My Phone Is Too Complicated, But I Love It
from the is-this-thing-on? dept
It's been interesting watching the Luddite reponse to mobile phones evolve. When cell phones were first becoming popular, it was "why would I want that?" But as they've become more pervasive, even the Luddites have bought in -- but now say they want "just a phone", and not handsets with additional features like cameras and color screens and MP3 players. A new study would appear to validate these feelings, saying most people don't use these features. But another writeup of the same survey emphasizes that despite this, people are more satisfied with their phones than they were a year ago. The two positions might seem to be at odds, though some manufacturers have made a point of improving the usability of their handsets to make them simpler to operate, while some operators have introduced stripped-down models typically aimed at elderly users. But, like earlier data that could appear to indicate customers getting happier with the service they receive from their carrier, it's hard to know if devices have gotten better and more usable, or if people are simply learning to adapt.
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love my camera phone...
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Re:
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Re: Re:
Otherwise I'll just use my Canon with its much higher resolution.
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Re: cameraphone
I transfer the pictures from my phone to my PC via bluetooth when I have time to power up my laptop.
I just got my first camera phone in January of this year, and I agree that the phone is much less useful than I had hoped, primarily because of it's low quality and slow ability to snap a picture. (I got the RAZR)
I still like having the feature. Are we on generation 2 of cameraphones yet? If so, what generation is it going to be before they are acceptable?
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Not to mention loading up my MP3 player for free without paying for the songs like BS verizon would like me to
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Re: Re: Paying extra monthly charge for camera pho
I just got a data USB cable today & thought I could download the pictures off my phone to my PC so I'll have more storage space on the phone but haven't figured out yet how to do it.
Read somewhere that a phone has to be "unlocked". Anybody know about this?
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Re: Re: Re: Paying extra monthly charge for camera
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Re: monthly cost
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Phones
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Re: Phones
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Re: Phones
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Re: multi-tasking devices
I don't carry the plan to be able to email pictures nor do I pay extra for text messaging. My eyes will not let me see the screen well enough to read the messages nor will my fat fingers navigate those tiny keys on the phone (hard enough to program in the names & phone numbers for my contact list!!).
Now if I can just figure out how to get those darn pictures off my camera & onto my PC!
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Pleased with my phone
That said, my current phone is a lot nicer and easier to use than the previous phone I had. The interface emphasizes the main features I use, the phonebook and the telephone service. So while I really don't want a lot of extra features, I am more satisfied with my current phone than I was with the last one. The only thing i would like is for it to be smaller.
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Pleased with my phone too!
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Crazy people
Soon I'll figure out how to let my iQue M5 get it's internet connection through the 9800 so I can Remote Desktop into my servers and fix them without having to boot into my laptop while on the road.
One small-ish device.... that's all I want.
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Girls Love It
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Sony Ericsson s710a
I use the camera quite often, and it is very nice to have the convenience of always having a camera close at hand, not having to carry my SLR everywhere I go. If I want a great picture, Im certainly not going to use one of those P.O.S. point and shoot compact digital cameras. If I want a picture of my dog swimming in the pond, I use my cameraphone.
I use public transportation, so having a note system and some games to play at my convenience are helpful, if for some reason I have to wait an hour for a train. One could certainly argue I should be carrying a notepad, or PDA and a DS with me everywhere I go, but I'd much rather have my compact and relatively inexpensive device (compared to the combined price of all the listed devices).
So Dezzie_boy, you can see, clearly, people do use those features and your broad generalization is now proven to be ridiculous. You also fail to explain why the "consumer society we live in today" is something that is problematic.
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Sony Ericsson s710a
I use the camera quite often, and it is very nice to have the convenience of always having a camera close at hand, not having to carry my SLR everywhere I go. If I want a great picture, Im certainly not going to use one of those P.O.S. point and shoot compact digital cameras. If I want a picture of my dog swimming in the pond, I use my cameraphone.
I use public transportation, so having a note system and some games to play at my convenience are helpful, if for some reason I have to wait an hour for a train. One could certainly argue I should be carrying a notepad, or PDA and a DS with me everywhere I go, but I'd much rather have my compact and relatively inexpensive device (compared to the combined price of all the listed devices).
So Dezzie_boy, you can see, clearly, people do use those features and your broad generalization is now proven to be ridiculous. You also fail to explain why the "consumer society we live in today" is something that is problematic.
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as a consumer
I want a 5 megapixel camera phone that has a 6 gig flash memory with mp3 player and a standard 3.5mm audio jack. what do we get? 1.3mega pixel camera with transflash slot. and no im not moving to asia or europe for a phone. bring that stuff here YESTERDAY.
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Re: as a consumer
I agree. I have a cameraphone,which I never use, primarily because the quality of the pictures is horrible. It really wouldn't take much to make the phones truly useful in the ways mentioned above. My personal pet peeve is that with a lot of phones you have to buy special equipment to interact with your computer.
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WM smartphone
No I may not
need
these things, but I certainly do use them.[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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My camera phone saved me tons of cash
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I get to quickly check the emails I have online and even download my voicemails to wav file (ok that is a functionality from my provider as opposed to the phone itself) and I can listen to them again quite easily without having to press 2 2 2 2 to repeat it 5 times if the message isn't clear.
I also use the browser to check online and book cinema tickets quickly and easily and to top it all off I sync my cellphone to my laptop via BT and then use the 3G features to get a semi decentish broadbandish connection when I'm on the go and I would like to be on the internet proper.
Like other people have said I don't carry my dSLR around with me all the time and it's a simple point and click situation to take a couple of quick and memorable snapshots.
Like someone else said about using public transportation a lot, I do too and being able to listen to my music and play some games on it means I don't need to have my mp3 player and PSP/DS on me. Instead I carry one phone and my laptop.
So to Dezzie_boy and Joe Snuffy, are any of those features useful or do they help me keep in contact with people? I'd say yes. What's really funny is you use the term "capitalist world" in what I would say to be a negative manner and then suggest that we go out and spend even more money. S'great.
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Well said Alpharock (#15).
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PRoblems with camera phones
Nokia, I think, had a primitive, B&W phone with no camera or anything like that that sold very well, but once it was withdrawn from sale because it was "obsolete", one distributor started selling second-hand nad liquidated phones of that type because t was his most popular type. (this was in a New Scientist Feedback item, I will look for the date and a link later)
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Cameraphones
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There's also a button on the outside of the phone that sends a call to voice mail. I can't begin to tell you how many calls I've missed by accidentally hitting that button when reaching for the phone.
The numerous other Motorola, Siemens and Nokia phones I had were just as bad.
I'm no Luddite. My phone has to have Bluetooth, GPRS/EDGE, be quad-band, include Java, etc. But it also has to be usable as an f-ing phone and very few phones I've owned are really good at that core function.
So I understand why consumers are fed up with all the features. Nobody dislikes features; what they hate is the bad user interface that results from cramming the kitchen sink into a phone.
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Toys
Let's face it. Very few of us would die if we didn't have our phone/camera/pda/blackberry, etc. around. A cell phone is a convenience and nothing more. A camera phone is a convenience on top of another convenience. (This is coming from a guy who actually added a phone to Laslow's Hierarchy of Needs to justify buying a cool phone. Water, food, shelter, transportation and communication. The transportation was my justification for buying a Lexus ... and I'm only half-joking.)
I use my phone constantly but it wouldn't hurt my income stream if I had to give up my cell phone. I'd just have to spend more time at the office. It's a convenience. Don't get me wrong, I like having a cell phone. It makes my life easier to call while I'm in the car (hands free of course), but I never use a tenth of the stuff my phone has.
I have a new LG phone with a camera - it was the free one I got when I renegotiated my contract. I hate the phone because some genius at LG decided the camera needed to be easier to access than the phone book and I can't reprogram it. I had the latest and greatest from two years ago, but I lost it. Let's face it - when you lose your phone you're a little upset at losing the phone but you're really P.O.'d at losing all your numbers.
I've been steadily climbing back down the cool factor ladder. And amazingly enough, my life is actually less stressful. I just want a phone that has good reception, an easy to use phone book (are you listening Motorola?), and a long battery life. The extra cool stuff? Never used it.
One of these days they're going to have phones built for you like Dell builds your computer. I wonder how many people will choose all the extra crap?
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You use your phone for what?
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A phone must be a phone.
I'm also a firefighter.
The combination makes for a problem. All the "cool" phones with PDA's and so on don't fare well at all when you skitter them across the concrete floor of the bay where my Engine sits as I swap street shoes for boots and bunker pants.
I've learned to pick a good phone by picking one that is a good PHONE. The Motorola E815 gets great reception and sounds good to people you talk to and they to you. I can do email with a pop3 client add on, and it even does bluetooth (esp. once you hack the firmware and uncripple it).
I paid $50 for it, and someone shoot me if I ever PAY for wallpaper or a f'**** ring tone!
btw: taking pictures or playing mp3's doesn't use airtime because it has a transflash card. 1/2 gig of data on a card the size of my thumbnail and it works like a usb drive. Sweet.
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phones are crappy cameras
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not a luddite
Its not to say that there can't be devices that do it all, but why is it that the only phones you can buy these days have a useless camera option?
I have an iPod, so what do I want with a phone that can play video and music?
I have a good quality digital camera that takes amazing pictures, why do I need a poor quality camera on my phone?
We are entering an era of technological redundancy. You already own 12 devices that do the following, play video, play digital music, take pictures, display pictures, do text messaging, make phone calls, store video, play games, schedule your life and browses the internet. Does your phone need to do all this TOO?
The problem is, once you start getting phones that do little more then just voice communications, maybe a text page or something, then they are cheap plastic Fisher Price looking models.
Why people are satisfied with their all-in-wonder phone is because typically the flagship phones from Motorola, Nokia, et al. are thin and highly stylized devices. They are status icons. Sure, you will never watch television or take video with the thing, nor will you bother to download games, music, or other data content on it, nor are you heavy into text messaging or wireless internet access, but damn, that phone looks hot!
I double Motorola will ever cater a Razor to people that only want a cell phone to make phone calls.
It would be nice if we can truly create an all in one device for voice, text, games, video, music, photos, etc, but the simple fact is, I have a PSP, I have a DS, I have an iPod, I have a notebook, I have a desktop, I have a PVR, I have a digital camera, I have countless other devices that have all the SAME FEATURES. So, I don't NEED these features in a Cell phone.
Make me the worlds thinnest cell phone out of metal that looks good, has weeks of battery life, that only makes GOOD QUALITY phone calls, and I will buy it. Just don't give me those thick plastic garish looking bricks for $0 with 4 years service as a basic featureless phone.
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That's what she said.
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Storage device
Thanks
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english
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help
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cell phone buttons
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