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Accessorize Your Phone With Another Phone

Posted by timothy on from the excuse-me-someone-on-the-other-line dept.

Rambo Tribble writes "Ars Technica reports that HTC is introducing the Mini, a small, more convenient and feature-reduced phone to tie into your big, cumbersome smartphone. So, dumb is the new smart?" Don't forget a wristwatch phone to connect to the smaller phone.

19 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Do yourself a favor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do yourself a favor and buy a ruggedized outdoor phone. They last forever, have long battery life and unlike most smartphones are actually usable for making phone calls.

    1. Re:Do yourself a favor by clonehappy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have been a phone geek for as long as I could afford a cell phone. All I can say about smartphones is buy quality, not hype. There are perfectly fine smartphones that do it all and do it well (hint: they don't have an "i" or "Galaxy" in their name)...and since the company that makes the majority of them being acquired by Google, I think the landscape may soon be changing. That being said, I like having a fully-featured smartphone I don't have to curse at or feel like throwing on a daily basis while others continue to buy whatever device Madison Avenue shoves down their throats.

  2. Obligatory... by Niris · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yo dawg, I heard you like phones, so I put a phone with your phone, so you can use a phone while you use your phone.

  3. Start of something big. by senorpoco · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why stop there? Have a separate camera, a separate music player too. What a wonderful future that will be where instead of one device capable of doing lots of things we have lots of individual devices dedicated to a single purpose.

    1. Re:Start of something big. by obarthelemy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not so true about pictures.
      1- High-end smartphones (iP4s, iP5, GS3, GNote2...) take okay pictures. For a blog or email, or even regular-size prints, they are more then "good enough".
      2- smartphone video compares even more favorably to regular cameras
      3- and above all let you have something to take pictures *all the time*. My brother has a semi-expensive camera, and a shitty smartphone that even went through the wash once. The pictures we get of the nephews are more often take with his smartphone, because that's what he always has with him.

      Now, if you want to get arty or A4-size, sure, get a true camera. If you want to shoot un-arty slices of life for friends and family, no need.

      --
      The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
  4. Laugh by koan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I love how they keep calling them smart "phones", it's really a tracking device with facial recognition, vocal recognition, finger print recognition, your bank info, GPS, and has a "phone" included. (primarily for a constant data connection for the aforementioned attributes)
    It reminds me of the vases with clocks in them. "and it has a clock!!!"

    Phones indeed...

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Laugh by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, it'd be much easier to call them "tracking device with facial recognition, vocal recognition, finger print recognition, your bank info, GPS, and has a "phone" included". Good point.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    2. Re:Laugh by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The Brits probably do it best, "Mobile" is as amorphous as you can get.

      Well, in Germany we usually call it "Handy". That's even more amorphous, isn't it? :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  5. Re:Oh, the wrist phone is connected to the hand ph by bmo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's just go with the implants, ok?

    Yeah, so we really can't tell between the crazies and phone users.

    "WTF is that smell?"
    "Excuse me, I'm receiving a FAX."

    --
    BMO

  6. It's backwards by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't understand this. Why would you take your inconvenient, expensive to upgrade, battery-sucking tablet and put your SIM card inside it? Then bring a smaller device in case it's too inconvenient to take out your smartphone?

    Why not have a small phone with great battery life and core features, then just use it as a hotspot for a tablet? I was looking at wristwatch phones and none of them seem to do this. There's even the new Pebble http://getpebble.com/... which is a wristwatch UI for your fat phone.

    This whole trend is backwards. Put the phone on our wrists and let us carry an optional tablet, handset or earpiece.

    1. Re:It's backwards by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't understand this. Why would you take your inconvenient, expensive to upgrade, battery-sucking tablet and put your SIM card inside it? Then bring a smaller device in case it's too inconvenient to take out your smartphone?

      Why not have a small phone with great battery life and core features, then just use it as a hotspot for a tablet? I was looking at wristwatch phones and none of them seem to do this.

      A watch-sized 4G hotspot with a tiny watch battery would last about 30 minutes in real life.

      This device would do the trick I suppose, but with that baby strapped to your wrist -- it would look more like a court-mandated gps-tracker. And I doubt that's the fashion statement you'd want to go for.

  7. Yer Doing it Wrong by MrLogic17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If your smart phone is too cumbersome, the solution is NOT to get another gadget to add to the complexity.

    Seriously, some folks are so gadget happy with their oohh-aaahh features on their phones that they forget why they bought it.Speak with your wallet. Buy a phone that works for your needs, and is easy to use.

  8. Getting ridiculous by Arcady13 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If your phone is so big and cumbersome that you need a second phone that is easier to hold and easier to handle, then why wouldn't you just get a primary phone that fits those requirements in the first place?

    I see these people with their ridiculous 5 inch Android phones. They have them set to dim and turn off the screen almost immediately, because the battery life is so shitty. When they aren't swiping around on them like a crazy person, they are looking for power outlets to keep the stupidly big things charged up.

    Screw that. Get a phone with a normal size screen, a phone that fits in your pocket, a phone that has a battery that lasts for a whole day, a phone that doesn't need another phone as an accessory.

  9. A nugget with a menu of optional interfaces by ldbapp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What I want is a computing nugget that I can carry in my pocket (on a necklace, whatever), and then carry any number of different task-specific interfaces to it. You don't even have to carry them. Just walk up to your desk, and your keyboard and monitor connect and you have a desktop. Pick up your "smart-phone" interface, and go. Pick up your candybar interface and go. But all the computing and storage stays the same. It's your cloud in your pocket. Sell me that HTC.

  10. So what they're really selling is... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... an inconveniently large bluetooth headset?

  11. Re:Do they integrate? by Agent+ME · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's more like a bluetooth headset than a separate phone.

  12. Re:The biggest problem with Smart Phones seems to by icebike · · Score: 5, Informative

    This device is not a dumb phone on the same number. It is merely a peripheral I/O device, like a bluetooth headset. It can't make or receive calls unless it is close to the main phone/tablet.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  13. I bet this is immensely helpful... by pellik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... for calling your phone when you misplace it.

  14. Awesome new idea by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yo, I've got something that will blow your mind: a phone that stays at your house and can't go anywhere. It get amazing reception, and call quality and dropped calls are never really an issue. Pretty soon every teenager is going to want one. These things are BAD, and can be really big. Big is the new small, know what I'm saying? How come nobody ever thought of a phone before that is JUST a phone and doesn't play Angry Birds? And you'll never ever crack the screen. No giant Otterbox necessary (besides, it is already so big it doesn't need a box to make it huge, like an iPhone). Bonus: you'll never forget it or have it stolen at Starbucks, cause you can't use it there.

    --
    This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.