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It's been several years since I moved to a touchscreen phone, and I still hate them for the "making calls and answering" workflow - I used to be able to make ca
by GFischer 11y ago
It's been several years since I moved to a touchscreen phone, and I still hate them for the "making calls and answering" workflow - I used to be able to make calls and answer without having to physically look at the phone - the StarTac's flick to open would be a good example of that.
Of course, touchscreen phones make great computing devices, which makes their inadequacy as phones irrelevant.
- marssaxman 11y agoHmm, I actually find them to be pretty lousy computing devices, since it's so difficult to type on them. You can poke around and read email or news articles, and take or look at pictures, but actually doing anything with a touchscreen phone is... well, I generally don't spend more than a couple of minutes trying, because it rarely works and it's less frustrating to just wait until I have a real computer at hand. They have some decent hardware in there; shame it's so difficult to make it do anything interesting!
- kej 11y agoI had a Samsung i760 [1] before iOS/Android took over, and it was the perfect combination of phone and smart device. When you needed a phone you could dial or answer without looking, but when you needed a smart device it did that, too. [1] http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/phones/9018-large/Samsung-SCH-i760-1z.jpg http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/phones/9018-large/Samsung...
- loup-vaillant 11y agoIf only we stopped calling them "phones"… They're palmtops after all.
- floordaemon 11y agoI use a tiny disposable Tracfone and a new iPod Touch. Sure I could combine them in an iPhone, but I don't think they need to be tied together.
- asimuvPR 11y agoI also did that for a while, but then people in my social circle moved on to whatsapp and would never answer their phone or texts... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- saalweachter 11y agoI use a separate music player just because I like non-singular points of failure. The idea of carrying a single object that is your means of communication / music player / camera / train ticket / monetary instrument / entertainment center is neat, until you think about your battery dying / losing it / dropping it and having it crack in half when you're a hundred miles from home. I guess it is less bad if you tend to travel in packs, and would always have a backup in that way.
- asimuvPR 11y agoFour or five years ago I used a cheap-o flip phone and loved it. Been thinking about going back to it but don't want to lose the ability to take really nice pictures at any moment. :/
- Piskvorrr 11y agoMy current phone finally worked around the "answering" workflow with "push Home button to pick up, push Power to reject". Not perfect, but okay.
- anexprogrammer 11y agoSame. I used to be able to text without ever looking at the screen I seem to have passed peak-smartphone, I check it much less often, and phone more. I've been tempted a few times by the flip-smartphones that exist in the Far East - I wish they were available here so I could trial one in a store. Don't want to buy until I decide if they're best of both worlds, or worst...
- dkersten 11y agoI used to be able to text without ever looking at the screen Not exactly the same, but I've noticed that if I type with my eyes closed, I'm both faster and make fewer errors than when I look at the screen. I guess its because I can just let my muscle memory do its thing without distraction.
- yellowbeard 11y agoUsing swipe I can write on a smart phone without looking at the screen. Problem is some auto corrects will be wrong. Not perfect, but close. Longer words do better.
- romaniv 11y agoI would buy a Japanese flip/smart phone in a second if it was properly supported outside of Japan. From what I heard, they have weird rules about warranty and even software updates outside of the country. It's really annoying to be forced in the direction of fake technological "progress" that's mostly a result of extensive marketing. There is no fundamental reason why a smart phone can't have proper keys for calling. There are couple of Android flip phones on the market, but since Android UI is designed 100% for touchscreens, I am pretty sure the experience of using them will be horrible.
- icebraining 11y agoThat's why I use a cheap featurephone with a keyboard and a touchscreen tablet. Smartphones are a poor hybrid, in my opinion.
- nojvek 11y agoI had higher satisfaction with my 3310 than any phone I've ever had. It just worked. Nokia really knew what they were doing back then.