Smartphone report: August 2012

[GRG55]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I'm going to go on a rant here that is only tangentially related to this thread , so feel free to ignore it:
[RANT]
The world is moving towards towards a broadcast only television model of computing. The IPad Iphone and dozens of similar Android and other products are being made without keyboards. In essence, the public is being given hand held computers more powerful than the supercomputers of yesteryear and at the same time being denied the power to alter them or create any original work. Try typing a novel on an Ipad for a fun creative experience if you don't believe me. The new windows 8 is specifically geared towards touchpad use and does not even have an easy way to shut off the machine. All computing is being moved in this direction. The Android platform despite being based on the free and open-source Linux kernel is very much a closed platform. For instance my phone, the droid2 will not run any kernel not digitally signed by motorola. Far from being the exception this is becoming the rule in the computer world. New versions of Microsoft Windows 8 that run on the ARM platform will prevent any software not approved by Microsoft from running. This has long been the case in the Iphone world where only Apple approved applications can be installed on the phone ( or the Ipad). Jobs specifically denied the ability to run flash on Iphone in part because it permitted non-approved and even user generated content from running on the phone. Even when devices arrive with keyboards, it is normal to find that no programming language is provided with the machine. Curious users cannot even make their own application if they want to. A "hello world" is out of the question. A generation of young people have grown up that only know how to treat the computer as a glorified TV. As a result nobody protests when more and more capabilities are removed. The kicker here is that increasingly, the entire world and everything we touch IS a computer. Your car is a computer with wheels. take the computer out and it is just so much dead metal. I had a Honda Fit. I came out of a theater and the gas cap was missing one evening. The check engine light came on so I took it down to the dealership to get it serviced. They use a machine there to access the on-board computer to clear the check engine light. I would like to be able to fix my own car, so I ask if I can buy one of these machines. The machine is $5000, but the kicker is that it is only available to Honda certified technicians. I am not permitted to fix my own car! This is happening in every walk of life and every corner of our existence. Far from being indignant and rebellious the public loves this. They love having their apps available only from the apple store. They love having their car only repairable by Honda.

Read this astonishing article for a total head slam.
http://joelrunyon.com/two3/an-unexpected-ass-kicking
[/RANT]

Why would you think that the majority of consumers want to do what you do? Frankly, if the computers in my personal vehicle were as difficult to use and as unreliable as my personal computer (which has a keyboard) I would demand that they be removed. I just want to turn the key and drive away. I expect the computers to manage the transmission shift points, engine fuel optimization and so forth without any effort or intervention on my part...I do not want to have to relearn how to use the vehicle or its computers with every software upgrade, as I have to suffer at the hands of Microsoft with my PC. And having the computers diagnose what's wrong with the car when something fails seems rather elegant imo, especially since it can look back over a long history of stored data points of every key indicator. The alternative is spending many hours and many $ while a mechanic runs manual diagnostics based on a snapshot (ever had your mechanic try to diagnose an intermittent problem back in "the good ol' days"?).

The makers of PCs could learn something from the auto industry is seems to me...

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

Why would you think that the majority of consumers want to do what you do? Frankly, if the computers in my personal vehicle were as difficult to use and as unreliable as my personal computer (which has a keyboard) I would demand that they be removed. I just want to turn the key and drive away. I expect the computers to manage the transmission shift points, engine fuel optimization and so forth without any effort or intervention on my part...I do not want to have to relearn how to use the vehicle or its computers with every software upgrade, as I have to suffer at the hands of Microsoft with my PC. And having the computers diagnose what's wrong with the car when something fails seems rather elegant imo, especially since it can look back over a long history of stored data points of every key indicator. The alternative is spending many hours and many $ while a mechanic runs manual diagnostics based on a snapshot (ever had your mechanic try to diagnose an intermittent problem back in "the good ol' days"?).

The makers of PCs could learn something from the auto industry is seems to me...

My cousin runs a company that modifies car computers. From all reports they work better than the factory original. He has a degree in marketing. I asked him about it, and he told me it was easy. Check it out:
http://hondata.com/

As for the in car control system, it most likely runs windows:
https://www.microsoft.com/windowsemb...omotive-7.aspx
that would be the same one that blue screened on my yesterday two times.

And just for good measure, go down to the dealership and try to "demand that the computer be removed". I cannot even get a car without power windows. If the battery dies I cannot get the windows open.

But I hear what you are saying. Only an idiot would want to clear a check engine light on the dash or adjust the brakes. Waste of time really. I'm A Very Busy Man and I cannot be expected to know how to use something as complicated as Microsoft Windows. And come to think of it, maybe it should be illegal to even try! You could be a danger to yourself and others. Why, your car might come with a breathalyzer. You could be tampering with evidence! You should be locked up!

[jpatter666]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I'd say that if Apple is able to make the transition into being both a mass market consumer product provider AND a high end sexy tech toy for the digerati - it will be the first time ever they've been able to do so successfully.



The bubble I refer to is Apple's market cap. Apple has a forward P/E of 11.8 and a trailing P/E of 14.5

This is justified so long as Apple continues to grow explosively, and the annual number of iPhones sold has followed that trend.

However, should that trend even just level off, the impact on the market cap would be traumatic.

I'm making no comments on the product itself - they have good and bad points, though the reality is that the differentiation between iPhones and their high end competitors is shrinking daily. That same dynamic did not end well for Apple in their salad PC days...

I agree. My wife insisted on an iPhone and I got her a very nice one. For a few months she was all about downloading new apps and using them.

Six months later? Calls, calendar, email, the occasional browsing -- and a few basic apps, like Yelp and Facebook all of which I have on my $40 Android.

I'll admit to never really understanding the cult of Apple.

Apple does deserve a lot of credit -- they've been one of the most innovative and creative companies of the past decade. They've (rediscovered) a market for high-quality goods in a world full of low-quality crap. But no company stays on top forever and Apple is priced that way IMO. There is *no* margin for error.

[doom&gloom]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

As a previous owner of a Windows Phone (Samsung Focus), which I personally thought was an EXCELLENT combo of hardware and software, I became an iPhone user. Since I like to accumulate podcasts and music, I 'paid up' for an unlocked biggest, baddest version of the 4s out there so I could use it in South America. I felt the hemmorroid as I paid for it, but rationalized it by knowing I change phones about every 4 years, so I should be okay for a while.

WHY did I make the change? Convenience of apps and podcasts, pure and simple. I wanted to be able to just download things without a lot of gyrations to get them, and there are some apps in the iTunes store that I could not get on the Windows platform.

If MS/Google/??? put the effort into porting the top 1000 apps and podcasts onto their respective platforms I believe they would take quite a bit of wind out of Apple's sails. This continual focus on hardware and OS, while important, misses the critical thing that makes an iPhone or iPad so popular -- content.

[flintlock]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I agree. My wife insisted on an iPhone and I got her a very nice one. For a few months she was all about downloading new apps and using them.

Six months later? Calls, calendar, email, the occasional browsing -- and a few basic apps, like Yelp and Facebook all of which I have on my $40 Android.

I'll admit to never really understanding the cult of Apple.

Apple does deserve a lot of credit -- they've been one of the most innovative and creative companies of the past decade. They've (rediscovered) a market for high-quality goods in a world full of low-quality crap. But no company stays on top forever and Apple is priced that way IMO. There is *no* margin for error.

Lol. I was the same about downloading apps. Now I just maybe use seven or eight. Most free. I do use some neat electrical formula apps and others that really make my life easier. I like Apple for the good build quality. Ease of use. Good service and attitude towards the customer. But I'm sure I'd be happy with Android too. We really take this stuff for granted today. Pretty amazing.

[Sutter Cane]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I'm not sure I want to respond point by point to a reply to an extended rant, but A few ideas:
Steve Jobs and Wozniak produced one of the first mass market home computers, the apple 2. The only way to "use" the apple 2 was to program it. Even loading a program that someone else wrote required issuing a command in the BASIC programming language ( little known fact : it was written by Microsoft ). Steve Jobs, after stealing the design for the Macintosh from Xerox, decided he wanted the machine to be entirely usable by the mouse without a keyboard. I remember reading a computer magazine at the time ( I must have been all of 10 years old) that a reviewer of the machine had a defective keyboard, so he stopped using it, and completed the review using only the mouse. This was a design goal from the minute that Jobs got into a position to do so. He wanted to remove the ability of the public to interact with the machine in the same way that a "administrator" or a "programmer" could. He set out to produce a TV from the get go.

Most of what you are saying above sounds like it might have come from Mr Jobs. "Users just want to listen to music and take snapshots", "only an expert should be messing with the computer in the car", "I don't want to mess with the computer I have Important Work To Do", and last but not least "There are SDKs out there... I cannot think of any at the moment, but there must be some ... only they will not work with the most popular hand held computer or the most popular tablet"

If you didn't have time to read the link I provided perhaps you will find time to read this one:
http://www.loper-os.org/?p=316

Your link reminds me of an article I read upon the release of the ipad:

Future Shock

I'll have more to say on the iPad later but one can't help being struck by the volume and vehemence of apparently technologically sophisticated people inveighing against the iPad.

Some are trying to dismiss these ravings by comparing them to certain comments made after the launch of the iPod in 2001: "No wireless. Les space than a Nomad. Lame.". I fear this January-26th thinking misses the point.

What you're seeing in the industry's reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.

For years we've all held to the belief that computing had to be made simpler for the 'average person'. I find it difficult to come to any conclusion other than that we have totally failed in this effort.

Secretly, I suspect, we technologists quite liked the idea that Normals would be dependent on us for our technological shamanism. Those incantations that only we can perform to heal their computers, those oracular proclamations that we make over the future and the blessings we bestow on purchasing choices.

The tech industry will be in paroxysms of future shock for some time to come. Many will cling to their January-26th notions of what it takes to get "real work" done; cling to the idea that the computer-based part of it is the "real work".

It's not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table's order, designing the house and organising the party.

Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done.

If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people's perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with. I find it hard to believe that the loss of background processing isn't a price worth paying to have a computer that isn't frightening anymore.

The comments on this blog post are interesting, especially in light of the success of the ipad in the intervening two years since it was originally posted. Some samples:

Why oh why do all the fanboys feel they have to write up a blog article about the iPad? It's not groundbreaking, there have been many tablets before it. It's a giant iPhone. Period. It's not revolutionary. Get over it, you're all disappointed that even some of the old fanboys have written of their disappointment.

I've not seen one person, techie or Normal, that thinks the iPad is a good idea. Nobody wants a limited functionality system like the iTouch/phone that is the size of a full function system. In what universe does that make sense?

I think you have been suckered on this one. The real arguments against the iPad aren't the technological arguments, they're the marketing arguments, the customer service arguments, the profitability arguments. Apple makes products for people who like shiny things. The surface aesthetics are so good that people overlook the fact that the functionality is limited. The iPad is like a Smeg refigerator, or a Dolce & Gabanna T-shirt.

I'm sure these commentors would have scoffed at the idea of astonas using his iphone and ipad to write code mid-flight...

P.S. Lest I be accused of fanboy-ism, I say this as a guy who hung onto his dumbphone for as long as humanly possible and who now uses the cheapest Android phone he could find...

[GRG55]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

Your link reminds me of an article I read upon the release of the ipad:

Future Shock

P.S. Lest I be accused of fanboy-ism, I say this as a guy who hung onto his dumbphone for as long as humanly possible and who now uses the cheapest Android phone he could find...

Amen!

I have a 2 year old Nokia N4 which I officially Hate...especially the irritating "software update available" notifications which come at far too frequent intervals. My other cell number simcard is still installed in my 2005 vintage dumb phone with its mechanical keypad, which I find faster and easier to use and preferable in almost every way to the touchscreen.

I am not at all against advancing technology, but too much of this stuff is regressive when it comes to how the users are forced to interact with it...and therein lies Apples's real competitive advantage I think...

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I think you have been suckered on this one. The real arguments against the iPad aren't the technological arguments, they're the marketing arguments, the customer service arguments, the profitability arguments. Apple makes products for people who like shiny things. The surface aesthetics are so good that people overlook the fact that the functionality is limited. The iPad is like a Smeg refigerator, or a Dolce & Gabanna T-shirt.

I'm sure these commentators would have scoffed at the idea of astonas using his iphone and ipad to write code mid-flight...

P.S. Lest I be accused of fanboy-ism, I say this as a guy who hung onto his dumbphone for as long as humanly possible and who now uses the cheapest Android phone he could find...

I'm going with that one. Jobs was the consummate showman. The ultimate sales guy. And you are missing the point. It is not about providing ease of use to end users it is about preventing people, anybody, who has an itch to make the machine do something it was not originally intended to do. There is no disconnect between making a machine that appeals to both audiences. Microsoft did this for years. Even apple was kindly disposed at one time. The new thing is preventing you from modifying your machine. Astonas even says it is inconvenient, but he likes the flexibility. I asked him pointedly if the Apple bluetooth keyboard can work with the Apple iphone, because for years Jobs personally insisted that this capability be removed from the iphone OS. People would jailbreak their iphone just to use the bluetooth keyboard. This is the "flexibility" we can expect from every device in the future.

Incidentally what Astonas means when he says flexibility is the availability of documents kept on a server at all times via the built in SIM card on his devices. He can also make a phone call on his hand held computer. I do all this right now, but I use tethering. This is a considerable inconvenience, and I would like to have a small computer that can also make telephone calls and has a usable keyboard. When I look at the universe of available phones that do all that, I see:
14 phones with a keyboard vs 302 without



What is more, the best phones ( most memory , longest battery life, fastest CPU, etc.) come without keyboards. Similar phones with a keyboard are released later or increasingly not at all. It is clear that the trend is to remove the keyboard from the machine. This part of the plan which includes locking down the phone, limiting the ability to run user written applications and preventing the public from having control over their lives and devices.

Make no mistake. This is the cell phone manufacturers responding to popular tastes not the other way around, but the trend setter has for years been Apple, with the largest marketing machine and the best "design"

[GRG55]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I thought some might find this amusing:

http://www.businessinsider.com/im-al...phone-5-2012-8

The part about changing the power cord hit home. I think that is a tactic they stole from Nokia. After many years Nokia changed the size of the DC plug on the recharger. Now I have to carry two powerpacks to recharge my older and newer Nokia when I travel. Basically Nokia is creating more and more reasons for a long time customer (I have used nothing but Nokias since I switched from CDMA to GSM in 2001) to leave them and try something else...like the $99 Chinese-made Galaxy clones running Android that are all over Central Asia and the Middle East where I am hanging out these days...everybody and their kid has one...

[c1ue]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I use both my iPhone and my iPad (with a Bluetooth keyboard) to write and compile LaTeX code when on the road, for both presentations and documents. It is slightly more involved than using a full computer, but only very slightly. And it is well worth the inconvenience to have complete editing capabilities of any document at any moment.

LaTeX might compile, but nothing larger will.

And while I can't compile Android on an iPad, neither can I compile iOS - even were I permitted to. Even compiling an app (iOS or Android) on iPad is an extreme challenge.

I'm sure these commentors would have scoffed at the idea of astonas using his iphone and ipad to write code mid-flight...

You can 'write code' on a piece of paper.

HTML equations are just small enough to be easily 'compilable' on an iPad, but I'm guessing you can't run them.

You can access Mathematica via WiFi or cell data, but not on most airplanes (still).

Mathematica can, however, run on a laptop.

Equally for me - the 'digital keyboard' is nice to have, but is worthless for real typing.

Ever try typing in 1000 lines of code on the iPad touch keyboard?

Given that you can pay $500 for a full laptop that is 0.89" high (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397064,00.asp), the primary productivity differentiator at this point is the iPad's mobile data connection.

The real use of the iPad? Reading the internet while on the toilet or in bed.

[astonas]

Re: Smartphone report: August 2012

I used a bluetooth keyboard for about six weeks. While radically better than using the built in keyboard on the phone, it uses the same frequency as the WiFi resulting in poor performance for both. It also drains the battery pretty quick.

We are getting way way off topic, but this is what I am interested in right now:
http://www.motorola.com/us/consumers...,en_US,pd.html
unfortunately, it will not work with my phone.

By the way, tell us what happens when you try to sync the bluetooth keyboard with your bluetooth capable iphone?

The keyboard I use (Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard k760) works well with both my iPhone 3GS and my iPad. If it slows wireless transmission down, it hasn't been a big enough effect for me to notice. If I prop up or hang the iPad at eye-height, it works as well as a laptop, but without the neck strain associated with having the monitor way down by the keyboard. And in a pinch I can use my phone in the same way, for quick edits to presentations or publications.