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Fri, Jul. 11th, 2008, 08:51 am

Just some Food for Thought™ before you rush out with your credit card and succumb to the whole "ooooShinyThing!" going on in the world of cellphones...

Five Reasons to Avoid the iPhone 3G
Current Mood: Agitational
Current Music: The Who - "We Won't Get Fooled Again"
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Fri, Jul. 11th, 2008 02:01 pm (UTC)
[info]jackshaftoe

The general public doesn't care about those things, but #1 is the FSF playing with semantics again and isn't true.

I'm practicing strategic incompetence with regard to the iPhone. My management would love an iPhone version of our software, but they don't want to pay for training or supply the hardware for development (I'm supposed to volunteer my MacBook Pro - ha!). I keep up with the development kits, however, in case the money situation ever changes and I need to hit the ground running.

My personal phone is a data-only plan T-Mobile Sidekick built by Sharp in Japan. I have no interest in a Chinese-made iPhone with one of Apple's crappy battery solutions.
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Fri, Jul. 11th, 2008 02:52 pm (UTC)
[info]mrz80

I'm a firm believer that a phone should be a phone, not a PDA/media player/camera/can opener/blunt object/electric dog polisher. I cling tenaciously to my simple basic Sanyo 3200. I grudgingly put up with the camera because you pretty much can't get a flipphone that doesn't have a camera. For PDA functionality, I have.... uhm... a PDA. :-) It plays music, shows photos, accesses teh intarwebz via WiFi, bluetooths to my phone, desktops (well, the ones what I've got bluetooth widgets for) and laptop, plays games, and even does a decent job with calendars, to do lists, and phone numbers. :-) [info]suemac prefers the "fewer gadgets are better" approach, and does have an everything-gizmo; hers is a Centro, though, not an iFruit gizmo. And I will concede, the Centro's a cool gadget, but my TX's screen is big enough to read, which is kind of important, doncha know.

Heh... strategic ignorance... heh... I'll have to remember that one. Meanwhile, I'm kinda thinking something like an EeePC would be my Palm successor.

Oh, whaddaya think of that openmoko thing? Potential? Will it be realized? Splunge?
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Fri, Jul. 11th, 2008 03:15 pm (UTC)
[info]jackshaftoe

I've been involved with the cell phone industry, on and off, since 1992, designing handsets and switch-related software. Despite making a fair bit of money off of wireless devices, I hate the damned things since I don't like to be that reachable outside of working hours. The Sidekick with AOL IM is a concession to my wife.

Openmoko will be like the OLPC fiasco IMHO. Android probably has the best shot at establishing an open source phone platform since it has the backing of Google's money.

Hardware is tough unless you have a *LOT* of cash. Until the HP50g and 35s came out, I saw several groups come and go trying to establish open source RPN alternatives to HP calculator hardware, and those devices aren't nearly as hideous to manufacture as a phone. IIRC, the old HP Saturn CPU ran at less than 1 MHz.
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Fri, Jul. 11th, 2008 03:41 pm (UTC)
[info]darph_bobo

That's basically my view. I have a RAZR only because I was able to get it for free, but I use little of the functionality (text messages are largely read-only for me; mostly reminders from the corporate calendar system.)

Everything else is why I have my Nokia N800.
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Fri, Jul. 11th, 2008 02:55 pm (UTC)
[info]flewellyn

I definitely like the OpenMoko. Unfortunately, no GSM networks serve my area.
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Fri, Jul. 11th, 2008 03:48 pm (UTC)
[info]lisapt

Phone is pay as you go (I have 35 min on it for the year). It is turned off in car just in case.

Planning should be done on paper.

http://www.diyplanner.com/

Now for playing music, listening to books, give me an iFruit all the way.

Edited at 2008-07-11 03:48 pm (UTC)
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Sat, Jul. 12th, 2008 05:27 pm (UTC)
[info]treetown

I have a non-3G iPhone. Like any other cell phone, its location can be approximated using cell tower triangulation. Thus I'm no worse off in that regard than you are. 3G is a different story. I'm very wary of carrying a personally-identifiable GPS-enabled device with me everywhere.

Like [info]suemac I want fewer devices, and like my fanboy-post of a few minutes ago says, I'm very happy with mine.

BTW, GPS devices tell where *they* are, not necessarily where the owner is. ;-) Once they get embedded in our foreheads or hands, it'll be different. (RFID will do the same thing with a network of sensors, but I digress...)
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