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Just a Phone?
LiquidCoooled writes "Vodafone in the UK have released a mobile phone which caters to those people craving a simple handset. For far too long we have been overpowered by extras we don't need; this looks to be a very nice solution. These phones feature a large format screen and buttons and a simple interface making this phone more accessible to a larger audience." I'd sure prefer better sound and simpler menus to the useless camera and gimmicks built into my current phone.
speak for yourself; i for one am quite glad to be able to run midpSSH anywhere there's a tower within range!
I have always wondered who came up with combining a camera and a phone. It is not a totally ridiculous combination, like say, sub-woofers and a vacuum cleaner. I can see the combination of transmitting visual and audio data through the same device. But still, why combine two items into one shoddy piece of equipment when you can have a two seperate high-quality devices?
First off, from the pictures they aren't that big. Bigger than modern cellphones, but still small enough to fit in a jacket pocket easily.
I think there is a big market for simpler (and hopefully cheaper?) phones like this. Alot of people (like my mom) carry their cell-phone in their purse anyway, so if it's a bit bigger, that's no big deal.
As the article says, these new phones are not targetted at the young-and-modern crowd who want all the features and want to be able to carry it in their pocket without ruining their stylish outfit. These phones are being targetted towards older people who want no-frills devices that "just work." I think they will sell alot of these units.
Those phones are nice... As a Radio Shack associate who sells cell phones all the time, I agree with the statement in the article that mentions the "older crowd"... I get practically cussed out half the time because a career or middle age adult comes in to buy a phone, and they are incensed that most phones have cameras and camcorders and mp3 downloads and picture messaging. Sprint PCS (my personal carrier) has gone back to the basics with a new line of Sanyo phones. One model has speaker phone with no external LCD, one has a 1 line external LCD with speaker phone, and one has an internal antenna and no external screen; while all of those are flip phones, to me they represent a fundamental shift in the marketing target of the cellular industry. The cameras and frills nailed the younger audience, and now they are attempting to increase their base to include the older generation. The shift has become such that phone service at home is becoming obsolete slowly but surely.
Sniper's Motto: One shot, One kill- If you run, you'll only die tired.
I'd like to see a Bluetooth earpiece that's "just a phone", with an "answer" button, and a speeddial scroller that says each name, then calls. With all the other functions, like PIM, internet, display, texting, etc, all in the phone carried in my pocket (or nerdbelt). Make it a stereo earset, and I'll feel like everything has converged in my ear, effortlessly. A pocket mainframe, with Bluetooth terminals and 3G WAN, is right where I want to be.
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make install -not war
Actually I find camera on my phone quite useful for quickly making images of notes or paper messages that I would have to copy by hand otherwise. I often use it in library saving time and money on making a xerocopy.
It is useless if you want to make some fine photos of course.
my gramdma has a "rufhilfe" button to wear like a watch that works within a 200m radius at home (connected via a base station, connected to pots like a modem). our attempts to give her a possibility of calling help when hiking or on mushroom foray failed because of to small buttons on cell phones.
unless a phone does not represent the habits she already has and is not really willing to change (why should she?), a menu more simple would not really help her. she never looks at the display if someone calls her, she's not interested in receiving or sending SMS. a perfect cell phone for elder people shold have extra quick dialing buttons, a small display (it isn't used anyway) and access to a configuration menu via some key combination they don't happen to fall into, after the grandchild or the elderly care nurse had configured it once for their needs.
it's not yet perfect, but i'm glad to see improvements.
The 1100 is cheap, small, reliable, nice-looking, easy to use - and an easy to replace, dirt cheap changeable cover protects the lcd display. Guess it's kinda old and low tech by now, but it's working really well, so no complains on the phone part of the phone.
The built-in games, however... Snake II is nothing special, and Space Impact must be the shittiest Moon Patrol wannabe ever. Tetris would have been much better. Still, a good phone.
Circumcision is child abuse.
What's worse is phones that allow you to dial the emergency number *through the keylock*, like my nokia 3310. Here's a big hint to mobile manufacturers -
.au is 000.
.au emergency operators thank you.
A KEYLOCK SHOULD LOCK THE KEYS!
For example, our emergency number in
I have accidently called 000 a few times with the phone keylocked in my pocket. It will happily ignore every other keypress except 0 - 0 - 0 (and 1 - 1 - 2, for you outsiders). What's even more annoying about this particular nokia phone is that when you press a key with it locked , it will *tell* you how to unlock it. "Press Unlock and then *", it displays, and once you press "Unlock", it displays "now press *". Seems pretty easy to follow.
And to top it all off, once you accidently press 000 in your pocket, the only other buttons active are either a small "c" (for cancel) button, or the bloody great big menu key, which helpfully defaults to "send". Guess which one gets pressed the most when it's crammed in a pocket.
Good design, nokia - real good. I'm sure all
[end rant]
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
http://www.tu-ka-kansai.co.jp/lineup/tu-kaS.html
Here is a Kyocera phone that is really designed for simplicity. It is marketed at the senior citizen age group in Japan who are fed up with all the bells and whistles of most phones.