Life Meets #Lumia: Eric Chan
Business exec, tech blogger and family man Eric Chan uses his Lumia 830 to not only take care of business, but to chronicle his personal life, optimize his daily commute, and more.
Eric Chan’s first cell phone was a big brick of a device.
It was “the Zach Morris phone,” he said, referring to a Motorola phone used by a character in the 1990s American sitcom, “Saved By the Bell.”
Since then, he’s used a plethora of other cell phones–including the Nokia 8310 and Nokia N810–across several operating systems. (Check out his device gallery here.) But today, Eric uses the Lumia 830 as his daily driver.
As an executive for the research and development arm of a major automotive company, Eric uses his Lumia to stay in constant touch with his team via Outlook email, Sharepoint and Lync (“We always chat with each other on the go.”).
He also uses the Microsoft Office Suite on his Lumia to get work done, whether he’s at his office in Silicon Valley, at home, or traveling out of the country.
“A lot of times I’m not at my desk and I’m not lugging my laptop,” he said. “So it’s nice to know that my phone is always accessible.”
Eric doesn’t just use productivity apps on his smartphone. On his way to and from work, he also fires up the Waze app for Windows Phone to learn of any traffic tie-ups on his daily 70-mile round-trip commute.
“Cortana has been very useful too,” he said. “She reminds me when I should leave for my appointments because of traffic. And I use her to read some of the daily news for me.”
Listening to his favorite tunes via the Pandora app also makes the commute less stressful. Of course, the fact that he has a sweet ride–a Mercedes Benz C400 4MATIC with the Burmester Sound System –also helps.
“I can match the drive quality to my mood, from econo to sporty,” Eric said enthusiastically. “A driver’s car for all occasions.”
(For more automotive eye candy, check out our recent story on Lumia and the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany.)
Early interest in tech
A native Californian, Eric got interested in tech in college. He graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University, an institution well known for its strong engineering and technology programs, with a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in software engineering.
He started his blog on mobile technology, Mobileslate, in 2005 based on a dare.
“My friends said, ‘You keep talking about tech, why not write about it?’” Eric recalled. “I thought, ‘maybe.’ But then I really got into it.”
Subtitled “contemplating the mobile lifestyle,” Eric blog posts are wide-ranging and muse on subjects such as how to succeed in mobile advertising and how a certain tech company is extending its technology into the automotive space.
Photos and social media
The Lumia 830’s 10-megapixel camera has plenty of power and fine-tuning capabilities for Eric.
As a result, he has become more addicted to posting photos on Instagram (especially of food) and is now learning the ins and outs of image-related apps such as Lumia Cinemagraph, Lumia Panorama and Lumia Storyteller for Windows Phone.
“I really, really love the camera. My other device is really lacking in quality and resolution,” he said.
Eric also uses the Windows Phone apps for Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare regularly on his Lumia. Over all, he’s pretty happy with his Lumia.
“I’ve been following Windows Phone, the operating system, for a while,” he said. “And every time I see a new device and new version of the OS, I’ve been pretty impressed. My next project is to test of the Qi wireless charging feature of the Lumia 830.”
Readers, are there any other apps or Lumia features that Eric should take out for a spin? How about some of the automotive apps that we covered in this story?