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All for one, not one for all

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by WilHarris, 22 Jan 2006.

  1. WilHarris

    WilHarris Just another nobody Moderator

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  2. Tulatin

    Tulatin The Froggy Poster

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    Loved the last bit of that article there. Definate viscious style :)
     
  3. Cabe

    Cabe What's a Dremel?

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    Convergence of useful features is a good thing (tv's with inbuilt DVD players anyone?), but it sounds like they have looked at it and taken it to an absurd level.
     
  4. ou7blaze

    ou7blaze sensational.

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    Actually this is a good article didn't really think about this..

    I think manufacturers really need to concentrate on one core idea...or one unique selling point, anything else will just make everything complicated...

    This is exactly why I want a simple phone... no camera, no mp3, no internet NOTHING just a DAMNED PHONE which doesn't lag, doesn't take millions of years to load up because of all those useless .gif moving images or whatever just A PHONE THAT WORKS, that's why I choose Nokia they're no-******** phones as I call them lol.

    I bought the most basic iPod, i don't want Video, i don't want colour menus, I want a MUSIC PLAYER, THAT's IT...
     
  5. Lord Kordir

    Lord Kordir What's a Dremel?

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    I completely agree with the views expressed in the article. I would like to see a backlash against these multi-functional "take one step forward and two back" devices, although gimmicks always sell. Look how many more iPods have sold since the introduction of a colour screen.
     
  6. ozstrike

    ozstrike yip yip yip yip

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    Some convergence is useful though. For example my phone does play mp3s, and I use this every day because I don't want to take my mp3 player to school, but I carry my phone with me everywhere. However, it also plays videos, and I have never used that, because it is just pointless. As was said: King Kong 80pixels wide? Why?
    I do agree, some gadgets really are trying to do too much. The things that record video, take pictures, record voice notes, and play mp3s are a fine example of this. It does all this stuff, but none of it well.
     
  7. mcshaggy

    mcshaggy What's a Dremel?

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    I agree that generally, the industry is moving too far into the all-in-one direction. I don't have a problem with video iPods as you do, in fact theyre quite nice and handy. I just watched episodes of Family Guy in my off time after exams last week at school, a lot better than just listening to music. But, on the other hand, these cell-phones with integrated everything are just a little too much. My phone currently doesnt have a camera or media player, and I love it. I think that if these companies making all-in-one devices can get them to do every function as well as their single-function counterparts, then all the more power too them. I think I would rather carry one thing in my pocket than three, just so long as that one thing works as good or better than the three alone.
     
  8. Hamish

    Hamish What's a Dremel?

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    agree in general but i love having a camera in my phone
    i always have my phone on me, i never take a digicam out with me unless im specifically going out to take pics of stuff
    i wouldnt take a digicam to the pub either :p
     
  9. The cheapskate

    The cheapskate One custom title before Matty

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    I’m going to add my point here, I agree with the article, and it was a very good read, enjoyed it :)

    However think of your mobile phone, Think of that Friday night out. Let me explain.

    You’re sitting at home reading bit, or what ever. Your mate calls you (on your mobile) and says were at the local pub come down.

    You don’t want to drive, as you cant drink, so you put your mobile in your pocket, an leave the house, you turn on your phones mp3 player, for the 10min walk, till you arrive at the pub, you turn it off, an put it in your pocket.

    Your mates start to get drunk, you think I’m going take a picture, as there’s no way he’s going to remember how much of an arse he was in the morning, again you pull out your phone, why? Shock horror, you don’t have your main camera with you when your in the pub.

    The same night, your starting to feel the drink, you and your mates decide to move on, down to the local club. You start dancing, your not feeling to good, its 3am, and you decide to call it a night. But your mates are going to see the night to the end, so feeling ill you stagger out the place, put your phones headphones in, and stagger home.

    Now ask you’re self. Would you really want to carry an Ipod, A digital camera, and a phone? When you’re dancing? No, because you would spend the entire night worrying about some one robbing you, you dropping your camera on the floor, or some t*t spilling beer allover your Ipod.

    I agree allot of devises are going to far, however, take the mobile phone the Sony k750i, Its a good phone, its simple, its primary function as a phone is as simple as that good old Nokia 3210 you had 5 years ago. Yet, its got media buttons, that are simple, and easy to use, not I grant you as easy as your Ipod, yet, you try an call a cab from your Ipod? Even the camera, is starting to be able to take some half decent pictures, with its 2 mega pixel camera.

    If you look at devices, in that light, you start to understand the use of an all in one, That is as long as it still does its main job as well as it would without the other features. Which should be the manufactures goal.

    I don’t know about you, but some of my best photos were taken by my phone, as I was blind drunk, and my camera was back home on the kitchen table.....
     
  10. gpw111

    gpw111 What's a Dremel?

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    I agree with the cheapskate, the k750i is a pretty good all in one. Its not perfect - but its much more convenient than carrying around 3 or 4 seperate devices
     
  11. Tomm

    Tomm I also ride trials :¬)

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    I totally agree with that, although it doesn't have to be true forever. When I'm out (at uni) I generally have a mobile phone, PDA, MP3 Player with me. I can't really do without the PDA or the phone, and music is a bonus. It would be handy though to have everything rolled into one device, as long as the function of each bit wasn't compromised. In fact it might even be a great thing - the PDA could utilise an iPod's hard drive, meaning you don't need to shell out for expensive CF/SD cards etc. But until that day comes when everything can work together nicely, I'll keep my three separate devices.

    Basically what I'm saying is that a Jack of all trades is not worth bothering with. Until someone can make a master of all trades, I'm not interested :)
     
  12. scq

    scq What's a Dremel?

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    Haha. Yeah. I remember buying a Palm Zire 71 once. I thought I could use it as a camera, an organizer, and an MP3 player all at once. While it was able to do all those things, it pretty much sucked at everything (save for the organizer bit). The photos came out blurry (and over time, dust got behind the lense, and I couldn't get it out, no matter how much Dust-off air spray I used), and the MP3 player was hard to use, slow, never loud enough, and transferring songs via SD Card took forever. Not to mention the tiny menus that were near-impossible to use with a stylus.

    I've decided to try and stay away from "convergance" devices now. Everything should only have a few, very well executed functions. I still don't get the hype with video iPods. I have a few videos on my iPod, but I've ever watched them once or twice - until the novelty wore off).

    As for convenience, it is sometimes nice to have a camera or an MP3 player, or a knife on your phone, but it should never get in the way of making or taking a call.
     
    Last edited: 22 Jan 2006
  13. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Awesome article and I have to agree with about 100% of it. It's good to have a phone with integrated digicam but it sucks when talking about quality. Maybe it'll get better soon as it is technically possible to build 7 mp cameras into cell phones. There still is the problem of space in there as far as capacity goes to save your photos somewhere.
    And when getting the needed space there always is the price keeping me from buying it.
    Let's wait 'till the next-gen phones are out with >512 MB and we'll talk about this again. :)
     
  14. Firehed

    Firehed Why not? I own a domain to match.

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    Finally! Having a couple of useful, related features of decent quality is one thing, 57-in-1 is just stupid. I mean, I remember back when card readers were a 6-in-1; now they're 22-in-1 or something.

    The problem is that most extra features outright suck, and are poorly executed, and definately take focus away from the initial device. I have a 5G iPod, but I very rarely use it for videos. I use a pen and notepad for an organizer, because it's easiest to navigate and never crashes, breaks, or has batteries die. I barely use my cell for anything as it's a pos, and have certainly never had the desire to do anything but make calls with it.
     
  15. Arkuden

    Arkuden mow?

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    I agree with that article for the most part. There are too many devices now that are attempting to include so many extras that they have completely lost the quality of their primary function. Keeping that in mind i feel the one exception to this bit is the cell phone. I dont see the purpose of the video becuase if im going to watch something i have an HD tv at home waiting for me, but i think its dead useful to have your mp3 player, camera, and well phone all included. They havent gotten the full knack of it yet for having high quality features on these phones yet but its still somewhat young especially for the mp3 bit.
     
  16. whisperwolf

    whisperwolf What's a Dremel?

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    My main niggle with extra features on mobile phones, is there is only one battery. Now i am a very light phone user, it's there for emergencies, from its raining will someone give me a lift to oh help i've lost my hand. Now if was to use my phone for mp3's camera or even playing games I can place a bet that when i need to make a call my battery will be dead. For this reason I'm happier carrying two or three devices, that way if my mp3 player dies, I hum to myself for rest of the journey, but I can still call a taxi at the end of it. Perhaps I'll change my mind when batteries are a lot better or when they stick two in a phone, one for calls and one for the other assorted stuff.
     
  17. cpemma

    cpemma Ecky thump

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    It's a great pity you can't put your ideal phone together like you can a PC. I'll have the Alpha Case, NiMH power supply, Neato phone chipset, the 2 Mpx Canon camera and the Zippo lighter. Maybe add MP3 when I get paid next month.

    Now there's an idea... :idea:
     
  18. Nath

    Nath Your appeal has already been filed.

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    It's the ever-present decision whether you want one device which is average at many things or several devices which excel at the activity for which they were designed. My phone is an old nokia 6610, nothing fancy, but it's so simple it's never crashed and does what it's supposed to do without complex eight-tier submenus. My SLR takes excellent pictures, and though it's more bulky than a phone camera a bad picture from it would be better than a good picture from the average phone cam. It's all well and good being able to shove these features into a device the size of my thumbnail but to me it's inviting mediocrity. :blah:
     
  19. customh

    customh conflagration.

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    no kidding cpemma, been visualizing that since i was 12, ill make lots of money... someday....meh...high hopes. anyways, its not all bad to have an all in one, but id only go as far as pda and cell phone, bad to have more than that hanging off your belt, i guess if you have a laptop and backpack with ya all the time what the hell, get all those single function things.
     
  20. Hegemon

    Hegemon What's a Dremel?

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    Amen ou7blaze! I'd give anything to be able to use my old Motorola Startac again. It wasn't too pretty, about the only features were a phonebook and volume buttons, but that phone WORKED. It would get signal when my friends' phones wouldn't, it was tough as nails, and you could actually hear well on it. It was a phone, plain and simple.

    I have read everybody else's comments on having a camera in the phone, mp3 player, etc, and a lot of that boils down to personal preference. Personally, I don't want a phone with a camera, but I know tons of people who can't live without it. MP3 would be nice if the phone had enough memory to hold a lot of songs, because that would save me lugging around my Dell DJ (though I don't have a phone with MP3 at this time). I have been saying since the beginning that mobile video is retarded because of the screen size. But I realize they have to start somewhere. Phones will eventually catch up to the technology and will have bigger screens... i *might* watch videos on one then.

    But it still boils down to what the author said, you have to build a good phone first. And for about the past 4 years, just about every phone I have looked at has been a piece of crap. I could either have a useless toy, a phone with a good earpiece, or signal strength... but not all 3. I chose signal strength for my current phone. I like speakerphones, but Sanyo put a half-duplex speakerphone in the phone. Use that useless terd for about 5 minutes and you're ready to smash the phone into a million pieces. The earpiece is decent, but not great. Battery life is tolerable only because I forked over the extra dough for an extended battery.

    The extras are great, but I'd give them all up for a phone that actually does what it is supposed to.
     
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