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Things that made original cell phones not dumb: Removable batteries with aftermarket suppliers way less costly than factory originals. Small enough to fit in

Things that made original cell phones not dumb: Removable batteries with aftermarket suppliers way less costly than factory originals. Small enough to fit in the pocket easily, or flip form for versatility. Each battery lasting over 2 weeks and you could stockpile them for extended off-grid use. External battery chargers included. Tactile keypads. Physical connection for external antenna for better reception, as well as audio interface for hands-free car use, analog headgear etc. Things that made original smart phones smart: USB at least plus possibly Bluetooth connection for use as a modem or virtual com or ethernet port as an interface to PC for internet access/faxing, as well as mass storage mode so the phone's file system appears no differently than a regular external drive. Free downloads of manufacturers' PC software to interface phone to PC, for file management, text/picture/video message composition/viewing, personalized backup/restoration, etc. Removable Memory Stick (Sony) or SD card. Prices no higher than $500, which itself was too extravagant to be accepted by many, mostly those requiring it for business. Superior OS compared to either Android or IOS. Email & internet access provided by cell carrier without need for special mobile consideration on web sites. Full manufacturer support independent of cell carrier. Without these a phone can not be very smart. When the iPhone appeared with exorbitant pricing and lacking the traditional smart features, plus substituting dumb things like non-removable battery, it was too bad people settled for that.

pixelatedindex 3y ago
> it was too bad people settled for that. Power users / tech steeped people like us will care a lot about the original cell phones’ antennas, tactile keypads. But 90% of the public don’t care. And the 10% who are people like us cannot continue using our niche products with no interoperability with iOS/Android, if we expect to keep up with the rest of the society that has now been accustomed to a sealed slab. Basically, I disagree with the premise that people “settled” for it - the majority a car when they were accustomed to riding horses.
- fuzzfactor 3y ago
  Good to see your thoughtful and realistic response. But I will still point to the way the two surviving OS's are not so interoperable with each other, and a sealed slab is mainly not just the embodiment of planned obsolescence, but disposable electronics by intention. Apple really doubled down as an anti-reuse/anti-recycling company along the lines of Microsoft's influence. The experience from horses to cars is a good amount of accurate hindsight, and it was only the early adopters who got cars for quite some time. I would say some equivalence is like with the older technology horse the rider could go places the car never will be able to, but the car did get people where most wanted to go and that's where the roads were because people were already going there. What really did it was getting there faster and the stimulating feeling of speed like never before. With the iPhone it was bigger more flexible screen real estate and the stimulating ability to "watch TV" anytime on a device you were going to carry all the time anyway. Once the mainstream saw what the early adopters were doing there was nothing but envy until they were doing it themselves. Maybe one thing to agree about settling for is the initial neglect for the environmental effect of both transitions.

pixelatedindex 3y ago

> it was too bad people settled for that. Power users / tech steeped people like us will care a lot about the original cell phones’ antennas, tactile keypads. But 90% of the public don’t care. And the 10% who are people like us cannot continue using our niche products with no interoperability with iOS/Android, if we expect to keep up with the rest of the society that has now been accustomed to a sealed slab. Basically, I disagree with the premise that people “settled” for it - the majority a car when they were accustomed to riding horses.

fuzzfactor 3y ago
Good to see your thoughtful and realistic response. But I will still point to the way the two surviving OS's are not so interoperable with each other, and a sealed slab is mainly not just the embodiment of planned obsolescence, but disposable electronics by intention. Apple really doubled down as an anti-reuse/anti-recycling company along the lines of Microsoft's influence. The experience from horses to cars is a good amount of accurate hindsight, and it was only the early adopters who got cars for quite some time. I would say some equivalence is like with the older technology horse the rider could go places the car never will be able to, but the car did get people where most wanted to go and that's where the roads were because people were already going there. What really did it was getting there faster and the stimulating feeling of speed like never before. With the iPhone it was bigger more flexible screen real estate and the stimulating ability to "watch TV" anytime on a device you were going to carry all the time anyway. Once the mainstream saw what the early adopters were doing there was nothing but envy until they were doing it themselves. Maybe one thing to agree about settling for is the initial neglect for the environmental effect of both transitions.