Tomorrow's Cell Phones

bart_scriv writes "Businessweek looks at the future of the cell phone, starting with some existing button-free prototypes and moving on to more outlandish and whimsical designs. From the article: 'New technologies drive many of the new designs. One example: Synaptics ClearPad, a new type of touch screen that will become commercially available later this year. Unlike today's touch screens, which aren't entirely transparent and often not very sensitive — we've all had to endlessly tap one with a stylus to get a response — ClearPad is clear, so it can be used as a sensitive overlay to a cell-phone display. Another innovation likely to change the cell-phone's appearance: flexible displays. An electronic ink screen prototype, developed by Koninklijke Philips Electronics and startup E-Ink, is thin and flexible like paper so it can be worn wrapped around a cell phone. Users can unwrap it to view a map on a larger screen. Eventually, the display could be used to watch video.'"

Comments

Next generation iPod controls?

[techmuse]

There have long been rumors of a 6th generation iPod with a full screen display and a virtual click wheel. This invention might make that possible. The track pad could be an overlay on top of a display that spans the face of the entire iPod.

What I really want

[Phreakiture]

First?

I don't want a touch screen. In fact, that is the precise antithesis of what I want.

I want a cell phone that has few to no menus. I want to be able to operate it without looking, by feeling the keypad.

I don't care if the screen is even in colour, because I'm not going to be looking at it if I don't have to.

I also want to be able to connect it to my computer as a USB modem.

I have been asking for this for upwards of four years. Can I have that, please?

Re:What I really want

[generic-man]

So buy a cheap Motorola phone with real keys, use a standard USB cable (with the mini plug on the phone end) and Google for instructions about using it as a modem.

Here are search results pertaining to my old Motorola v180, which at the time I bought it was the second-cheapest phone T-Mobile sold.

Re:What I really want

[loose electron]

Except for the USB port modem, what you are describing is a cell phone from 5 years ago.

The modern cell phone has gone thru gobs and gobs of feature creep. The market wants more gadgetry, and if that is what sells, it will be provided.

I think the reason nobody has made (to my knowledge)the cell modem, is because they can cell (sell!) you a PCMCIA plug in and bill you for the modem service as an independent service. Verizon sucks $150 a month out of me instead of $70. You get the idea.

Re:What I really want

[patrixmyth]

I really want a device that drops the functions that aren't directly tied to remote communication, and adds features that make remote communication easier.

OUT-
Video
Camera
Ringtone Symphonies

IN-
Detailed Call History w/ Search
(ex: show me the number from the phone call I got on a thursday night last month after 11pm, not sure which week)

Intuitive Dial
(ex: I call my wife from work, and I call my office from home, when I open the phone it should be ready to guess which call I want to make based upon the time and location)

Security-
My phone is probably the ONLY place I want a biometric security device like a fingerprint scanner, and I want to be able to call the cell company and have them tell me the approximate place I left my phone (ie Corner of 9th and Main)

Energy-
I know it's not going to recharge the thing instantly, but why not toss a small solar cell on the back and let me dribble charge my phone by setting it on the dashboard?

Re:What I really want

[bunions]

Thank you.

Every time there's a cell phone thread, someone posts a variant of the grandparent post about how all they want is a simple phone that only makes calls and oh god why can't someone just make one. Apparently these people have never been to the damn cell phone store, because they make a jillion of those things and they're cheap as dirt.

Re:What I really want

[anothy]

the problem is that all these folks say "i just want a phone that does X, Y, and Z, and i don't care about A-W", but everybody's X, Y, and Z is different. the phone manufacturers can only produce so many models, and the stores can only stock so many; the market drives them to hit averages and exclude the peripheral. for example, the grandparent wanted a USB modem. well, that's not on most peoples XYZ list; most folks who want a USB modem also want a camera phone, so they only (not literally "only", but the focus, still) build ones that bundle the two. there's no build-to-order market, clearly.
i have a very small set of features i want, but i'm well outside the curve. actually what i want is very close to the firefly, except some form of data service (preferably bluetooth) is a must and it clearly should have some form of address book syncing via USB/bluetooth (programming it on that 5-key pad is stupid).

Buttons are "out"?

[The Dalex]

What's wrong with buttons? How would replicating the function of buttons on an easily-dirtied touch screen be an improvement? It really does sound like they are trying to find applications for technologies that are not really needed when trying to make a phone call.

Re:misfeature

[Anonymous Coward]

Talking, to a girl, at a club?! You must be new here.

Re:misfeature

[rovingeyes]

Call me an idiot but I'd expect that most important job of a cell phone is to make calls (and hopefully not drop them). I don't care if it can store roman numerals for crying out loud all I am asking is to let me make and receive calls, even indoors. Seems like that is a feature that no one is interested any more.

Not important to Slashdotters

[winkydink]

The only way a slashdotter gets a girls number is when it's written on the restraining order.

Re:Not important to Slashdotters

[Anonymous Coward]

The only way a slashdotter gets a girls number is when it's her MAC address

Re:Not important to Slashdotters

[Korin43]

Hex doesn't contain letters. It contains extra numbers A through F.

Helloooo?

[$RANDOMLUSER]

From TFA:

In mid-2005, the average person bought a new cell phone every 18 months. But by May of this year, the cycle had shortened to 17.6 months, according to a J.D. Power & Associates survey of 18,740 consumers. "Cell phones [are becoming] so increasingly personal, they tend to be a slave to fashion,"

Yah. I think we can all see how that statistical fashion trend is accelerating. :-/

Re:misfeature

[Keruo]

Making calls is assumed to work, atleast here in europe where we have basically 100% coverage.
I can't remember when I couldn't have made a call because the service was unreachable, or I was dropped from call due bad signal.

Re:Kids Cellphone

[jtaylor00]

They already have one. It's called Firefly Mobile

Re:Kids Cellphone

[Tower]

Something like the Firefly or the Migo, then?

Re:video on the cell phone

[Lumpy]

Just to let you know. They have the fewest dropped calls because they changed how the towers drop a call. it is not called dropped until the tower releases it, and towers are programmed to not release the call for 30 seconds or more after signal is lost, so you press end before it drops. I used to get credit for dropped calls on Cingular, I havent got one credit for 8 months now and a buddy that works in their engineering dept told me thay "tweaked" the software to not let calls drop.

The Ultimate Buttonless phone

[ZombieSquirrel]

Here's my idea. Instead of buttons they could have a small plastic wheel with holes along the circumference that represent the numbers 0-9. You stick your finger in the desired number hole and spin the wheel to a starting point. Release the wheel and it spins a back to it original position, inputing that number. No more buttons! Just one plastic wheel with finger holes in it. To hell with having to "button" all these phone numbers. I want to "wheel" all my phone numbers. I wonder if I should patent this?

Re: dropped calls

[RenderSeven]

Well, yes. Also note that towers may not be owned by the service provider, so the tower operator gets paid per connect minute. Calls generally should hand off to the next adjacent tower when traveling, but since the adjacent tower may not be owned by the same entity the software is 'tweaked' again to keep the call no matter what or however bad the signal may get, to maximize the billing to the carrier by the tower operator. This is why, the second your call is dropped, you look at your phone and have five bars of signal.

The software and business arrangements in the industry are fundamentally broken. The technology is pretty good, and the companies involved manage to screw it up through concerted effort.