What's Happened In Mobile Over the Past 10 Years 149
andylim writes "recombu.com has an article examining what's happened in mobile over the past ten years, including BlackBerry launching its first smart phone in 2002, Motorola launching the Razr in 2004 and Apple launching the iPhone in 2007. As a commenter points out, the first camera phone (Sharp J-SH04), which was released in 2000, featured a 110,000-pixel (0.11MP) CMOS image sensor, and a 256-colour (8 bit) display."
featured a 110,000-pixel (0.11MP) CMOS image senso (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:In other news... (Score:1, Interesting)
What's happened is that countries without legacy copper and overbearing telcos have leapfrogged the US in terms of, well....pretty much everything mobile.
Indeed they may have. And it made a decent communication infrastructure available to them at a fraction of the cost. So it's also a decade of giving millions of people access to a phone. TFA does not mention this, but this might actually be more disruptive than packing a bazillion-pixel-camera into a feature-packed phone-crossbreed.
Re:In other news... (Score:1, Interesting)
What's happened is that countries without legacy copper and overbearing telcos have leapfrogged the US in terms of, well....pretty much everything mobile.
It is fucking ridiculous that the internet and most telecommunications technologies were invented here in the USA, yet we have some of the world's worst connectivity measured in bang-for-buck. In my opinion, our mobile phone companies are colluding and need to be smacked down HARD by the government, why else is there not one of them who doesn't gouge for text messages? What is it, something like a thousand text messages equal the bandwidth consumed by one minute of voice? Fucking nuts. Where's my fiber to the door? Why do I have such a low connection speed compared to Japan and most places in Europe with similar population densities? Yet we tolerate this.
Re:Hmm (Score:1, Interesting)
Its like a few random factoids up to 2007 and then its *OMG THE IPHONE, THE IPHONE 3GS, ANDROID!!* colourful playthings and disposable gimmicks galore! Omg, soldered in batteries enforcing planned obsolescense! who came up with this wonderful idea?
The inevitable Slashdot response... (Score:5, Interesting)
Whenever mobile phones are mentioned on Slashdot, something akin to the following comment will inevitably appear:
'All I want is a phone that makes calls.'
I've never quite got my head around a tech site like Slashdot, where the demographic is almost certainly interested in new technology having such a negative response to technological advances in what our phones can do. You rarely [never?] hear this with other technology on this site:
'I wish Windows 7 had less features. All I want is the ability to write a letter'
'This 4Ghz Core 2 Due Hyperfighting Special Edition is too fast for me. I want a 68030 at 25Mhz'... instead we get 'Imagine a Beowulf cluster of...'
Is it because the non-techie crowd have embraced mobile tech, in some instances more than us (given that some teenagers seem to text more than they speak) and we've been out done? Are the non-techies better at mobile tech than us?
(Yes, I know that Slashdot doesn't speak with one voice, but I bet the comment appears somewhere in this article).
Re:The inevitable Slashdot response... (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually do feel like this at times. When I need to get down to work, to write something without distraction, the modern desktop can actually be an overawing place. A stark white screen with black text focuses the mind wonderfully.
Re:Well, you heard it now. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The inevitable Slashdot response... (Score:3, Interesting)
Almost. But it's also like staring into a light bulb.
I kind of miss those ancient word processors with white or green text on a black background that ran on old DOS machines. Great for just writing something with a bit of formatting thrown in, and fools the world over had no way to crap up their documents with fifty different font sizes, colors, and faces.
Re:Nokia N9000. (Score:2, Interesting)
No carrier subsidy = $571 (Amazon.com). THAT's why no one has it.
Or go radical, ditch cellular and go 100% WiFi. I did and I have some friends that did. One friend of mine did this prior to the first WiFi phones after two different cellular companies tried to stick him with additional illegal charges over more than 10 years. He switched to VoIP and Skype. Back in the day he was paying over $150 per month for cellular so reducing his yearly costs to around $60 per month saved him almost $2,000 per year.
Today you can get cellular service by either Metro PCS or TMobile for approx $50 per month. Skype costs you $5 per month. So based on Amazon's price, that $571 phone cost could be recouped in just over 1 year ($571 / $45 = 12.68 months) No contracts, no tethering, the only limitation might be no cellular, unless you purchase the N900 which gives you cellular as well. And the next year, you would be free and clear except for the $60 fee to Skype.
For me Skype VoIP is the killer app of the decade, quickly followed by the Linux operating system. It gave me freedom, choice and options, which is better than FREE!
Actually ditching cellular is not that radical, it used to be considered bad business to allow your work to be interrupted by constant phone calls. When driving a car, in many states its illegal to talk on the cell phone without a hands free device. Back in olden land line telephone days, if someone called you when you were not home, they left a message and you called them back when it was convenient for you. (I remember when very few people had answering machines, if they did it was reel to reel tape on a unit the size of a desktop IBM PC) If a company wanted you to be on call, they provided a beeper and paid you extra for the privilege of interrupting your after hours life and being on call. A much more logical, simpiler time.
I consider not being connected to the Internet the same as not being home in the past. If someone calls, my Skype VoIP service allows them to record a message and I choose when to call them back based on what is going on in my life.