Freedom on your mobile phone

[claydoh]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

not everyone want or needs a full computer, so it is all about functionality, which doesn't always require power. the screens are usually crisp and very clear actually. I can read text over my wife's shoulder without my glasses on (4inch amoled screen), and I definitely cannot do that with her laptop. Plus the camera, vidcam, gps, etc, are useful components. These are NOT computers in the sense we are thinking of them. In a lot of the world, phones are the ONLY way people have access to the 'net.

As to video, yes a movie is silly on a sub-4 inch screen. But a news report, or sports update it is very good. As to nearsightedness , they said the same thing about watching tv on a computer screen not too long ago. Heck I'd be nearsighted some time back if were possible

[sithlord48]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

i just rooted my G1 the other day.. backed up my stock rom and replaced it w/ one that has root enabled now i can do things like wireless teathing, but this rom i have is prone to crash a lot so i might try a few more. cause its painless.. when i get bored i will prolly just install debian on it. but the G1 is a tad old so its a bit slow for newer android like the 2.2 version thats on it now..

[charles052]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

not everyone want or needs a full computer, so it is all about functionality, which doesn't always require power. the screens are usually crisp and very clear actually. I can read text over my wife's shoulder without my glasses on (4inch amoled screen), and I definitely cannot do that with her laptop. Plus the camera, vidcam, gps, etc, are useful components. These are NOT computers in the sense we are thinking of them. In a lot of the world, phones are the ONLY way people have access to the 'net.

As to video, yes a movie is silly on a sub-4 inch screen. But a news report, or sports update it is very good. As to nearsightedness , they said the same thing about watching tv on a computer screen not too long ago. Heck I'd be nearsighted some time back if were possible

Not disagreeing with ya. Although I do think of smartphones and tablets as small computers. They run applications and processes just like a computer does. They might not be as powerful or have quite as much functionality, but how much functionality did the early computers have?

It might not be too long before they are as powerful as today's desktops.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

.....
It might not be too long before they are as powerful as today's desktops.

Not as long as their GUI is sub 5" and their virtual keyboard is =< the GUI, and those that have "keyboards" on which a single finger tip can mask two keys, and they don't have USBs or HDs (or large SSDs) that can privately save personal data, the sound is small and tinny, and they have to be recharged every day.

Probably the most egregious part of a smartphone that would be "as powerful as today's desktops" is the greed of the ISPs. Currently, my mobile phone ISP offers 3G and 4G "plans" that REQUIRE a "data fee" of $80/10Gb/mo with a $10/1GB/mo addition fee for each Gb over 10Gb. I ran my computer use through their "plan calculator" and it would cost me $110/month "data fees", plus the monthly phone bill, making a smartphone plan with data costing around $175/mo or more, depending on how many "extra" GB I happen to use.

My Internet connection through Earthlink is a 12Mb/s bandwidth for $51/mo, with NO cap.

Now, consider what is paid by citizens of foreign countries. In France, it costs $30-40/mo for a Cellphone with unlimited calls anywhere in France, 24/7, 40Gb bandwidth Internet, and TV with 200 channels.

[charles052]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

.....
It might not be too long before they are as powerful as today's desktops.

Not as long as their GUI is sub 5" and their virtual keyboard is =< the GUI, and those that have "keyboards" on which a single finger tip can mask two keys, and they don't have USBs or HDs (or large SSDs) that can privately save personal data, the sound is small and tinny, and they have to be recharged every day.

Probably the most egregious part of a smartphone that would be "as powerful as today's desktops" is the greed of the ISPs. Currently, my mobile phone ISP offers 3G and 4G "plans" that REQUIRE a "data fee" of $80/10Gb/mo with a $10/1GB/mo addition fee for each Gb over 10Gb. I ran my computer use through their "plan calculator" and it would cost me $110/month "data fees", plus the monthly phone bill, making a smartphone plan with data costing around $175/mo or more, depending on how many "extra" GB I happen to use.

My Internet connection through Earthlink is a 12Mb/s bandwidth for $51/mo, with NO cap.

Now, consider what is paid by citizens of foreign countries. In France, it costs $30-40/mo for a Cellphone with unlimited calls anywhere in France, 24/7, 40Gb bandwidth Internet, and TV with 200 channels.

Can't really argue with that. I guess the best deal one can get is Straight Talk, completely unlimited talk, text, and data for $45. Although they don't have the greatest smartphones, I read on a forum where the poster changed out the sim cards with an iphone and it worked very well. I'm not sure about the Android phones.

[claydoh]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

Yeah, where I am the prepaid plans either cost a bundle for the phone, or there is no service of that type. Which is why I have had to wait to get a smartphone. I would be ditching the landline, which on the surface seems scary, but I never use it anyway.

[MoonRise]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

I never understood the point of the iphone or any of these smartphones. The screen is so small, why would you want to watch videos or browse the web from it? I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of near-sighted people in the future. These new tablets are better, but why pay the price of a computer and not even get half the power?

So our computers are getting smaller, yet our TVs are fricking enormous! Probably because we're going near-sighted.

I have to +1 this.

[claydoh]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

my tv is not enormous, I am somewhat old, and I badly want the internet in my pocket!!!!!! as well as the camera, gps, vidcam, mp3/video player.......

[muzicman0]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

desktops" is the greed of the ISPs. Currently, my mobile phone ISP offers 3G and 4G "plans" that REQUIRE a "data fee" of $80/10Gb/mo with a $10/1GB/mo addition fee for each Gb over 10Gb. I ran my computer use through their "plan calculator" and it would cost me $110/month "data fees", plus the monthly phone bill, making a smartphone plan with data costing around $175/mo or more, depending on how many "extra" GB I happen to use.

My Internet connection through Earthlink is a 12Mb/s bandwidth for $51/mo, with NO cap.

Now, consider what is paid by citizens of foreign countries. In France, it costs $30-40/mo for a Cellphone with unlimited calls anywhere in France, 24/7, 40Gb bandwidth Internet, and TV with 200 channels.

I have 3 smartphones and one home phone on my wireless provider, and all three have unlimited data, unlimited text, and 1500 minutes shared (which we typically use half of)...my entire bill is less than $130 (I do have a corp discount of 15% from the company I work for). This is through T-Mobile. If your provider wants $80 for data, I would find a new provider...even AT&T isn't that much.

But in reality, I use my smartphone for mostly email, and the occasional google search. It's also awesome to be able to tether at someplace that doesn't have WIFI. Just a while ago, I was working on a project, and had 3 of us sitting at a table, all connected wirelessly to my phone for internet. Had roughly a 5 MB download speed to share.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

Verizon charges a tethering fee of $20/Gb, and it blocks the tethering capability of Androids unless the user has signed up with Verizon. This is criminal. A complaint has been filed, but FCC has been pwned for quite a while, so I don't expect anything to come of it.

[muzicman0]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

interesting...another reason I hate verizon...that and they once sent me a $2000 bill after moving to California.

[saurav]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

A phone allows us to talk to people conveniently because of the really small size and the communication networks that are more reliable than VoIP (at least where I live). However, since the difference between smartphones and traditional computers is blurring, I think we can hook up a smartphone to a keyboard, mouse, monitor and speakers to create a more "traditional" computer. Given the added benefit of being able to unhook and carry it around in your pocket while still having the full computational and networking capability as well as the call facility, would this arrangement actually be worth more (in terms of value for money) than having a laptop + a phone? Of course, we will have to have really free software on the phone first. Thoughts?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

.... I think we can hook up a smartphone to a keyboard, mouse, monitor and speakers to create a more "traditional" computer. ...

That's called "tethering". Verizon will block it unless you pay them $20/mo for the "privilege". Many telco do not charge for tethering, but your data limit is more quickly reached when you use your cell phone connection as if it were a traditional ISP and not an expensive teclo.

I noticed that my iPod Touch 4 has "Dragon" on it, which is a pretty good voice to text converter. Unfortunately, it is not well connected in the iPod, so one has to jump through some annoying hoops to get it to interface with other apps in order to avoid a lot of typing.

Here is what will get me to use a smartphone .... when it gets truly smart. When I can talk to my smartphone and it understands my requests, without using pigeon English, AND, it displays its output in a HUD (by projecting the "screen" into my eye (I wear glasses for close up anyway), so I don't have to use a virtual or miniscule keyboard, and I don't have to put up with sub 5" screens. Having a 1600X900 HUD with the size of a virtual 52" HD would be nice.

[saurav]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

But how can anyone charge money for connecting non-Internet devices (mice, keyboards, monitors...) to a phone?

[claydoh]

Re: Freedom on your mobile phone

no, they are charging you access to their network via the phone - tethering a laptop via the wifi hotspot feature, not to connect keyboard, etc (lets not give them any ideas either )

The wifi hotpsot feature is usually a paid addon , though wired (connecting via usb and using the phone as a physically connected modem if you will) via an app may not be an extra cost.

Of course rooting and/or and installing a custom rom usually gets around the cost issue iirc either way.

The reports I find of VZ blocking tethering apps don't seem to be clear on whether it is the wireless tethering apps, or all of them, being blocked.