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'It's Time to End the Yearly Smartphone Launch Event' (vice.com)
Owen Williams, writing for Motherboard: Thursday, at a flashy event in New York, Samsung unveiled yet another phone: the Galaxy Note 9. Like you'd expect, it's rectangular, it has a screen, and it has a few cameras. While unveiling what it hopes will be the next hit, it unknowingly confirmed something we've all been wondering: the smartphone industry is out of ideas. Phones are officially boring: the only topic that's up for debate with the Galaxy Note 9 is the lack of the iconic notch found on the iPhone X, and that it has a headphone jack. The notch has been cloned by almost every phone maker out there, and the headphone jack is a commodity that's unfortunately dying. However, the fact that we're comparing phones with or without a chunk out of the screen or a hole for your headphones demonstrates just how stuck the industry is.
It's clear that there's nothing really to see here. Yeah, the Note is a big phone, and it has a larger battery too. It's in different colors, it's faster than last year, and it has wireless charging. Everything you see here is from a laundry list of features that other smartphone manufacturers also have, and the lack of differentiation becomes clearer every year. It's the pinnacle of technology, and it's a snooze-fest. This isn't exclusively a Samsung problem: Every manufacturer from Apple to Xiaomi faces the same predicament. The iPhone's release cycle that Apple trained the world to be accustomed to, with splashy yearly releases and million-dollar keynotes, is clearly coming to an end as consumers use their existing phones for longer every year.
It's clear that there's nothing really to see here. Yeah, the Note is a big phone, and it has a larger battery too. It's in different colors, it's faster than last year, and it has wireless charging. Everything you see here is from a laundry list of features that other smartphone manufacturers also have, and the lack of differentiation becomes clearer every year. It's the pinnacle of technology, and it's a snooze-fest. This isn't exclusively a Samsung problem: Every manufacturer from Apple to Xiaomi faces the same predicament. The iPhone's release cycle that Apple trained the world to be accustomed to, with splashy yearly releases and million-dollar keynotes, is clearly coming to an end as consumers use their existing phones for longer every year.
into the trash it goes
You could just ignore new product launches. If you're happy with your current phone, keep using it. The reason they do the yearly updates, is because people buy them.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Surprised it's lasted this long. The reason we're not seeing "innovation" is because a smartphone is a smartphone is a smartphone. We're pretty much topped out on what the useful purpose a smartphone is for. Everything else is just maybe nice to have, but not absolutely necessary. However, I'd like to see more advancement on the camera side. Like a real optical zoom in a reasonably sized package.
The smartphone manufacturers have been "out of ideas" for years. Since the advent of around the 801 snapdragon (and others) every year we get faster, more cameras/megapixels, flashy colors and overly expensive phones. But, as long as consumers are ignorant enough to continue year after year of dumping good phones for new ones, you think the manufactuers will change?
that's now how selling stuff works. You sell new stuff each year so people will buy it. You make it an event because that's what marketing is. You wouldn't say "It's time to end yearly car launch events" because cars are only seeing incremental improvements.
It's bad enough somebody wrote this let alone greenlit it.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I need to know when a phone gets a notch, or moves the clock to the left side of the status bar.
wow / so innovate / much phone
[insert picture of shiba inu]
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Awesome! Sound like the perfect phone for me ;-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
If your phone needs to be exciting, you need to get a life.
Can we get rid of yearly OS releases too?
I remember a day and age where things were released when they were done. The few bugs that remained were usually patched between then and the next major release of the operating system. Key words here- "major release"- as in, a proper upgrade that brings significant new features and an overhauled core.
Today, this yearly release cycle bullshit brings nothing but an absolute wasteland of half baked features (promptly abandoned by the time the next version is ready) and broken ass workflows. By the time most things are stable (but not all, because there isn't enouh time to fix everything anymore), the next yearly version is out with new features nobody wants or needs, and just enough changes to the underlying OS that all your important stuff breaks for 3-4 months while they (possibly) sort that stuff out. By the time everything is mostly working again, it's time to upgrade once more and the cycle repeats.
I have yet to see ANYTHING modern as stable as Windows 7 SP1 or Mac OS X 10.6.8. It's all fucking trash and you NEVER see a setup anymore that is totally rock solid and works as expected because people are already too busy working on next year's release and trying to figure out how to shoehorn emojis into more places where they do not belong.
There's nothing wrong with taking 3-4 years to finish a major OS release. This rolling release bleeding edge "let the users beta test it" bullshit needs to die. The only reason why I can see companies continuing with the way things are is because it's better for business- the more releases you can grunt out, the faster you can claim the hardware is outdated and get your users to replace it.
Honestly, a lot of the new features added to iPhones, even several versions back, were relatively small UNLESS they affected you directly. For example, they added phones with the ability to use the additional frequency licensed to T-Mobile. That was a big deal for those of us on T-Mobile ... important enough to justify reselling an existing phone and upgrading, even if nothing else had changed. (I mean, you're paying out all that money each month for the service, so any handset that lets you use more of the service's own capabilities is kind of important.) But anyone NOT on T-Mobile didn't care a bit.
At the end of the day? I carry my cellphone so people from my work can reach me, and for the conveniences it offers me like locating things using GPS mapping applications, or browsing the latest news while standing in line somewhere. It also doubles as my camera, whenever I didn't bring my big SLR along, and for talking to or texting my friends. Yearly updates really aren't necessary to keep doing any of those things with the device. Yearly updates were a sign of a marketplace that hadn't matured yet, so kept throwing more cool ideas out there left and right, as they realized things they forgot to add in previous phone releases.
I'm glad to see it all slowing down.
I think we're about to see a hasty retreat in the average smartphone price.
My girlfriend recently picked up a Nokia 6.1 - it's fast enough, it's got a good enough camera, a good enough screen, enough memory and it's a pretty good looking phone. It's $250. Certainly there are people who'll have some need for the top-of-the-line, but for the vast majority of people that's a perfectly good phone.
I really think that's the direction things will trend. The "entry level" phones will steadily advance and the "flagship" ones will argue about screen notches and stuff like that. I can't see myself buying another flagship one, and I'm sure i'm not alone.
Its time to end other people telling me what I can and cannot look at.
... you could try competing on price. Lower price, not higher price.
You could try competing on user freedom. "Hey, buy our phone, you can actually delete crap apps that you never wanted in the first place."
... bringing you every awesome and crazy idea out there, just to differentiate themselves.
Which are then being shunned because their processor isn't as fast, as if even as single person nowadays needed more speed in his phone, or could even tell. --.--
To each their own.
But I can put mine in the washing machine and it will survive.
And the *manufacturer* uploaded a disassembly and reassembly video.
The OS actually gets regular updates.
And it only cost $200, so I can have five for the price of a big brand one.
... that only works, and even then only for a small percentage of its user base, as long as ridiculously stupid things keep happening like companies successfully trying to sell people new smartphones (new cars, new TV's, you name it) all the time, without the new item being better than the last one, without that person really needing a new item, possibly without needing any such item at all.
(Personally, by the way, I've just prolonged my aging Motorola phone's life by paying a local repair shop a very modest sum for a battery replacement which my aging self didn't volunteer to do himself.)
This is a good thing. Hopefully this means we'll see more meaningful and interesting stories around here instead of endless boring stories on smartphones. Yeah, they're great. Can we get over that now and onto something more substantial?
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
...for cars and homes, I'm all for it. But the prices seem to keep going up and up. When will they become commodities?
How about releasing a smartphone with a removeable battery (include a spare with the cost of the phone), a headphone jack, and *gasp* a clamshell slide out keyboard!
What's old is new and what's new is old!
Good- I don't want any more of what is recently called "innovation." I am ready for CHOICE instead. Give me a SMALLER, not LARGER phone. I don't care if it is a bit thicker because I want better battery life and serviceability.... and would be happy to have a replaceable battery at that. Give me a headphone jack and no buttons or sensors on the back. Give me regular UPDATES to fix annoying bugs and security flaws.
If giving me that is "boring", the boring is great. Bring it on.
I don't want to lose all my connectors, nor have a huge phone, nor a fragile/ultra thin phone with poor battery life and impossible to service batteries, nor a 100MP camera, nor notches, nor stupid OS mods and forced bundled crapware, nor something that costs twice as much as it should.
They could add infrared cameras, laser distance sensors, air quality sensors, and maybe a better way to adapt accessories to the phone such as a low powered connected hardware keyboard designed and produced by the manufacture.
Personally I'd like a laser distance meter and a thermal camera, but I guess I could just buy a CAT S61.
the competition for the most expensive and exuberant model Apple or Samsung will produce. The market is now mature, and there is a bunch of makers, both of smartphones and accessories, which provide infinitely better value than either of the two above.
You want news and flamewars? Fuck off.
You want readers? Try to give them informative, fair and interesting reviews that are relevant to their needs.
Or fuck off and die.
I like it, but would probably rarely use the features so not really worth the price for me.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
You're missing the point about the release cycle. It has nothing to do with hardware, it's all about the renewal of phone contracts. Apple and others release new flashy hardware every 2 years, because that's roughly how long it takes to pay off your old phone on contract. The off-years are the phones that are boring upgrades, but will keep people who are off-cycle still feeling like they have something new.
This has nothing do do with new ideas or nifty screens - it's all about locking in the consumer (of all manufacturers) and keeping them purchasing year after (every other) year.
There's a huge amount of same-ness in the high end phones. They're all water-resistant (i.e. glued-together) glass and metal, 5.5 - 6.5" devices with 3 - 4000mA non-replaceable batteries and 4 or 6GB RAM. Maybe the OEM puts an SD card in one or maybe they do something extra with the cameras. Samsung or Apple might claim that their digital assistant is in some way better than Google or Amazon's. So maybe that's a feature. The huge phones sometimes come with a stylus. Yay.
Is anyone making a high end phone with a smaller form factor any more? With both removable battery and SD card? Can we get a high-spec phone with a plastic back so the damned thing doesn't feel like a hot brick if you happen to have the GPS on or be recording video? Maybe something with double-size optical sensor for improved camera quality?
I thought LG was on to something with the G- and V- line, as those devices had some modularity, but the current models are just like everything else now.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Surprised it's lasted this long. The reason we're not seeing "innovation" is because a smartphone is a smartphone is a smartphone. We're pretty much topped out on what the useful purpose a smartphone is for. Everything else is just maybe nice to have, but not absolutely necessary. However, I'd like to see more advancement on the camera side. Like a real optical zoom in a reasonably sized package.
You sound like a luddite... Not that I disagree, I'm a luddite too..
I used to think, who wants all this stuff on a cell phone? when the iPhone came along. I also thought "Who in their right mind would pay that much for a phone? But they sold and made money for their makers. I've decided that, if the manufacturers can sell these things doesn't mean I have to buy one.
Manufacturers will stop doing this yearly hype thing when it stops being profitable. Personally, I don't think innovation in smart phones is done quite yet so the yearly marketing blitz for the manufacturers will keep going. Even when they run out of new things to stuff in that handset, they will tweak things, up the model number and keep up the appearance (here's looking at you Apple and Samsung)..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Is this post cleverly disguised as a troll to get yet more comments going about a anddroid/iphone religious war?
LOL.. Yea, I miss the Emacs / vi debate too. Nothing lasts forever, but many things just have the names changed when they get recycled....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Same hardware as the S9+, cost more, launch 4 months late. You must love the pen.
At least this time they increased the battery size. But the display is almost the same size, not worth the difference.
At least they could have gone small, mid, large with S9, S9+, Note. Something like 5", 5.7", 6.4" would have offered more choice instead of their current large, larger, slightly larger 5.8", 6.2", 6.4".
Oh and please drop the curved edge screen. We get it, you are better than your competitors because you can make curved screens. It doesn't make it a worthwhile feature.
The head of WP development some years back mentioned how the phone business was then mature, that nothing else was happening. Hence the reason MS didn't want to invest too much - even after Ballmer bought Nokia. Basically, they said we're all using a glass slab with radios, cameras, and a touch screen. There has to be a radical shift to make things interesting again.
The question is, what will that shift be? Wearables? Implantables? A cool triangle shaped thingy on your red shirt?
I'm sure someone smarter than I is thinking of it, but we haven't noticed "it" yet.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
3D scanner is still missing.
The industry isn't out of ideas! They have no one to copy....Apple is out of ideas as of right now!
The main distinguishing feature for me in a smartphone is plain stock Android. No non-removable bloatware from marketing partners, and no manufacturer's customizations for the sake of customizations. I don't want to learn Samsung's way of doing the same thing, and then re-learn Motorola's way of doing the same thing, etc.. You can't avoid Google apps with Android, but I can avoid all other crap on my phone, so until Samsung/etc. can offer a decent phone that runs plain stock Android, I'm sticking with the Pixel line.
Also it has to support Project Fi. Fuck all cell phone carriers combined, the less I have to deal with any of them, the better.
Phones have been good enough for a while now - I don't feel any need at all to replace my Galaxy S5 Neo, as it's fast enough and got all the relevant features.
The one thing I would like is robustness - if you don't want to have to replace a cracked screen when it inevitably slips out of your hand, you need to keep it in a case, which adds bulk. Wouldn't it be better to design that sturdiness in and avoid the need for a case?
The PC industry had explosive growth in the 1990s, where a new PC came out every year that was massively more important than the next. If you had a PC that was 4 years old, forget about it being actually useful. I definitely recall going into businesses even in the early 2000s, and if they had a PC made in 1997, it was horribly slow and needed replacement.
But yet today a 5 year old PC is fine. It runs OK, and it might not be the speediest thing in the world, but for the most part it's usable and does everything you need. A 5 year old smartphone on the other hand is utter junk, won't run a modern OS, and a lot of software doesn't even run on the thing.
We've just started, within the last 2-3 year of entering a similar slowdown of the smartphone market that we saw with the PC market in the early 2000s. Right now we're at the point where a 2-3 year old smarphone is just fine. Eventually a 5 year old smartphone will be fine.
This is called a "mature product". It happens with everything. Then some new innovation happens, and everyone has to have it. Rinse, repeat.
The Motorola Z is the only interesting hardware out there. The shatter-proof screen and the mods make it a wildly under-rated device.
All of the rest are barely innovating on anything hardware wise.
Whatever happened to those infinitely variable liquid lenses that were supposed to give us wide-angle to zoom adjustments with no extra thickness? About 10 years ago they were just "a couple years away" from market.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Still waiting for a phablet (not a skinny phone stretched to be skinny and long to get the 6+ inch designation) with a headphone jack, user-replaceable battery, micro-SD card slot, and unlockable bootloader from a manufacturer with a proven history of quality construction. Until that happens the industry hasn't peaked. They've just finished giving us the options they're willing to give us.
It's interesting how you can date a TV episode or movie by the tech. My wife and I have been working our way through all twenty seasons of "Midsomer Murders" and have reached the point where their cars look more modern than ours (they have built in GPS touch screens) but they're still using flip-phones. I'm pretty sure that season was shot in 2008.
The phone form factor thing is fashion, not function. I wouldn't be surprised if the huge, razor thin, bezel-less phone looks as dated as 1970s bell-bottoms in a few years. They're not really comfortable to use or carry, and the thinness drives all kinds of design limitations.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Does Qi inductive charging work through ridged aluminum?
The smartphone lifecycle on the Android platform is based on engineered obsolescence.
Manufacturers purposely close source drivers and stop supporting OS upgrades on perfectly capable hardware in order to push you into the new lineups.
Imo governments should step in and charge these manufacturers for being anti competitive and force them to release everything required for 3rd party os development and require the manufacturers to officially support it.
Tired of the fanatical copying ideology. You do realize it is the component manufacturers that are creating these screens and coming up with different technologies to keep themselves in business as well? Hey, look what options we have for our new displays. We are cranking them out and everyone is going to be using them. Would you like to add them to your phone? Same thing with the camera module that has shown up on all the phones. You use the components available to you unless you are making them in house. The iPhone wasn't the first notched phone to hit the market and didn't invent the notch themselves. They are simply using component manufacturers options/advancements at their disposal. Most of this cut out screen technology actually came from the automotive sectors and then moved in on watches and smartphones.
Just unable, yet, to deliver
Folding screens, for instance, will transform the industry's high-end, but since they have priced current top of the line phones at the market limit (which is after all economics in action), and is there a market for folding-screen phones that makes them feasible? I dunno, I wanted one but the probable price makes me say 'wait'.
A truly capable desktop-able phone is within reach probably, though the software may not be. Samsung keeps trying.
Most of the innovation will be in software. When I can get our my car, disconnect the display from the dash screen, walk in my front door, and my phone takes a corner of my TV to announce 'it's home', voice commands move to my in-home assistant, and it all works without me having to say or do anything, then we're getting some innovation. Let it ignore my kids' voices, even better, and take only mine, perfect...
Software. Phone shape is a battle won.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
There's a shit ton of stuff that can still be added to a phone, but it's not "innovation", rather "improvement".
Some time in 2017, mobile phones have reached a point (in terms of power) where they can indeed be used as "pocket desktops". There's enough raw power in them to act as such. All we need is the required improvements, and most of those are software-based, rather than hardware-based.
A couple months ago I played with a Samsung S9+ for a couple of days, and when I needed to charge it I once plugged it into the USB type C of a Lenovo port replicator. It so happened that I had an USB stick connected to the port replicator, and I was amazed to find out the phone detected the port replicator, knew it had audio output capabilities and also detected the USB stick. It could read data off the USB stick but errored out when writing on it.
That got me thinking: the protocol worked. The hardware was compatible. The proper software implementation of all the possible features was missing. So there's the slew of opportunities right there: develop software to leverage your phone's power in the desktop application area. Yeah I sound like a marketing dude but I'm not, I just really look forward to see that happen. Unfortunately, politics and agendas might get in the way, but wouldn't it be cool to come hone, slam your phone into a dock and have a mouse, a keyboard and a couple monitors linked to that dock, complete with Internet access, LAN access, etc.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
If you are looking for a $1000 smartphone, take a look at the CAT S61 SMARTPHONE:. Laser rangefinder, check. Infrared camera, check, FM radio, check. Audio jack, check. 4500mAh battery, check.
...but wouldn't it be cool to come hone, slam your phone into a dock and have a mouse, a keyboard and a couple monitors linked to that dock, complete with Internet access, LAN access, etc.
Motorola did that about 8 years ago, but it never really took off. With the CPU and RAM improvements since then, I wonder if anyone will give it another shot.
"... as consumers use their existing phones for longer every year."
Perhaps you mean some consumers use their phones longer.
While others still upgrade annually (or even more often).
Surprised it's lasted this long. The reason we're not seeing "innovation" is because a smartphone is a smartphone is a smartphone. We're pretty much topped out on what the useful purpose a smartphone is for. Everything else is just maybe nice to have, but not absolutely necessary.
However, I'd like to see more advancement on the camera side. Like a real optical zoom in a reasonably sized package.
I can't wait for the innovation of the thicker phone. Give me a thicker phone- give me more bezel... if it means you can fit a battery in it that actually lasts a full 24 hours- give me a nice thick bezzelly phone WITH A REAL CHUNKING HUNKING POWERFUL BATTERY.
That's the innovation I want.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
It was too early. I still vividly remember the Dell Streak. It was beautiful (for that time). Sadly, it was way ahead of its time, Android 1.6 was full of bugs and issues and the phone, despite its amazing hardware capabilities (for that time), suffered from "the market is not ripe enough" disease.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
iphones have apps to measure room dimensions
Reminds me of a story from a few years back. Homeless guy in San Francisco was sleeping in the doorway to an Apple store. People walking by assumed that it was the beginning of a line for a product release and stood in a line behind him.
Have gnu, will travel.
haha! that is hilarious, I am also working through the same show and noticed the same things!
While the 2-year contract is gone by name it was replaced with monthly device payment plans that happen to last, you guessed it, 2 years. Thus, having an annual phone release around the time that the vast majority of smartphone owners will be paying off their device is beneficial to the phone manufacturers. It also coincides with back-to-school when many young people will blow their college loans on needless tech gadgets, graduates from school start accumulating savings from their new jobs, and people run up their credit cards for the holiday shopping season.
If only someone (*cough* microsoft) did this with a modern smartphone (*cough* lumia) running a modern OS (*cough* windows 10).
https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...
Ahem. Yeah, sorry something caught in my throat there.
I know we all hate Microsoft and Windows here, but I think their phone ecosystem was abandoned / ignored for little reason other than spite and possibly ignorance.
Is this post cleverly disguised as a troll to get yet more comments going about a anddroid/iphone religious war?
LOL.. Yea, I miss the Emacs / vi debate too. Nothing lasts forever, but many things just have the names changed when they get recycled....
Ya, but at least vi died a well deserved death of obscurity.
You know what I really miss on Slashdot? John C. Dvorak articles. Here's one: The Traditional Laptop is Dead
Does Owen Williams own a cell phone company? Does he know better than Samsung how to run Samsung? Does he have valid market data that shows that launches are an expense that don't generate additional sales?
Because it seems like he's just some dope talking out his ass on the Internet and Slashdot is wasting our time with uninformed opinion.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
"Every manufacturer from Apple to Xiaomi"
Why leave off Zync Global?
There are still things I'm waiting for smartphones to do, so it's not like the companies can just stop releasing new smartphones and keep everyone happily on the Galaxy S4 for 8 years at a stretch. Until they've solved the things I want out of my smartphone, there's still work to do. Let me see...
Foremost has to be battery life. I'd like to see smartphones with much better (week-long at least) battery life, even while actually using it (most high figures for battery life are if you keep it in your pocket).
I'd like to see the return of front-facing fingerprint readers, or at least put them somewhere more accessible like on the power switch. I'm not cool with the "reach-around" maneuver on modern Samsung phones, and I end up having to turn the phone over and unlock it with two hands. Unacceptable. Face ID and the like aren't reliable for me because I wear glasses and I'd rather not have to take them off each time I want to unlock my phone -- that's even less convenient than tapping in the PIN.
"But Apple has that with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus", you may say. But Apple doesn't have something I really, really want from the Note line: the S Pen. Give me a front-facing fingerprint reader ANNNND an S Pen on the same unit, please, without it being hopelessly outdated like the Note 4. (The Note 4 has many other problems, too, like an extremely inefficient and power-hungry CPU, pathetically slow NAND by current standards, and a very inaccurate and finnicky fingerprint reader.)
Also in my list of things Apple doesn't have that Samsung does -- that I want -- is the ability to containerize apps. Putting an app in a space where it only has access to the data and apps within that container is truly an amazing feature for people who have separate work and home lives, and even multiple home lives. Multiple Steam accounts, Discord accounts, Skype accounts? No problem; Samsung's container feature can do that. Apple is behind on this.
But Samsung isn't ahead in every category. Apple's TV app is far better and easier to use than anything Samsung has to offer, because you don't have to keep logging into 9 bajillion content-serving apps to watch videos. You just search for what you want and play it, oftentimes without knowing or caring which app is serving you the content.
Still more things that Apple is legitimately better at? Oh, yes. The Apple Watch is possibly my favorite device of all the smart devices I've ever owned. I've tried the competition; the Gear S3 Frontier doesn't hold a candle to it. In terms of ease of use and features, the Apple Watch is far more convenient than anything else (I have the Series 3 with LTE). Why, you ask? Well, being able to send and receive calls and SMS from your wrist is amazing. With prominent notifications, you can get a vibration strong enough to wake you from sleep when your alarm goes off, or if you receive an email from someone important, or even a text message. You can of course customize the notifications so you don't get startled awake for something trivial like someone uploading a Youtube video, but it is fantastic for people who need to be "on-call" on their job, or for family members who may need to reach you.
Apple Watch, continued: I can also tell someone what the weather is like (and what it'll be in hourly increments for the rest of the day) within about 3 seconds, even if my phone is in my pocket, without reaching for it, unlocking it and doing a bunch of tapping to get to the weather app. Just ask me anytime what the weather's like, what's the temperature, etc. and I'll tell you without so much as a pause in the conversation.
More Apple Watch: It also continuously monitors my heart rate and rhythm. I subscribe to the Stanford heart study, which is an app that will actually notify me if it detects an arrhythmia. The device may not be a piece of "certified health equipment", nor is it a pacemaker, but it's better than nothing for people who are on that line where they might have a family history of heart conditions, but haven't been
Oh the yearly beta testing of new smartphones. I'm fine with y'all doing that, I don't pay any attention, but appreciate your efforts when I buy new 3-4 year old phones.
wouldn't it be cool to come hone, slam your phone into a dock and have a mouse, a keyboard and a couple monitors linked to that dock, complete with Internet access, LAN access, etc.
Asus have a couple of different options in that space. E.g.
https://www.asus.com/uk/Phone/...
The Mobile Desktop Dock gives ROG Phone unprecedented expansion capabilities. Connect to an external 4K UHD monitor, mouse and keyboard while using ROG Phone as an auxiliary display, hook up to a wired gigabit LAN and use the S/PDIF output to drive your 5.1-channel surround-sound system.
Time for a Smartphone with a SD Card slot and a User-Replaceable Battery.
Or how about some battery solution that can be fully recharged in 5 seconds by putting a pair of holes on the
phone to attach tubes to for flushing out the battery with a fresh squirt of fully ionized electrolyte liquid?
For fun, I once plugged a floppy drive into a Samsung S7.
It worked fine. And why wouldn't it? It's just a USB host device running Linux, with a mostly Android userspace. It can do all of the things a normal computer can do.
But nobody wants them to do these things.
Two reasons: A capable computer is a very inexpensive thing and using it never takes over your communications device.
And by the time you build a dock with a screen and a keyboard and a bunch of ports, you've got all of the inconveniences of a laptop. One might as well get a laptop.
Pocket computers are awesome little portable devices, and are best used as exactly that.
Kid-proof tablet..
I for one have a very old phone and am waiting with anticipation for the new models this year - knowing it is silly to buy today since the price for "last years" model is going down soon. However, I'm not sure I'll make it to the finish line as the battery is expanding and has literally pushed the glass off the front - it's holding on by rubber band and light leaks out the sides.
Innovation is possible. We're all jadded - we want something way-out there, space aged, something we can't imagine what it is. All of phones do look like phones. I thought that the Apple Watch would help pave a drastic new future (Dick Tracy-esque). I too want a smaller phone - having a little screen on my arm that does 80% of what I need my phone for felt wonderful. Just like my iPad has delivered me the "post-PC" era, I thought the watch would deliver a "post-Phone" era.
But the phone wasn't waterproof (nor is the watch I have). So i can't "forget about it" and jump in the lake. It isn't integrated into "my life" I still need to find a place for these ever growing phones to be put. I used to work with a woman who couldn't push her phone into the pockets on her jeans - the phone stuck out half way ... because that's the way women's pants are made. Now men are starting to have the same problem.
I feel like it's the PC era -- bigger Boxes, bigger monitors --- finally the iPad came along and shut all that down. Now the phone needs to shrink.
--Give me a multi-touch holographic keyboard and a bigger display for SSH and X window compatibility, and you'll have my interest. Till then I'm stuck with my Wifi-only Nexus 7 and a separate Bluetooth keyboard.
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== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
[...]wouldn't it be cool to come hone, slam your phone into a dock and have a mouse, a keyboard and a couple monitors linked to that dock, complete with Internet access, LAN access, etc.
Yes, it would be cool, but how do i use my phone then? Do i need another phone-form factor device that wirelessly connects to my phone? :)
How would we keep this wonderful growth area?/p?
Next year's phone* will have 5G, without which social life will not be worth living.
* maybe the year after.
I don't hate it at all, as a matter of fact I am saddened by its demise (to be, but still).
As I stated earlier, the problem is nor the hardware, neither the concept. The problem is the software.
Microsoft are (were?) one step forward compared to Apple and Google from a platform integration perspective, but three steps back from an ecosystem health perspective. With a horrible "Store" (this is an entire story of its own), lack of vision (again, software-point-of-view) and murdering of Nokia (rather than collaborating with them), they failed spectacularly at providing a viable alternative to Apple App Store of Google Play.
I am an user of their PC based Microsoft Store. It sucks. Microsoft knew they were behind, so they took desperate (and ineffective) measures. As such, the Store is full of crap - to the brim! My kids use it to download and play games, and the vast majority of those games are utter shit. They're just money grabbers - if the underlying ads platform worked, but it rarely does. Microsoft approved ANYTHING published to their store, hoping to offer "variety", and variety they did offer, but the kind nobody wants. It's also worth mentioning that their own Store application on the PC stops working, with errors ranging from hilarious to infuriating. I had to fully delete and re-add my kids' account on my PC twice because the Store stopped working.
Average Joe doesn't have "spite" or "ignorance". They just take whatever's available and they like. It so happened that, for PC, they collectively chose Windows (because it was there when they needed it), but, for mobile devices, they chose Apple or Google because those were there when they were needed. In the meantime Microsoft had Windows CE (I used both 5.0 and 6.0) which sucked hard compared to iOS or Android, despite having been available first.
Sorry but the mobile battle was lost by Microsoft, through Microsoft.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
so I wonder, if the author and publishers claim the Samsung launch is a "snoozefest" but then piddles like an excited puppy at any new iPhone news? same products essentially, same product evolutions, same "lack of new ideas" but one gets front page coverage without criticism, and the others, well, there's always something negative to add
Ya, lasers. I could use some good thermal lasers in my phone.
...and, with all accessories, costs more than a gaming PC and a good, modern smartphone... combined! The phone itself costs $1300+ and all accessories cost around $700+ more. See, this is another problem: the alternative is way more expensive than the status quo.
More issues with it: requires a complex, overly expensive and specific dock to work. Would most likely not work with any of the existing USB-C port replicators out there.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I think smartphones have alot more innovation in them but just not in their current candybar form factor. If battery tech and materials tech can advance we'll see an evolution of the mobile market with a slew of new ideas coming to the forefront
How do you use it when driving? Hands-free had existed for a long time.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Don't feel bad, it's not like this is a tech site.
Let's assume Samsung will plan no new Galaxy phones for the next year. Then, it would clearly make sense for their competitors, like say LG or Huawei, to produce a device for the next year that one ups the current Galaxy phone by offering only a tiny bit more of storage while upgrading the SoC from Snapdragon 845 to 846. Then their marketing people will milk these features endlessly convincing people that 846 is significantly greater than 845.
But but, the yearly release cycle is necessary to charge those ridiculous prices on the flagship products. If S8 was Samsung's top mainstream phone today, would they still charge 650USD for it? People would rightfully demand a discount for a +1 year old product. In fact the current price right now is 500USD on Samsung.com. But Samsung is able to sell the S9 for much higher price because 9 is greater than 8.
I would take 20 broken down non-running 1985 Corollas to go along with the 2 I still drive, over a single 2018 Corolla fully loaded and free. Cars are not the same as they were. I can get $15k for my Corolla today, probably more. Nobody is gonna get 15k for their 2018 Corolla in 33 years.
but wouldn't it be cool to come hone, slam your phone into a dock and have a mouse, a keyboard and a couple monitors linked to that dock, complete with Internet access, LAN access, etc.
No, not really. A smartphone's only good for its portability. Compared to any modern desktop its power is diminutive. Why limit myself in computing resources when I'm setting at home at a desk and have no real restrictions.
The only benefit to possibly be had is centralized data availability, but cloud storage has already achieved that. I can access the same Google Docs on my phone, desktop, laptop, etc.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
You have a very high bar for "interesting" or you just don't know...
BEHOLD THE CATERPILLAR
In theory the docking station will work with multiple phone generations.
In practice I'd be chary of that. I agree, this doesn't seem a sensible option to me either. But it exists (and the non-gaming Asus alternatives are cheaper).
The sky is falling, cried Chicken Little. But it was really just an acorn, and the sky did not fall. The PC industry went on for two decades before it finally got boring enough to knock PCMag off the shelves and put Comdex out of business. The Smartphone industry has another decade to go. The auto industry announces each new year of each model like clockwork, and somebody laps that up. I can't say I never did.
I, for one, do want to know about how this year's phone does more on less battery, or actually thinks for itself, or has some wizbang new functionality I am supposed to be unable to live without or whatever, so keep em coming thanks.
Can you say clickbait.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
That's the innovation I want.
Amen. Power. is my killer app. I wouldn't mind the phone being twice as thick if it meant I'd have that much more power.
This is an ex-parrot!
We're pretty much topped out on what the useful purpose a smartphone is for.
I would like a modular, repairable, thicker device with smaller screen, less "features", less crapware, replaceable battery, headphone jack and an operating system I fully control. Especially the last part. Unfortunately that goes against current party agenda.
Ability to properly control external devices would be nice too. Instead of cramming as much shit into thinnest, widest, hottest and most expensive possible form factor for no fucking good reason other than "fuck you, that's why".
No, not really. A smartphone's only good for its portability. Compared to any modern desktop its power is diminutive.
For you or me, yes. For most people, a smartphone's computing power is enough. Most people only consume media and socialize online, and most of the rest perform light work from a computing power perspective (webapps). I don't include gamers here.
I believe smartphones + docks could successfully replace the laptops most people are using in their homes.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
vi just sunk to the level of obscurity that thels command also suffers from. It's ther, it's used by those who are clueful and don't need to power up an aircraft carrier to go fishing.
Until you try to load a modern day website ('webapp') and a laundry list of invoked javascript makes quick work of the SoC inside the phone. People don't constantly need a lot of CPU power but they sure do hate waiting for buzzfeed to open.
Apparently what you want is a Google Pixel XL (first generation), because that's what you just described. I have one, and can confirm that the battery will go about 40 hours with no/light use and 16-30 on moderate use. With very heavy use, maybe 10, but I'm talking five or six hours of watching youtube or whatever. No numbers on games (I don't play phone games).
I haven't done any research but you can probably get a cheaper equivalent of the Pixel XL for much less than the $800 this thing was, just over a year ago. Or buy used from an upgrading fanboy or something.
Or, y'know, buy a phone case with an integrated battery. Whatever.
I get it. Covering an industry that is entering maturity after a number of years of breakneck innovation must be frustrating. This is hard on phone manufacturers too, because coming up with a product that people are willing to buy is becoming much more challenging.
But it just isn't possible for innovation to continue at that pace for terribly long. Especially not when we're approaching limits imposed by physics for processor designs. Maturity in the industry was always inevitable. Innovation will continue, but it will not be nearly as fast as it has been over the last few years. Get used to it.
Give me a phone that is twice as thick as they currently are, extra mass is battery and a goddamned hardware keyboard. I'll buy that shit right up.
You guys are way behind the 8 ball. DEX is now built into the Galaxy 9’s. Samsung is stealing the desktop right under everyones noses.
What about a phone with decent specs *and* a sliding keyboard like the N900, and that does not cost you your other eye?
-- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
...they'll keep going with the annual announcements.
You say out of ideas I say a mature market. PCs, TVs, speakers, automobiles (except electric is a novelty) haven't changed in years. In a mature market everyone is selling the same product and buyers choose based on price, terms and conditions (e.g. credit) and trivialities like color.
The real irony is most people buy that and put it into a thick case so its not as light and droppable. Or add one of those grip knobs I see a lot of people using these days.
It's not that they can't it's that they don't want to. If they can't force you to charge it 1-2x a day, you can't become fed up with it fading before you get home for the day and go out and buy a new one.
Google reviews for doogee BL9000. Its what you want.
Im eyeing the s60 myself.
As a matter of fact, the webapps always load their mobile version if they detect one. You have to specifically request the Desktop Site” variant if you need it for some reason.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I enjoy that too. Friends took place during the original cell phone boom. At the beginning of the series nobody had cell phones and they just started showing up throughout until everybody had them by the end.
in 24, Jack Bauer had a flip phone (with an annoying ring tone). Did he get a smartphone by the end? I didn't watch the whole series.
In Stargate: SG-1 they got FTL drives by the end of the series. OK that's a little different.
Luddites opposed new technology that replaced skilled workers with lower paid unskilled workers. What does that have to do with Apple removing ports and fucking up the screen and charging a grand to absolute mugs who have to be seen with the latest fashion accessory.
The thing is that while mobile chipsets can provide acceptable desktop performance, getting equivalent performance from a desktop chip doesn't cost that much, so you aren't really saving a lot by using your phone as a desktop.
Personally I'd rather have 2 fully functional devices, instead of using deciding whether to have my phone be a phone or a desktop.
Here you go, I'm not sure you could wear the battery out on this thing in a day if you tried.
I bought the Ouikel K5000 earlier this, and am fairly happy with it, 5000mAh battery, no crapware, unfortunately no updates either, but it does last all day even with moderately heavy usage, on a normal day I have 60-70% battery left in the evening, I never feel to need to charge it during the daytime. My only real complaints about it is that it is too easy to break the screen, as there aren't any good cases for it (ones that provide a lip around the screen to protect it when dropped) and the screen is a PITA to replace (you start by prying off the back cover which is stuck on with copious amounts of glue, then pretty much dismantle the whole phone).
Given my generally positive experience with the K5000 from Oukitel, I would be fairly happy taking a chance on another phone from them.
Please bring back 3.5 mm jack & removable battery. These things are super useful, believe it or not.
if it means you can fit a battery in it that actually lasts a full 24 hours
The issue, I believe, is not the physical size of the battery, or its mAh rating. It's the 'smart' part of 'smartphone'.
Those things just eat a lot of power, even when screen is off and completely idle.
I don't know if it's a hardware issue or a software issue, but someone ought to tackle it already.
Is this post cleverly disguised as a troll to get yet more comments going about a anddroid/iphone religious war?
LOL.. Yea, I miss the Emacs / vi debate too. Nothing lasts forever, but many things just have the names changed when they get recycled....
Ya, but at least vi died a well deserved death of obscurity.
You know what I really miss on Slashdot? John C. Dvorak articles. Here's one: The Traditional Laptop is Dead
So you use Emacs? Good luck sir... Personally, I use VI because it's usually ported to Unix distributions right away, with emacs a close second. Now get off my lawn!
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I have a Redmi Note 4 which lasts for days. If battery endurance is important to you you should check this out: https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3