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Future Samsung Phone Plans Leaked
djgil writes "Looks like Samsung needs to be more careful what they do with their powerpoints. A number of prototype Samsung phones have appeared online including three that used Windows Mobile. One phone uses a 500Mhz processor and other had a 3Gbyte Hard Drive for music."
I wonder if the CPU is an XScale?
The camera--for me--is a gimmicky thing, I hardly *ever* use it.
I've got a bad case of mobile technolust... someone please help
Sigs cause cancer.
Until phones and ipod style mp3 players converged. I'm still waiting for the model that includes the kitchen sink.
I managed to get a mirror if needed.
--
Over 200 Gmail accounts!
Could this be a stunt informing consumers to hold off on buying a treo 650 before the holidays?
Oh wait the holidays are over... who knows
*rabble rabble*
How dare Samsung use Microsoft!?
*rabble rabble*
One phone uses a 500Mhz processor and other had a 3Gbyte Hard Drive for music."
In other news, the RIAA has filed a lawsuit against Samsung for encouraging pirating of music on mobile phones. Details to follow...
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
I long for the days when I used to be able to get a simple cell phone with a simple interface, contact phone book, and good reception -- for less than $25 dollars a month! Cell phones are getting so ridiculous that I finally gave up on them. You have to pay at least $45 a month (after taxes...), and for what? Internet access that I don't use. Games that I don't play. Instant text that costs me even more.
I wonder if a bare-bones plan with simple, easy to use phones (not glorified PDA's/cameras/gaming consoles) would actually do quite well in today's market for people like me that don't need all of the frills. I know people have talked about this before, but why aren't the cell phone companies listening?
I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!
*rabble rabble* M$ iz cr4p !!11!!1one th1s w1ll cr4sh and suxx0rz *rabble rabble*
Mobile Tetris never ran better!
This is exactly where everyone knows phones are going. Too bad they don't have what I want: seamless connection to WiFi and VoIP, seamless connection landline Wireless base.
Yet another set of phones that amalgamates more crappy functionality and drives the cost up for the user who simply wants a phone...
...
3GB disk? Too small for most music collections.
Let's not forget the crappy DSP most phones have anyways and 22Khz DAC
Oh and yet another camera with mildly low resolution...
[blah blah blah]
Why doesn't samsung introduce a cell phone that lasts for 6 months on a charge [standby not talk] or that can take a 5 story fall off a balcony or something. Or at least a fall from 6 ft without splitting in half... of the three cell phones I've had the cheapest POS motorola v120c was the toughest. My 300$ flip phone and my current c256 phone both will split open upon the slighest drop...
Those are features people can actually use. Not flimsy cell phones with short battery lives [well that's not entirely the case] and a whole slew of semi-functional additions that are otherwise totally fucking useless.
If I want to carry tunes with me I'll bring my mp3cd player. It's easier to deal with, was a hell of a lot cheaper and has excellent sound quality. If I want to snap pictures I'll bring my PowerShot. It has a much higher [5MP] resolution and is more configurable for actually taking pictures [the average camera phone can't adjust things like exposure, white balance, etc...]
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
just when i thought they were going to use linux.
will they run Linux?? XD
I know Powerpoint Considered Harmful, but I didn't realize that this was what they meant!
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
What does this do for battery life. I like that my current Samsung phone is small and runs for most of a week without any recharging.
OTOH i have to recharge my ipod every day that i want to use it (although it is a pretty old one).
Do "consumers" really want this kind of convergence? I know i dont.
It needs it to run Windows :)
Hey, now think about this for future webservers. Just run the webserver on a phone!
Of coure there are issues such as bandwidth costs and connection speeds, but I'm talking future, or maybe in select locations where highspeed mobile bandwidth is available.
No more RIAA or MPAA knocking on the door, instead they're putting there hand in your pocket looking for your phone that our hosting your bittorent tracker on.
Gee, looks like they got some free word of mouth advertising *AND* market research. Pretty smart.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."
The HDD Music Smartphone is by far the most interesting of the three leaked models. Besides it running Windows it looks like a promising little device. Almost seems suited as a competitor to the iPod and iTunes. As seen by the 3GB hard drive, name, and online music service (whatever that means). The hard drive and MPEG-4 compatibility would also enable it to be a handheld video player. Very interesting.
is that these new tech gadgets also connect two people on a wireless network after punching in some sort of code on the built-in numeric keypad, allowing them to use a sort of "voice chat".
Hopefully this feature won't interfere with the hard drive MP3 player and the 2 megapixel camera.
Man, you can find people's entire financial statements on Google if you know what to look for. I once found a company's entire pay-to-train sessions on Google because the idiots had left it in an open directory. We're talking seven or eight classes that cost $400 a head to attend.
This "oopsy" does not surprise me in the least. Spend enough time in the corporate world with typical PHBs, and you will get used to hearing how such-and-such simple and important security task isn't important because "that's never gonna happen", so we shouldn't "waste time on it". This is it what happens when managers run technical systems rather than tech people.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Just in case of the likely Slashdotting on this one, MirrorDot has the mirrors. As always. :)
~Jay
"Bob? Sell all my Samsung stock, fast!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
And no doubt, Verizon will pick one up, except the hard drive capacity will be reduced to 1GB, and it will have its multimedia features and bluetooth removed. Of course, they'll compensate by branding it with a five Verizon logos on the outside, and 3 Verizon banners in the software that can't be changed/removed, and the clock will spent as much time displaying "Verizon Wireless" as it does the time.
Seriously, I'm impressed by these phones, but they're like auto manufacturers' concept cars. And just like I go to the Detroit Auto Show every year and drool over the amazing concept cars (i.e. last year's Eclipse), when the things finally do hit the road, they're stripped-down, boring, tame, overpriced, and not at all exciting.
The same thing happens with cell phones (especially after Verizon has a hand in crippling them a la the Audiovox CDM-8900). They're exciting now, sure, but when these come out, they'll be advertised at $400, but existing customers will have to pay $800 for them, and half the features will have mysteriously vaporized.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love the idea of having one unit that takes the place of an iPod and a PDA and a cell phone in an elegant design, but it'll be another 3-4 years before we have those, and if Verizon, Sprint and the like have any say in it, they'll never be affordable to the masses.
... oh dear now everybody knows what cool phones we will se selling shortly. Oh my, maybe they even delay the purchase of a new phone to get one of our cool ones. And these may not even include all the features that are mentioned in the powerpoint slides, because hey, they are unofficial. WE never released these, they were stolen. Oh my lord, all this free advertising we now get, it isn't fair...
Er...
*sigh*
2005 is going to be another year of boring, stupid tech crap, isn't it?
500 MHz processor and it will still have the call quality of a tin can and string. Can't wait to see the battery life.
Flying cars. Personal jetpacks. Robot maids. Vacations in space. They promised me those things as a kid. THEY PROMISED, DAMMIT! Martin Landau was supposed to be on the Moon by now!
--- Ban humanity.
I read through all the features and it never mentioned we can call and communicate with these devices. There was alot of other neat things though! (suppose to be funny, sorry if it isn't)
To all thoes "I just want a phone phone" or thoes "Will i be able to get reception in my apt in metropolitan area #5?" to you i say.. STFU! this phone isnt for you.
i hate taking my mp3 player, cellphone, pda, and ocasionaly camera with me. The first 3 i cant leave the house with. taking public trasport is a hassel every time i enter or leave a subay i have to pay 4 pockets just to make sure i didnt forget anything. its a hassel.
i for one welcome our combo-cellphone-do-everything overlords
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
Study after study shows that only about 15% of the customers use most of the high end features that their phones provide. I for one find email absurdly difficult to use. I don't have a camera phone but I appreciate the ability to receive a picture someone else sends me - like the exact shape of that curtain rod bracket while I'm in the store for example.
Moreover most people over the age of 15 don't really consume ringtones, wall paper and screen savers.
OK text messaging is ok but again, data entry is a fucking chore even with T9.
But the reason that all these phones come with teleporters and sex aids is because phones are basically loss leaders for the service providers. They give most of them away for free so there is little incentive for phone builders to build better FREE phones. Instead they just pile on more features to justify the extra 50 - 100 - 150 dollars per unit because that is the only way they will actually make any money at all.
But I really don't understand what all the criticism is about. For the stated $25 a month you can get a plain jane prepaid candybar phone that gets calls and makes calls. I had one for over a year no problem - a Nokia 6631 and I could limit the spending by simply prepaying any amount I wished, no bills no problem.
Maybe all the critics should look into that.
In the meantime I think these new Samsungs here are a good fist stab at convergence. If I can get rid of my phone, PDA, camera and MP3 player in one clip and replace them with one device I can insure through the phone company and I can synch it and back it up with my PC I'm pretty far along the way to getting rid of a lot of complexity I'd rather not live with.
Maybe all the specs aren't up to what each of the devices on their own can do (Camera rez, audio codec, battery life) but they will be. The first Palmpilot phones were about $1000 now they are $300.
But what I'd like to see is more business oriented and common sense features and fewer teenage features.
Why throw anything mechanical into a pda-like device?
Capacity as an argument doesn't hold tight - current mobile phones like MS' smartphones or even Nokia's 6230 can use memory cards upto a gigabyte.
By the time Samsung releases these phones, memory cards will have increased in capacity.
This guy has (or perhaps had, if he's gotten wind of the coming down mods) a link in his sig that opens pop ups that spawn more of themselves. It managed to get through Firefox's (1.0) pop up stopper, so don't go trying it even if you think you're safe.
Gee, I can't think of a better way to create a buzz about a product than someone "stealing" your "confidential" plans about it and then "leaking" them onto the internet.
Bravo Samsung PR. Brilliant strategy!
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
If I can combine my cell phone, PDA, and MP3 player into one than I would and get rid of the other three. So hell yes this is a competitor to the iPod, traditional cell phone, and PDA.
So now people can hold their phones to their ears, get brain tumors and cause traffic jams and accidents without even talking to people. Add that to women and their makeup and 50% of the population will spend 90% of their time in medians b/c of stupidity......
- A marketing ploy
- A hoax
Sorry to be the wet blanket, but we should never allow ourselves to be fed information without credible sources. Remember The FARK hoaxHmmm 500 MHz processor. Guess that's what ya gotta do if you want to run Windows on your phone. Seems crazy though, given that I've run a database/email/file server that routinely queried 2 million-record database tables, ran dynamic mod-perl web apps and handled gigs of IMAP folders without breaking a sweat, all on a 500 MHz Celeron PC with similar specs as these superphones (except for 20 gigs of drive space).
I'm still trying to wrap my head around WHY. If it breaks or I lose it I have no functionality.
When I'm talking on the phone I cannot look at the screen so it would be a pain in the ass to look up info to relay to the person I'm talking to. Thus, I prefer a separate device, or at the very least a handset and some assurance I won't accidentally hang up on the person while I fiddle with things. PDA phones might be very capable, but if I were a power user I'd prefer a standalone PDA.
I only take pictures when I'm out somewhere interesting (on vacation, etc) so it seems pointless to have one on a phone that I use all the time. There are many places where photographic equipment is banned, and that means I cannot have a camera phone for work (a lot of manufacturing facilities, generating stations, etc do not allow photography equipment inside without signing special agreements). Besides, even the best camera phones take pretty crappy pictures even compared to budget digital cams. Anyone who is even semi-serious about their pics would have a separate camera.
MP3 player? Seems cool, but again a telephone conversation would interfere with operation. Besides, if even an ipod mini is too big for you you can get a basic player that fites nicely on a keychain now.
Video. Puleeeze. I don't care how far technology advances, nothing needs to be watched so bad that I MUST watch it right now---on a 2-inch screen. If these phones had TV-out...well I might look again....maybe...but all we are doing is replacing gadgets with tangled cables anyways.
I hope this superphone fad dies down a bit, and that I won't be forced to deal with unwanted features. I am just fine with a phone that makes phone calls, stores phone numbers and maybe has text messaging so I can receive alerts when I get new email. That is all I do now and nothing I've seen in these phones makes me want to do more. If they want to get me excited about a new phone...how about one with much improved reception , from a phone company that has a billing policy less complicated than spacecraft schematics.
I am pleased to see that someone besides Apple is supporting this codec on a music player. With bluetooth and aac support, who needs an ipod?
This guy has (or perhaps had, if he's gotten wind of the coming down mods) a link in his sig that opens pop ups that spawn more of themselves. It managed to get through Firefox's (1.0) pop up stopper, so don't go trying it even if you think you're safe. Fucker.
As far as I understand it, the big issue with phones is that they have to be approved by the FCC as they're regulated radio devices. Images and specification documents become public government documents once the phone is submitted for approval.
And entire websites (such as Phone Scoop) have grown around this advance information. They typically have specifications and images about 6 months before they hit the market.
For example, here's the news posting on Phone Scoop about those Samsung phones (including at least one model number). Follow the "Full Story.." link in that article for the FCC filing.
If you tell Rogers that you are going to cancel because their service is too expensive you will be passed to customer relations rep who will offer you some very basic inexpensive plans. You won't get all the fun features ofcourse. The plans are meant for people who carry a cell phone for emergencies.
What?
I'm calling you on my new Samsung phone powered by Windowstm.
What?
Canyouhearmenow!!! Bzz...click...silence
I can hardly wait.
*click**beep**beep* Scotty, One to Mod up!
Apple's AAC files from iTunes won't play because this device (everyone except iPod) will not be able to decode Apple's FairPlay DRM. This is what Apple uses to protect the iTunes/iPod/Music store system. Without FairPlay they would be eaten up my others.
Nuff said:-). I dropped my old 3360 out of a 3rd story windows, and then played hockey with it, and it still works.
This story could actually kill you from boredom, the surgeon general reports.
Commander Taco needs to let somebody else post stuff.
I seriously doubt this is a real job. Note that "antenna" was spelled incorrectly, leading me to believe that this was just some project that someone made, building it up around some pictures. Samsung wouldn't display this to potential vendors; it's way to unprofessional not to proofread it.
Has anyone else seen the commercial with the two sitting outside eating lunch and the one is describing his new phone.. the description he gave almost fits to a T the Samsung "Thor" concept phone. And if I remember the commercial right.. even looks like it as well.
So basically you get it for like $9.50 US. Now I admit that there's likely no deals in the US with that low of a monthly fee (except prepaid, maybe), but that cost seems significantly higher than it's really worth.
Simple example: my cell phone is roughly $40 US a month. I get 600 minutes a month with rollover (meaning the minutes add up and I can use them in later months instead), unlimited night/weekend use, no long distance or roaming fees of any kind, unlimited SMS, and basically unlimited everything else. No wireless internet because I found that to be really, really useless. No video, but why would I want video?
Now, I grant you that 500 minutes for $10 vs. 600 for $40 seems a bit of a weird comparison, but the thing is that I got the phone for free ($250 phone), the minutes rollover basically for as long as I have the account so I never have any form of shortages there (I've got enough minutes to talk a couple weeks straight without paying extra, had the account a long time, shifted to a lower usage one when the minutes were banked up enough). And I have no land line so that's saving me $25 a month.
Upshot is that for $15 more a month over a landline I can take my phone with me, anywhere in the US (never been anywhere out of coverage and I've pretty much been everywhere), and so forth.
So it's worth it to me. But those bells and whistles? They're not worth it. Hell, SMS messaging is almost useless as it is. I use it occassionally, maybe once of twice a year. But for the most part it's not worth it. Europe is just different, man. They embraced the bells and whistles. SMS messaging is big there. I've never even heard of MMS messaging, but I assume it's getting big. They're pushing video, wireless internet, all that stuff.
Over here in the US, few people really use all this crap. Yes, the bleeding edge do, but the majority of people complain about the actual voice functionality not working or being out of range or something. The coverage maps are usually the most important factor when buying a cell phone here. Text messaging is seen as a thing for kids to use, most people only use it for pager services or to have the latest sports scores delivered to them. They certainly don't use it for chatting.
They're still trying to get the US consumer to care about text messaging (witness the sidekick commercials, which is like a text messenger device with a mini keyboard). So it'll be a long, long time before they can get them to care about all the other bells and whistles.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
--
not a flame, just the way it is
The pain was excruciating and the scarring is likely permanent, but that just means it's working.
I long for the days when I used to be able to get a simple cell phone with a simple interface, contact phone book, and good reception -- for less than $25 dollars a month!
Amen, brotha! But don't dispair quite yet, you can still get such a deal--except there is a catch:
* you have to be at the end of a 2 year or longer contract
* you have to be fully paid--and may have to have a good payment history with the provider
* not requirement, but you get "bonus points" for being a "good customer" in general--ie. you have had the same phone through the whole contract (no lost/stolen/damaged phones, etc).
* you must take the time to actually visit their store/office/etc. The plans you get on-line or over the phone completely STINK.
Phone companies treat their basic plans like "dirty little secrets" they pull out when they are desperate to keep you. Be polite but assertive, and bargain with them like you would at a Tiajuana flea market.
My parents got lots of practice by sitting through sales pitches for timeshares in Florida and British Columbia. You have to listen to a sleazy, high-pressure guy for a couple hours and pretend you are interested in the wonderful amenities when all you *really* are after is the free TV or 3-day ski pass you "won". It is the same when your cellphone contract comes up for renewal. The longer you resist buying the more incredible the deal gets.
My mother used this tactic last month with Telus Mobility when her contract came up. The salespeople probably thought "nice old retiree lady--easy commission" but they were wrong. They go through the following steps:
1. Offer you the same overpriced plan they give joe schmoe off the street, but get a nifty colour phone upgrade. You respond: sorry, I don't need a colour phone and it is still too much for my budget.
2. Offer new but basic phone, less daytime minutes but still unlimited evening/weekend or something like that. Still $40/month or so but a bit cheaper. You: but I use even less than that, can't I get something without the daytime minutes?
3. (grumble grumble) Offers pre-paid/pay-as-you-go. Points out emphatically the convoluted process of buying minutes (picking up cards, conditions where minutes do not carry over etc etc) hoping you'll relent and at least pick #2. You: no dice--that's too inconvenient, who would ever put up with that crap if they didn't have to?
4. (in desperation to keep you from signing with Bell) Pleeeeze stay with us--we value your business. Here is our new basic phone, no evenings or weekends free but anytime minutes for $25 canadian per month.
Takes an hour of haggling but it's worth it.
How soon until we see the Farter worm that injects a payload of an ever-so-special Midi ring tone?
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
... cus' Samsung has been sooo quick to release the SGH-i505. Whoops, I mean the SGH-i550. These Palm two smartphone models were first announced at a trade show in October 2003. I still haven't seen either one in the wild.
Buy a Treo. You can actually go to a store and touch one of those. It's loads easier to type on than a cloud of pretty, hot air from Samsung.
$0.25/min for first 10 min each day
$0.10/min after that
If you use it rarely, it's a great plan.
All we need is for some B.E.T. executive to see that post. Help us all.
You, sir, are funny like a Manheim Steamroller Drum and Bass remix
Mirrordot.org is Groovy.
For context, click Parent.
Nokia 9500 has WiFi and you should be able to do voip, although I have no idea why anyone would want to use power hungry WiFi on mobile device.
Your point about where carriers make the most value is fine, but it's not fair to suffest this is the primary reason.
It goes back to what you said... they don't care. They don't have to. The cellphone services in the US are a cartel. They mirror each other's behavior and policies.
Worst of all, they all engage in anticompetitive restrictions such as requiring you to buy a phone that only works with their service. People take the path of least resistance... if their cell provider locks their phone to the network, then switching providers is much more complicated than making a phone call.
So we cant easily shop around for deals on the phone WE bought. As a side effect of all this, the us is Third World when it comes to cell phone technology. All the cool phones in Asia won't be found here for another 18 months (I expect some delay since that is the point of origin, but it won't take 18 months to get a new Sony gizmo here).
Where's my phone that I can just throw in my pocket, rough it up, and still have it work right? With all of these flip-phones, slide phones and their touch screens, camera lenses and hard drives, they don't seem like they're going to hold up to being bumped, jarred, or just tossed into a cargo pocket for a quick bike ride down to the convenience store. I love little gadgets as much as anyone else, but I'm not always going to be able to attach the device to a belt clip, and I don't always care to, anyways.
Can't they work on a good old phone that I could accidentally mistake for a hockey puck, and still have it work right?
I don't moderate anymore. Karma penalty for 90% fair mods? Can I mod that unfair?
Please note: If they are marked with "Anycall" they will not be released here in the States, or Europe for that matter. Only Korea. Plus, phones with these specs are not uncommon there currently. They already have phones with hard drives in them, as well as 5mp cameras (that take great pics)! Theres a slim chance that if one of the US CDMA carriers adopts the Korean Wideband CDMA network infrastructure for their 3G rollout, we may see them here, but that dosent look likely, and i can only immagine how much Verizon would fuck you over with charges. $.50 per HDD spool up sounds reasonable, dosent it?
I want 2D games back.
Already been done, and a few years ago, by Microsoft Research.
Go to MSR Security Research Group and scroll down to "Access Enabling Wallets on User Controlled Devices".
Paul
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
Drat. If the phones are at 500MHz it might be time to upgrade my aging 500MHz processor. It DOES have a 100MHz FSB though, so maybe I can hold off until Cingular tops them or something.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Phone Edition
Does that mean my cell phone will now crash as often as my PC at work does?
hack a day
All I want is a plain cellphone without cameras and thousands of annoying polyphonic ring tones... but one that I can use as a simple organizer with bluetooth so I can wirelessly sync my address book, calendar and notes. I don't want or need a full blown pda with a 2.4 GHz processor and 120 GB hard drives and Windows Longhorn 50-Pound-Phone edition yet phone makers keep adding more gimmicky bloat instead of making useful business devices. Why can't they just get a clue?
I'm sick of dialing. I want to speak information into the phone and have it store and speak information back to me. Like operators used to do before they were replaced with inferior technology. Is there anything out there that does this? It seems sad that advances in telephony seem to have little to do with telephony.
This makes so much sense that I'm now wondering whether the next iPod feature will be a phone - plus some license deal with a major wireless firm to have iTunes over the air. I think there are a lot of young people who carry both an iPod and a phone everywhere, and wouldn't mind simplifying. Just an idea...
any anime fans notice that the javelin looks a whole lot like those in witch hunter robin?
I got a Windows Mobile phone recently, in the UK it's called the SPV C500, but I think it's unbranded name is HTC Typhoon. it is an absolute dog. Shockingly poor phone. Maybe it's just because I spent a few years in the land of the mobile phone where design is so superior it's not even funny. Leave out that they sent emails not SMS or MMS, even the texting software I used to have, which wasn't predictive, was better than the turd that some developer crouched down and dropped into my phone. Here's why it sucks so hard. You'll see there are some software problems and some industrial design problems. The moral of this rant is that it's all got to be good to be a good phone.
Hard to use joystick
Menus and options are selected and navigated using a flat four-way joystick, with a centre-click for select. Centre-clicking isn't difficult, but when my hands are cold (and it is December, which means cold in London) it's easy to hit slightly in the wrong place and go up before clicking. With a phone as slow as this one, this can be incredibly frustrating. It leads to putting the wrong word in when writing texts, it leads to choosing the wrong program to start, and it leads to a whole world of related pain. Stylus! Please!
Inconsistent UI
The phone has two pointless buttons: Home and Back. They probably thought it was a really good idea to have one click to go home, but it's not. You can press the Back button a few times, or if they had been clever tie it holding down the back button in order to do that. Or at least you could have done that if the UI was consistent. In fact it seems that it's up to the apps what they do with the buttons on the phone. The camera application will only quit if you press the Hangup button! You can't even cancel though the menu!
Slow boot
This is simply wrong: it takes over a minute between me pressing the power button and my phone being usable as a sort of rubbish PDA, and then an arbitrarily long time to recognise the network it's on and be actually ready to use as a phone. A minute never seemed so long before I spent one staring at Windows Mobile.
Crashes
Another one that's simply wrong: it's a phone. It crashes. I'm pretty sure that my parents' phone doesn't crash, possibly because it's made of bakelite and fixed to the wall with rusty iron screws, but the idea is there. Make a phone which doesn't crash. If it crashes, fix it and then sell it. A phone that periodically requires me to take the battery out and wait that painful minute before I can use it again doesn't deserve an owner.
Slow software
Actually, I don't know if this is the software's fault or the phone's, but the experience is slow. My friend has a Palm Treo 600 (he loves it) and his mapping software flies around. He uses his stylus and just drags the map around. I have to click up, down, left or right on the stupid little joystick in order to move around the map. And whereas the mapping software he uses is an image of a streetmap, mine is a bloody vector image, with only the major roads on it, and only some of them labelled with names. It's basically fucking useless. I tried to use it to find somewhere in Soho, in the cold December rain. In less than the time it takes to boot I called my friend with an A-Z and he told me where to go.
Button placement
This is another simple, simple, simple cock-up. There are two buttons for adjusting the earpiece volume. Never mind that they don't work very well and that the earpiece volume goes up in about 4 steps and so could be easily managed with one button, the problem here is that you have to press them hard, which means bracing against the opposite side of the phone, where the camera is. So, while you are in a noisy call, you adjust the earpiece volume and nine times out of ten start the camera. If you recall, you can't stop the camera app in order to check your calendar or contacts without pressing the hangup button, with the predictable effect of hanging up.
Texting s
OMG, does that sound like an ad for pr0n... I am in the exact same boat, and I'd like to have a simple phone that I could use for ~$20 a month or so. None of the larger carriers have anything like that, so I started looking into the pay-as-you-go services. Most of them still try to suck you dry, but it seems like VirginMobile is a good deal. You can get their basic phone is only $40 bucks to buy, and you can just add a minimum of $30 every 90 days. That comes out to around $13 bucks a month for a cell phone. Not bad in my opinion since I use mine so little, but would still like the convience of having it. It uses Sprint's service, which has always been OK for me. Hope that helps someone, its saving my wife and I about 60 bucks a month!
:)
Oh, and no, I don't work for them..
I presume it's a 3 plan - what's it called and what phone do you get?
Something tells me plans leaking out about these incredible new phones would do nothing but good things for Samsung. These just happened to leak out? But the slides are so well designed.... Almost as if they were to be "customer facing" *raised eyebrow*
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
At least here in australia. The market here seems to be splitting between "high fashion" and budget markets.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I treat my phone like crap. If i cant find it in a pile of clothes i'll just pull it out by the charger. I'll throw it across the room if it's a call for someone else....
i'd never dream of doing that with an ipod.
So you used to be able to beat your phone and now you can't. Go back in time and it used to be okay to beat your wife and kids! Is that really what you want?
If you can't look after your phone, you don't deserve one!
People we need to join forces so we can collectively stop ALL FORMS of phone abuse.
That B-Bop is the same phone as the siemens sx66.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/6548012790166434/
I don't even want the bluetooth. I don't want a color screen. I don't wan an organiser. I want a cellphone that's well, just the best possible phone, that's all.
[rant continued in #11257921]
The "convergence" is great, but battery life is definitely a prime consideration (or should be!).
I think many folks just assume the battery life is "good enough" when they're wowed by all the flashy new features in the latest phones, and only discover how miserable it can be after the fact.
I've got a Kyocera 7135 "Smartphone" myself, and owned the older black and white Kyocera "Smartphone" before it. The old one was a "brick" to carry around, compared to most phones, but I will say one thing; they got some excellent battery life out of it. The 7135 is dismal by comparison. I'm finding that I can *usually* get through a typical work day with it, as long as I don't use any of the PDA features or the built-in MP3 player or anything else. But if I do, the battery just can't do both that stuff AND let me make and take the calls I need to make/take throughout the whole day. It's dead by 5PM.
I've got spare batteries and the cradle that's supposed to keep a spare charged up for you, and that helps somewhat - but not when you're in the car, miles from the office or home, and the phone conked out on you.... Worse yet, I have a car charger, but my 12V cigarette lighter plug in my car died recently - so can't even go that route right now. Frustrating!
What's with all these people bitching about these phones? You want a phone that doesn't take pictures, play music, or make you breakfast in bread? You want a phone that's inexpensive and a plan that's only 25$ a month? Every provider I've ever seen has a basic plan in the 20$ - 25$ range, and phones with no features that are free after rebates. Instant rebates, no less; you never pay anything for them, the price is deducted -before- you pay.
For the people bitching about the 500 MHz CPU: Windows Mobile runs just fine on a 200 MHz CPU, my assupmtion is that the faster CPU is so it can keep the MP3 function running while pausing a song to take a call, start the web browser, recieve pictures, or whatever.
For the people bitching about color screens and not being able to use their phone to look stuff up during calls and that kind of: I have no problem moving the phone away from my ear, looking stuff up, and telling it to my girlfriend when she again forgets somebody's number. It's easy to see, and she and I can hear each other just fine.
For those bitching about MP3 playback: I don't care about the decoder and DSP quality in a phone, the headphones I've got suck anyway. Ditto for damn near everyone else in the world. I'm not at home with a 300$ sound card and 600$ speakers, I'm on the go with 40$ set of cans.
I can't see why anyone would bitch about a 3 GB HDD, but in response to those that would: Assuming Samsung does the right thing and makes the phone a USB mass storage device, I've suddenly got a really handy portable HDD. Hell, maybe I can even boot from it.
To those that bitch about call quality: I've got a Samsung phone already, and people I call can't tell I'm on a mobile. The sound quality of my phone is better than my land lines; not louder, more clarity.
TO people complaining about durability: My window is on the 3rd floor. I have dropped the phone out of it before, it still works just fine. A few nicks and scratches, but it's OK.
And a very special note to people that complain about mobile phones in general: My phone is set to vibrate first, and then ring if I don't pick it up. My ringtone is a very generic little beep sound, and it's set kinda quiet too. If I don't want people calling me, I turn it off. I don't like bothering people, so I turn it off before going to a theater, out for dinner, or anywhere else where people would get bothered. I don't shout when I'm on a phone either; I really don't like calling attention to myself. Maybe it's not that phones are a problem, just that some people are inherently assholes.
Wow, after writing all that, I realize why you guys bitch so much. I feel a lot better now.
... they'll be worth every cent!
I washed my Samsung celphone in the washing machine just last weekend. It still works... Check my post at stephencollins.org.
New Verizon slogan: Can you crash me now?
[ in my best AOL announcer voice...]
You've got...cease and desist orders!
By the time I saw the site, it looks like Samsung's lawyers can smell leaks as well as Apple lawyers! That's about as kean as a great white shark can smell seal blood--only they attourneys are not as kind.
Note to self: Don't publish any internal documents from large corporations on web site.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
..necessarily "future plans". it says so in the pictures.
--- widget evolution: enhanced, plus, super, ultra, extreme, exxxtreme, ultra-extreme,
Dumbshit sales people and their leftover powerpoints.
Luddites all of you. You and every moron who modded you up and every frigin' commenter who responded in agreement (which seems to be all of them). Amazing.
Is this not Slashdot? News for Nerds? WTF is this attitude towards new technology? WAKE UP. The mobile phone is in use by 1.5 BILLION people world wide. By the end of the decade that number will have almost doubled and more people on Earth will be using it as their primary computing and communication tool than any other device.
The mobile phone is a PLATFORM now. Get it?
Long gone are the days when it was used for just making phone calls, just like long gone are the days when Linux was used just for servers. Do you bitch every time someone launches a new CPU or adds new stuff to computer OSes just because you don't need anything except VI? "What's with all this multi-threading, multimedia and GUI support? I don't need any of that crap!"
Get used to the fact that mobile phones are now the most important piece of technology in the world. More important than your PC or your television or your iPod.
Bitching about how you want a simple mobile phone with cheap service is like bitching about only wanting a Pentium 3 and basic AOL dial up because all you use your computer for is email and the web. The rest of us who are trying to focus on the future are sick of hearing from you backwards motherfuckers.
-Russ
Me
>> Do these companies have ANY network security in place?
Perhaps the problem has something to do with this?
We still have a long way to go before we have *real* web security.