Huge wrote:
writes:
Andy Hall wrote:
snip
We managed without mobile phones as well but they have become a
valuable tool for most people to be able to organise their work more
effectively.
The internet and mobile phones are like sex. Before you've tried
them, you wonder what all the fuss is about. Afterwards, you can't
live without.
snip
And I'd also like to be able to buy a mobile phone without any
"features", please.
I don't especially.
I want one with the features, but organised so that they do not get
in the way of the primary function - a phone.
Colour display - cool!
Great, if they could be on all the time, and show useful status like
if it's got a signal, have you missed a call or have a message.
I could care less if it can play the latest music video as wallpaper, if
it has to turn off in 30 seconds or eat battery life.
Clamshells with an external display are one "sort-of" answer to this, but
bring up their own problems of fragility - it's inherently going to require
more plastic to get the same sort of rigidity and solidity in a hinge and two
parts of the case. Which means they tend to skimp.
I was initially dismissive of the "xpress-on" covers, and all of the clones.
However, if well done, they can transform an "oh bugger, I've just scratched
my phone case on a wall, and I'll now have to send it away" to "buy a new
cover for a fiver".
MP3 player - cool!
But it drains the battery in 3 hours.
And adding another couple of rows of buttons all with tiny little logos
on to access 'features' is just barking mad when it means you have to
shrink the rest of the keys, and make actually entering numbers hard.