5 ms·
No, but a smartphone is not a computer. Smartphones are capable of computing and are sometimes very powerful, but the analogy is totally out of wack in my opin
by nkkollaw 8y ago
No, but a smartphone is not a computer.
Smartphones are capable of computing and are sometimes very powerful, but the analogy is totally out of wack in my opinion.
If you can live without using an actual computer, it means you don't really need computers. You can check your email and browser the web on a Kindle, on your TV, or even your car.
Everything is a computer, then.
I think a computer is a productivity tool. Smartphones (and I'd definitely say tablets, too) are to consume content, not produce it. Some companies (most notably Apple I think) believe otherwise, but I think they'll have to come to realize that smartphones and tablets are horrible to produce most kinds of content.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- _emacsomancer_ 8y agoCertainly in the rough sense of 'Turing machine' a smartphone is clearly a computer. And, even in other senses, I can connect a keyboard to my S5, open up Termux, run ffmpeg, open up Emacs --- all on the smartphone itself, not through ssh or anything. But it's hardly as productive as a regular laptop or desktop, of course, but that's largely due to screen size, lack of keyboard (or lacklustre keyboard), and weakness of processing capacity compared to a desktop/laptop.
- nkkollaw 8y agoTotally agree. That's where the line is drawn I think. Otherwise everything is a computer.
- erikpukinskis 8y agoI can’t check my email on my Kindle or my car. Maybe cut to the chase: what specific capability is an iPhone lacking that every “real computer” has?
- nkkollaw 8y agoIf a keyboard (and a decent-sized screen) can be added, definitely a mouse and a mouse-centric interface. I have tried using an iPad Pro for productivity, and it's living hell.
- seandougall 8y ago> definitely a mouse and a mouse-centric interface. Wouldn’t that mean most servers aren’t computers? Not to mention the DOS machines I grew up with, or everything made before the Xerox Alto? > I have tried using an iPad Pro for productivity, and it's living hell. Not going to disagree with you there. But that doesn’t make it not-a-computer.
- nkkollaw 8y agoThose are servers. If we want to classify devices, we need to group them somehow. Otherwise we call them devices and call it a day.
- icebraining 8y agoServers are still computers. We already classify them: smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, servers are all groups of computers.
- zingmars 8y agoHis old DOS machines certainly weren't servers. Not having a GUI does not make a machine a server and having a GUI does not make a computer not-a-server (especially since we have graphics chips inside CPUs now).
- mc808 8y agoEven though you're technically wrong (the best kind of wrong), I can see where you're coming from. Even microcontroller ICs without enough memory to store this comment are real computers and are silent, but if you say you've built a silent computer and then unveil some Arduino contraption, expect eyes to roll. That said, I still think smartphones qualify as computers even by your productivity definition. Newer smartphones would sit somewhere above older netbooks on a ranking of overall utility.
- bschwindHN 8y agoA smartphone absolutely is a computer. It's maybe not a "productive" computer for a lot of workloads, but it still carries out operations and produces output based on the input it is fed. You're just making up your own definition of "computer" and then claiming a smartphone isn't one because it doesn't match your made up definition.
- nkkollaw 8y agoIf the definition is so broad, my oven and fridge are computers.
- zingmars 8y agoYour oven and fridge (probably) has a computer within them, but they're not computers themselves.
- nkkollaw 8y agoAccording to that definition, yes. You have programs, you have a UI to control them, they have a CPU and memory.
- zingmars 8y agoAnd "that definition" is the official dictionary definition and it works. There is no need to redefine it like you tried to.
- guhidalg 8y agoWhy not? They have buttons and speakers (I/O), I can program a timer on them, and there’s a little processor in there somewhere. How is that different from an iPad?
- zingmars 8y agoThe computer that has those things is part of the oven, but it is not the oven itself.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]