Open Thread: What do You Want from a Cell Phone?
September 18th, 2008 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 20 CommentsTweet This
There are plenty of manufacturers and carriers out there who will be happy to tell you what you want from a phone. To hear them tell it, if you’re not carrying a device with a camera, a touchscreen, an internet browser, GPS, Bluetooth, and a fancy colorful operating system, you might as well be carting around a tin can and a long piece of string.
With the recent upgrades to the iPhone, and the imminent release of the first Google “Android” phone, the hype machine surrounding these devices has been cranked up to higher levels than ever. But while I’m sure there are focus groups and test devices involved in the process, no one ever asked me what I wanted in my cell phone. And I’ll bet they never asked you, either.
So, let’s remedy that. If you were designing your ideal cell phone from scratch, what would you put into it? And perhaps more importantly, what would you leave out? Have you found your ideal phone in the market, or are you still vainly hunting? And does the next generation of handsets look like it’s going to offer what you want?
Tags: open thread, phone
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
Numbers big enough to read without my glasses!
Totally Open. Let me dual or triple boot S60, Linux or FreeBSD. It should look as nice at the Touch Pro or E71. Dual SIM slot. Dual microSDHC slot. Yes for the BT, GPS and decent camera. Opera Mobile 9.x as the browser. Do not care about flash.
I am one who actually likes windows mobile. Yes, it needs to improve, but it has apps, lots of apps. Throw in the Zune and and some interface tweaking, Flash (I want to stream audio) and Opera 9.x and voila!
And please, PLEASE! Mount the the SD card as a new drive rather than a directory.
Dual SIM, please.
I’m a luddite. I want my mobile to make and receive calls, send and receive SMS, have real-sound ringtones and a battery that survives for a long, long, long time.
That is *it*.
I’ve always wanted something about the size of a DVD case as a PDA and portable tablet PC, with a *dockable* phone (something that hides nearly seamlessly in the larger device).
When docked, the phone provides internet connectivity, and can still be used from the larger device’s contact list, etc.
When undocked, the phone would be light, small, and relatively light on features — with very long battery life.
This way, I could port the large pad around on the train, at work, and when I’m out with friends to talk about our Next Big Idea; but, I could just tote a small and reliable phone when I’m biking or have other reasons not to want the larger device.
I want very few things for my phone.
1) Make and receive calls. Duh.
2) SMS messaging.
3) Cheap, real web browsing (ala iPhone/iPod Touch).
4) Good network coverage (I live in South Dakota).
5) Full sound ring tones.
6) Extensibility. If it can’t do it out of the box, anyone should be able to add it in.
–
Essentially, I want a tiny wireless laptop with Skype and Chrome on it. That’d do.
A really sweet pocket-knife.
I’m with Cinderberry. Just a phone, please. To TALK with.
Darren, maybe this is what you are looking for http://www.modumobile.com/ its still in initial stage but looks promising.
As for me Nokia e71 is close to my ideal mobile add in a better camera and good entertainment options and i dont need to look any further.
#1 Feature: Open Software or SDK available (The app store is the only reason I would get an iphone)
#2: MP3/Divx/XVid Playback
#3: WLAN
#4: GPS
#5: QWERTY Keypad
#6: FM Radio Receiver
#7: Camera / Video Recorder
#8: Microphone
#9: Built-In Speakers
#10: BlueTooth
#11: FM Transmitter
#12: SD Card
#13: Accelerometer
#14: TV Out
#15: TV In (with record)
#16: Built-In Scanner
No clear-cut winner.. but some close ones:
HTC Android
OpenMoko
LG KC910
Samsung i550 / i8510
Nokia N96
CVSCD-7300
HTC Touch / S740
Flip Blackberry
LG Prada II
I hate to say this, but my Blackberry Pearl is just right both in size/format and function… I wish they would make a iPhone Nano.
By the way, the MP3 player, should act as a real MP3 player!!!
(i.e. pause, search thru file, save position, etc)
A bluetooth interface for the phone and a full-size keyboard.
A video out from the phone allowing me to connect a monocular or binocular display.
There must be a reason it’s called a mobile PHONE.
I want one with
big numbers
buttons I can actually press without hitting another 4 at the same time,
NO camera, NO text,
NO internet,
NO games
I want a PHONE!
I’ve had a wide array of cell phones over the past 10 years with all the usual bells and whistles… 3G, cameras, bluetooth, games, MP3, mobile apps ect…
I have to say my current Nokia 1650 rocks the show. Basically it makes / receives calls & text messages, has a clock and the battery that lasts a full seven days! It’s light, sturdy and cost me $50 sim free. iPhone / N-series kiss my ass.
Here’s how it should work:
Phone: To make calls
Camera: To take pictures
UMPC: For apps & web
Frisbee / Rubix cube: For games.
I want a phone that feels solid, that is thin enough I can carry it my jeans front pocket and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. No camera, internet, games, etc. Just a phone. Oh yeah, bluetooth would be nice but not a deal breaker
I really want my phone to be location aware and and have quick and easy access to the internet. I am moving everything to the cloud and I want good access to that data. Plus I really want to be able to leverage my social and business network on the move.
Brian
http://www.konnects.com
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Cheers,
Fooz
I have an old blackberry 8700c, I want to create a home screen icon that takes me directly to the SMS Inbox folder, or to a specific folder from my exchange mailbox, how do I do that?
I found out that pressing alt with the wheel lets me move or delete an existing icon from the homescreen, but how do I add an entirely new one ?
http://www.cebst.com/blackberry+8700c.jpg
That’s what it look like: http://www.cebst.com/blackberry+8700c.jpg