Tag: Smartphone

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Musings

not so smart-phone

I reluctantly upgraded (or downgraded) my phone to a smart phone, only to realize that the phone that the performance has deteriorated in all the parameters for which i use the phone.
1. Battery
2. rough use/impact test/childproof
3. no of key strokes it needs to perform simple action.
If my hands are soiled.. the touchscreen does not work. (push buttons of old still work perfectly). If i recieve a phone call, rather than just press accept, i need to unlock the phone and do all sorts of gestures before i can pick it up. Making a call also needs 5-10 key presses before the phone pad emerges.
2 years ago, I had written for a small but growing market of users who want an aesthetically appealing expensive, yet simple phone with a good form factor. I guess apple has captured bulk of this market with iphone eye-candies. Many chineese products have better technical specifications, features and lesser price.. yet people prefer i-phone.
Either the way I use the phone is drastically different from the masses or the geeks designing phones are not listening to the customers… but there is a disconnect.
 

Categories
Musings

Smartphones: death sentence to everything else

A wife was granted 4 wishes from a genie and she asked for:
– I want my husband to have eyes only for me
– I wanted to be the only one in his life
– I want him to sleep always with me by his side
– I want him to be with me first thing in the morning and take me everywhere.
To her surprise, the genie converted her into a smart phone.
Jokes apart smart phones are consuming an increasingly large share of its user’s time. What’s more disturbing is the increasingly large number of interruptions that it cause which probably kills any scope of meaningful dialogue. A smartphone with integrated email, calls, text and social media has become a gateway to all digital communications. But does that mean we ignore the person sitting right next to us?
Just ask yourself, how many times have you seen your discussion cut shot because of a telephone ring/beep? How many times have you taken the pains to approach someone only to find that playing games/answering to emails/text takes precedence over your conversations? I am not only talking about office, but important family conversations. My wife bugs me saying I might as well have married the phone…. But what she says has merits.
another interesting article by xkcd
 

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Miscellaneous

Cellphone Woes

Mobile phone is like the ultimate fashion accessories these days. We change phones not because the old one is damaged/lost but because we no
A year ago one of my female colleagues was really delighted by Micromax Bling. She loved its square shape, the fact that it had a square screen with 2 crystal buttons with a mirror. She felt that it was like a nose powder box and was the latest fashion accessory that should be added to her purse. She actually bought one and was quite happy with it. Her only dissatisfaction was that “The phone is not pricy enough. I would have loved it even more if it was 5,000/- more expensive.”
Similarly for my mother, less is more. All she is looking for a phone with a good battery life, strong reception during her travel, few buttons and big font size in the display (so that she can function even without her glasses). She does not want a smart phone. It’s not that she is averse to technology; she just associates a phone with telephonic conversations. Any why shouldn’t she STD rates in India are as low as 20-50p (6,000 paisa = 1 USD). Plus you don’t have to pay any monthly commitment/subscription fee.
She does not want a touch screen: because she would rather use an application over the laptop then over a tiny weenie screen. Also her ear-rings (in spite of the proximity sensors etc.) have a tendency of muting her conversation (or a similar mischief). She would rather use an application over a laptop where everything is clearly visible than over a phone.
A business phone (like blackberry) is counterproductive because the key size is too small without the glasses.
Till recently she had a simple nokia phone with a standard 12+3 button format and a color screen. However now she does not want it because her maid has a similar phone.
I am sure there is a huge market for expensive phones with easy to use features.