Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
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.
Talking, to a girl, at a club?! You must be new here.
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?
"Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey?"- Peter Gabriel
They already have one. It's called Firefly Mobile
The only way a slashdotter gets a girls number is when it's her MAC address
Hex doesn't contain letters. It contains extra numbers A through F.
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.