How long, then, could one expect it to have been before the relentless entrepreneurial drive toward an ever-better mousetrap conceived of the Transmittable Tableau (a.k.a. TT), which in retrospect was probably the really sharp business-end of the videophonic coffin-nail. With TTs, facial and bodily masking could now be dispensed with altogether and replaced with the video-transmitted image of what was essentially a heavily doctored still-photograph, one of an incredibly fit and attractive and well-turned-out human being, someone who actually resembled you the caller only in such limited respects as like race and limb-number, the photo's face focused attentively in the direction of the video-phonic camera from amid the sumptuous but not ostentatious appointments of the sort of room that best reflected the image of yourself you wanted to transmit, etc.Goddamn, I miss the hell out of David Foster Wallace.
I've got a feeling I could keep up with the 'net just fine, if I could afford the ridiculous ~$100 a month two-year service contract phones like the iPod and the various flavors of Droids require.Wha? My t-mobile unlimited data plan comes out to about $80/month.
Meh, that's kind of obvious. Although it's annoying that all of this going to Microsoft servers. Why not a server I get to control? There's no reason why a server needs to be any harder to use then a phone, so while they can be difficult to administer now, that's just because the target market is techies. I think a 'personal server' is a possibility and a lot better then this whole 'let's just upload our stuff to some corporate site and forget about it'
How a Silly Phone for Teens Reveals Microsoft’s Plan for Us All
…
[From the article]The concept is simple: Each Kin phone automatically and transparently uploads virtually everything created with the phone to Microsoft’s servers, from photos and videos to text messages and social media updates. Everything can later be accessed through a single web interface. It’s no surprise that the Kin came from the same team that had designed the Sidekick years earlier.
I'm getting one because I've never had an iPhone and my contract is up and the time is right,Why not just get a different phone then? There are lots of other phones, the EVO mentioned in the FPP, other android phones will probably have front cameras too.
BUT
The video for the iPhone 4 on apple.com is so full of sef-congratulatory smug that I was to punch everyone in the video in the face. It's like they're delivering the second coming of christ with every product. It's making me feel sick.
Your money will be lost. Once video is ubiquitous and reliable, it will be immensely useful.Video chatting is already ubiquitous on desktops and laptops, and has been possible for over a decade. So I don't see why having it on cellphones would be any different. (and actually DFW's quote was actually about using videophones at home, on a big TV like device, not a cellphone)
1. The original quote used the plural, so it wasn't just about you.Right, he wasn't talking about me specifically, just everyone who agrees with me. Much better.
I singled you out because of your response, which admits one's preference for their special snowflake gadget is subjective...What I said was that software quality was subjective, not that all attributes were objective. Of course, even with objective measures, people may prioritize them differently. So one person might want a phone with a keyboard, while another wants a phone that can do video conferencing without needing wifi. Of course, that means no one gets an iPhone 4.
yet just a few comments before you were challenging someone's idea of what the best snowflake gadget is. Why, if you know it's subjective? Then you finished it all up by wondering why someone was answering a question that wasn't directed at themThe problem here was that Space Coyote answered a question about why someone who didn't like the ad would buy the phone. He basically claimed that it was objectively better. When I pointed out some of (what I thought were) objective facts that made it worse, he basically said that that the software quality was objectively better. so much better that you'd have to be "dumb" not to get an iPhone. But those are both subjective things.
calc would be one way of fixing this, but there's a better way: box-sizing: border-box. However, imagine an alternate timeline in which CSS 2 had included calc (maybe to compete with DSSSL in a world where it had gained more ground or something). I worry that most people would have just accepted the problematic box model and there'd never have been border-box, and I wonder what bad decisions might be kept around because calc will work as a band-aid.That FaceTime is currently only available when connected to Wi-Fi is, obviously, a limitation. But that it uses Wi-Fi — data, rather than voice networking — is an indication of just how big a deal it is. It’s the beginning of Apple’s end-run around the phone carriers.posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:16 PM on June 23, 2010
Update 16: Reader Erik confirms what FameFoundry (Update 13) found, which is, if you don't touch the bottom of the phone, you're fine. But as soon as you connect the left side with the bottom, that's when reception starts to drop.It's gonna be like the Newton Message Pad handwriting recognition but worse is this really what's going on.
[The Motorola Droid X] comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls.
The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.So they're claiming it's not the design that's at fault.
To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.
At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?
We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.
Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.
We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.
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posted by tybeet at 12:40 PM on June 7, 2010 [1 favorite]