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Does the term "feature phone" predate smartphones? I feel like it does, but google isn't giving me much help in finding the origin of the term.
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Apr 9, 2021 20:00
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:Does the term "feature phone" predate smartphones? I feel like it does, but google isn't giving me much help in finding the origin of the term. Old Nokia which dominated the market had a system where 1-2 were cheapos, 3 were bulk phones, 4 was bulk trials, 5 was downgraded business phones, 6 was business phones, 7-8 were technology try-outs and 9 were communicators and pre-smartphone "smartphones" like the communicator. I think this had a huge influence at the time. EDIT: I only now think that this might be something that only happened in Finland, where all Nokia phones were trialed before the rollout. Der Kyhe has a new favorite as of 21:29 on Apr 9, 2021 |
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Apr 9, 2021 20:12
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legooolas posted:Smartphone, just not terribly smart. You could add apps etc. I'd say the lack of an app store would probably be more of a technical disqualifier if anything. The original iPhone was definitely a fascinating product though, revolutionary and all but limited in the strangest of ways. It couldn't even shoot video.
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Apr 9, 2021 20:47
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I'm pretty sure the "features" in feature phones were generally things like 2/3G, wap browsers, the ability to install j2 applications (available from your carrier at a small fee, naturally), cameras, bluetooth, and wifi. All generally steps up from a regular phone with an addressbook, maybe a built-in game, and a 4-function calculator. Of course, that distinction gets muddier over time when all that just filters down into the cheaper stuff. "Smartphones" generally could be connected to a computer to add more applications, like you would on your treos, windows, and symbian phones (and I assume blackberries, but I have no idea about those). I suppose at one point they also featured an actual keyboard of some description. I really doubt there's much of a concrete definition though, since that's really a marketing distinction and that's bound to change over time. Especially once it became cheaper to just put all that crap on every phone and just ship it with a shittier OS or whatever. As for the iphone, I think the issue with it was that you just couldn't install applications onto it period, until they rolled out the app store. So it was mostly a very expensive touchscreen phone, without any of the benefits of a treo or whatever.
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Apr 9, 2021 21:23
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The iPhone idea was that you could use webapps for everything, so there was no need for a binary application app store. There was a whole lot of "if we sell enough devices, we can push the market" optimism in that, of course, mixed with a lot of Jobsian need to control the experience of the system itself. Still, it wasn't a bad idea, in hindsight - web apps can do a lot now. Not the greatest framework for 3D games and calculation-intensive photo editors, though.
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Apr 9, 2021 23:47
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up1QNO8L8HU
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Apr 10, 2021 03:12
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KozmoNaut posted:Then my Sony-Ericsson "Greenheart" phones were also smartphones, because you could install J2ME apps on them. That goes for the horrible Samsung X660 I had before those, too. They all had web browsers, could do e-mail and had (rudimentary) app stores. My P800 and P910i were most definitely and still are smart!
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Apr 10, 2021 11:40
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legooolas posted:Smartphone, just not terribly smart. You could add apps etc. The first iphone, when released, could not do the following: Install apps Record video Send mms Multitask Copy and paste GPS 3G
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Apr 11, 2021 16:36
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What the hell COULD it do then?
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Apr 11, 2021 20:06
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mng posted:What the hell COULD it do then?
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Apr 11, 2021 20:19
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mng posted:What the hell COULD it do then? Break the horrifying level of control that carriers had over the phone market.
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Apr 11, 2021 20:46
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Also “touch screen iPod” had never been done at the time.
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Apr 11, 2021 21:24
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It was also powerful enough for most of the missing features to be added in via software updates
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Apr 11, 2021 21:30
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mng posted:What the hell COULD it do then? It had real web browser that worked pretty decent. It had a finger driven touch screen user interface when most of the smart phones of the time used stylus, 5 way dpads, or mini track balls. It had a very large screen to body ratio for the time period. It had decent battery life compared to the more feature full devices. I do think there is a strong case to make that the original iphone was not a smart phone, but it was did move the industry forward in a lot of ways that Nokia and Microsoft were not. Mostly in the way of accessibility and ui.
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Apr 11, 2021 22:40
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So it only defined what a smartphone was in the eyes of the consumer and competitors but it possibly wasn’t a smart phone itself?
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Apr 11, 2021 22:47
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Yes, that kind of thing happens - it sometimes takes a bit of time for a category to really settle, and the weird first attempts get included even if they wouldn't really qualify today.
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Apr 11, 2021 23:18
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You could get cellular backpacks for iPods to make them iPhones lol
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Apr 12, 2021 02:59
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The first iPhone also had a glass capacitive touchscreen which at the time redefined what a touchscreen could be. Before it we all thought resistive touchscreens were all there was and they were awful. Also things like multitouch.
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Apr 12, 2021 04:28
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Chemmy posted:The first iPhone also had a glass capacitive touchscreen
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Apr 12, 2021 04:33
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The sidekick was the superior smartphone until probably the iPhone3 imo. The sidekick ruled. So did slide out keyboards on phones.
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Apr 12, 2021 04:38
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I didn't use it, because it the keys were small and mushy, but I loved the idea of the slide out keyboard on my OG Droid. It feels like a cyberpunk deck or something.
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Apr 12, 2021 04:39
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Lowen SoDium posted:It had real web browser that worked pretty decent. It had a finger driven touch screen user interface when most of the smart phones of the time used stylus, 5 way dpads, or mini track balls. It had a very large screen to body ratio for the time period. It had decent battery life compared to the more feature full devices. also a lot of the poo poo it included as free features you got nickel and dimed to unlock on other phones
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Apr 12, 2021 04:42
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I miss slide out keyboards a lot. I still type slower and typo a lot on screen keyboards.
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Apr 12, 2021 04:44
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Scarodactyl posted:I miss slide out keyboards a lot. I still type slower and typo a lot on screen keyboards. Yep, same. Always did want a Sidekick, that keyboard looked nice.
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Apr 12, 2021 05:36
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There was a time in the mid 2010s when I was managing 100WPM with swiftkey but sometime after the microsoft acquisition they put out an update that killed the ability to type a single character and then swipe the rest of the word – which meant basically 100% accurate and ridiculously fast swipe typing – and they never responded to my attempts to get in touch with them and ask if they could please rethink that one, so ever since then I've just been using the stock ios keyboard because literally every single third party option is a janky bloated unresponsive piece of poo poo now. Really wish someone would attempt to fill that gap (like swiftkey did until the decision was made to straight up ruin it)
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Apr 12, 2021 05:41
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Code Jockey posted:Yep, same. I want to be a rich rear end in a top hat CEO that will only communicate to others via a Sidekick
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Apr 12, 2021 05:54
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Chemmy posted:The first iPhone also had a glass capacitive touchscreen which at the time redefined what a touchscreen could be. Before it we all thought resistive touchscreens were all there was and they were awful. Oh yeah I completely forgot about the old style of touch screens, those were horrid. Thanks for the replies, I went from a Symbian to Galaxy S3, so I missed a lot of the early stuff.
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Apr 12, 2021 07:24
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:I want to be a rich rear end in a top hat CEO that will only communicate to others via a Sidekick But you would be a cool CEO.
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Apr 12, 2021 08:41
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Humphreys posted:You could get cellular backpacks for iPods to make them iPhones lol I had to check but yep, they still sell iPod Touches. Its two years old at this point and uses a SOC thats been used in the iPhone 7 but it still gets the latest iOS so i guess thats good. No idea who it is for though. Children where the parents can't possibly accept that their kid isn't using an apple product but don't want to get them an iPhone yet?
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Apr 12, 2021 10:17
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Shai-Hulud posted:I had to check but yep, they still sell iPod Touches. Its two years old at this point and uses a SOC thats been used in the iPhone 7 but it still gets the latest iOS so i guess thats good. I have an iPod Touch still and it's specifically for my party speakers and car. Of course my car has wifi, BT, dual USB sockets, wireless Android Auto and streams my Plex library or my YT Music playlists. But I kinda like having options that 'just work'. Nothing like driving in rural areas with spotty 4G and radio is sketchy too. The other day I had a moment when I noticed I was voice controlling my watch which was changing the tracks on my phone thats hosting the 4G network connection for car stereo linking back to my Plex Server at home playing some MP3 I downloaded off SoulSeek 20 years ago. Humphreys has a new favorite as of 10:41 on Apr 12, 2021 |
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Apr 12, 2021 10:39
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Shai-Hulud posted:I had to check but yep, they still sell iPod Touches. Its two years old at this point and uses a SOC thats been used in the iPhone 7 but it still gets the latest iOS so i guess thats good. They used to be the cheapest way to get an updated iOS device if you wanted to test your app or website?
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Apr 12, 2021 10:43
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Shai-Hulud posted:I had to check but yep, they still sell iPod Touches. Its two years old at this point and uses a SOC thats been used in the iPhone 7 but it still gets the latest iOS so i guess thats good. I have an iTunes library that's been built up since 2001. I tried breaking free last year, but that was just awful. Since I lost my last touch, my wife bought me a flash modded Classic that has been doing pretty good. But yeah, I want ipods and never iphones.
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Apr 12, 2021 11:38
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Scarodactyl posted:I miss slide out keyboards a lot. I still type slower and typo a lot on screen keyboards.  The LG Rumor 2 was probably my favorite phone. It didn't have a touch screen, so it actually had a dial pad taking up half of the front, but being able to slide out that keyboard and text people was pretty much what got me to adopt text messages. I was really sad the day it died and I had to replace it with an LG Rumor Touch. Then again a few years after that when my most basic available options were a flip phone designed for old people or a Nexus 5. I really do miss the mid-late 00's when all the manufacturers were independently attempting to add functionality and hadn't adopted the iPhone standard yet.
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Apr 12, 2021 13:28
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I have a fifth gen iPod that I got for free around 2007, and remains in nightly use as a white noise generator. When this thing dies I will cry.
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Apr 12, 2021 18:18
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Dick Trauma posted:I have a fifth gen iPod that I got for free around 2007, and remains in nightly use as a white noise generator. When this thing dies I will cry. I use an old Samsung Galaxy Player for my son's white noise machine, playing a 10-hour loop of a womb/heartbeat/white noise combo. My son sleeps 12 hours straight through the night, and I believe the noise machine to be a big part of that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T-zazpaY_A The Galaxy Player was basically a smartphone without the phone part. Today's youth would love it, actually. I can't update it anymore but it still plays video and mp3 files and can go online and can connect to bluetooth speakers. It's traveled everywhere with us since he's been born, and I'll be very sad once it stops working. Bonus: white noise video, use a downloader to get the MP3 and load onto your device. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAOW8-u1Xh8 Nocheez has a new favorite as of 19:39 on Apr 12, 2021 |
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Apr 12, 2021 19:35
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Scarodactyl posted:I miss slide out keyboards a lot. I still type slower and typo a lot on screen keyboards. F. Totally same. I even type slower on regular pc keyboard than I was used to type on phone "fullsize" keyboards I still miss my bad boy 
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Apr 12, 2021 21:53
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I still have mine, unfortunately the coating on the back has gummed up. I wonder if there is any custom firmware I could load onto it to turn it into a shell terminal or something. Like it could connect to wifi, and then I ssh into my machine to run commands on it. Nothing but a novelty, but it would be cool.
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Apr 12, 2021 22:02
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Nocheez posted:I use an old Samsung Galaxy Player for my son's white noise machine, playing a 10-hour loop of a womb/heartbeat/white noise combo. My son sleeps 12 hours straight through the night, and I believe the noise machine to be a big part of that. There was an iOS app (Ambience) that allowed you to make your own sound environments from their library, and I made a few tracks for white noise and then trimmed them down so they would loop in the iPod's memory to minimize using the hard drive.
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Apr 12, 2021 22:05
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I had an HTC Tilt II that I really liked for texting. I also had this, the HTC Touch. No slide out keyboard, but it was a pretty cool little touch screen pda. There is a part of me that misses smaller phone like that.
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Apr 12, 2021 22:41
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Lowen SoDium posted:I had an HTC Tilt II that I really liked for texting. haha ohhh man that clock / weather thing brings back some memories, I was rocking a widget knockoff of that on my android phones forever
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Apr 12, 2021 22:45
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