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>> This news will come as a welcome relief to anyone who hates having to watch concerts through a sea of smartphone screens Alright. Tangent before getting on
by developer2 10y ago
>> This news will come as a welcome relief to anyone who hates having to watch concerts through a sea of smartphone screens
Alright. Tangent before getting on point. I'm someone who hasn't been to a movie theatre in the past 6 years except for Avatar and Inception in 2009/2010. My blood boils every single time I see a cell phone pulled out to check the time, reply to emails or text messages, or "quietly" answer a call "I'm at a movie, I can't talk now, I'll call you later... 2 more minutes of talking". I just can't handle it. I'm not a very angry person, and I've never even been in a fistfight, but I truly have a hard time resisting shouting at these people, or grabbing their phone out of their hands and smashing it.
I will only go to see the best of the best in theatre now; the films that must absolutely be seen on a large IMAX screen with booming bass audio. I cannot handle the situation of cell phones shining in my face in a dark theatre. I fully advocate Faraday cages inside theatre rooms. Make it so that signal works just outside the doors of the theatre, but not within it. Gunmen, fires, and "family emergencies" do not warrant cell phone usage in a theatre. They didn't exist 30 years ago; if you can't go 2 hours without your phone, don't go the theatre.
But fuck this. I've been an iPhone user since the 3G (3G, 4, then 6). If this patent ever becomes integrated, I will give up my ecosystem with my MacBook and iPhone and switch. No way in hell do I accept having my camera locked out in whatever location anybody decides to block it. What a way for police states to deny the recording of government employees breaking the law. I expect I'd think differently were I a concert-goer (clearly I would despise people pulling out their bright phones in a dark concert hall). But this... this is going too far.
Thankfully this patent is already 5-7 years old without being used. Let's hope this is one of those patents that sits around as a piece of intellectual property without ever being used. The potential for abuse is too high.