. Doh!
I'm running in the same ultra-original name camp as Statto; "David's Touch".
Back in the Palm days, it was my full name; which could have been a problem like Philippa mentioned, except that, only one application has made it from Palm to Touch.
My question has in fact one point that I didn't mention but would like to discuss: I read a few years ago that one should follow a couple of "rules" when choosing a name. 1st, Always go for short and "no space"/"no country's own characters" names. 2nd, alwyas choose the same name for every device you may have. Why you may ask... because of the Serials that are often requested in order to get your programs registered. I read a few people that had problems because they used special charaters, and most of all and particularly considering Palm is dead(!) if you have the same ID you can use the same hotsync name generated key to register your program.
... because I've also read about people that have changed the ID name and since the author no longer support the software, they are stuck.