Electronics

[gardenman]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

I just heard a consumer report on TV that said the "guts" of cell phones has changed very little over the years.  I wonder what they've improved?

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Most of the changes are incremental and software-related these days. Everything in the way of devices they could cram into a phone has been crammed into a phone for a while now. Apple's new crash detection relies on using software to combine the readings from the GPS and accelerometer.

Their satellite calling seems to not even need major new hardware. (At least not on the phone.) You just have to point your phone's internal antenna directly at their satellite and hope it makes a connection. Once again, more of a software than hardware update. The satellite maker Globalstar seems like they had to do most of the hardware stuff on their end. Which is borrowing the electronic eavesdropping technology used by the NSA and others to monitor electronic communications here on Earth from a satellite.

And unlike a true satellite phone, this is more of a very basic satellite texting thing. On a real satellite phone you can talk to someone. On Apple's version you're given options to choose from which compresses the texts to a very small size. You choose from options like: "Vehicle issue, Sickness or Injury, Crime, Lost or Trapped, and Fire. Instead of texting all of those letters they need only assign a single digit to each one.  A vehicle issue could be 1. Hurt could be 2. Crime 3. etc. By doing it this way and giving you a menu to choose from the phone can simply text something like 41532 to let rescuers know five answers to questions without needing more than five characters to be texted to the satellite. Given that data and your GPS location, they can send you the help you need. And the phone likely has certain responses programmed in so it knows if it gets a text back of 1, it'll mean help is on the way.

There really isn't anything revolutionary going on with phones these days. Most of the changes are more evolutionary than revolutionary. If you like the phone you've got, keep it. If you want or need more, there are lots of options out there.

[Reever]

Ive long been of the opinion nobody needs these expensive devices. Many of us lived happily from the 1950s into the 1990s without being tethered to a telephone.

[Sooner]

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@Reever wrote:

Ive long been of the opinion nobody needs these expensive devices. Many of us lived happily from the 1950s into the 1990s without being tethered to a telephone.

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@Reever You can get by without a washing machine, refrigerator, power steering and radio in your car, and television too.  But do you want to?  

I don't think you would be happily back in the 1950's.  Manypeople weren't burdened by electric bills from an air  conditioner in the 50's though--so is that a good thing? 

[gardenman]

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@Reever wrote:

Ive long been of the opinion nobody needs these expensive devices. Many of us lived happily from the 1950s into the 1990s without being tethered to a telephone.

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If you were going someplace in the 1950's-1970's and wanted photos, video, or to have music to listen to, you'd need a transistor radio for the music and just have to listen to whatever radio station you could get. For photos, you'd need a film camera, and for home movies, you'd need a movie camera with all that went with it. (Lighting, extra film, filters, and more.) If you didn't want to get lost, you'd need maps.

In the 1970's-1990's, if you wanted music with you and to record your memories on the trip you'd need something like a Walkman and cassette tapes, a film camera (or an early digital one) for photos, and a large, bulky camcorder for video. GPS units first started to pop up in the 90's but most people still relied on maps. Cell phones started to appear but were large, heavy, and just phones. They did nothing else

These days I can carry all of my music (over nine thousand songs) with me on my phone. I always have a still camera, video camera, GPS unit, calculator, Rolodex, games, access to the Internet, phone, and more all in one little phone I slip into my back pocket. And I can do it all for less than $100 a year. I used to spend more than that a year developing film. 

When you look at all of the stuff you used to have to pack for a trip or outing and compare it to today, it's night and day the difference. I no longer have to carry quarters to use at a pay phone. I don't need the right batteries for the various devices I'm carrying. I just grab my phone and go. I don't have to choose which cassette tapes to take with me. All of my music goes with me wherever I go. If I get lost, I just look at the GPS on my phone and it'll plot a course for me. 

Does one need a smartphone? Well no, but they make life a whole lot easier than it used to be.

[Bri369]

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@Reever wrote:

Ive long been of the opinion nobody needs these expensive devices. Many of us lived happily from the 1950s into the 1990s without being tethered to a telephone.

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It's more than a phone.  Yes, many people lived happily without such a device.  Such a device is invaluable to most people today.  

It's 2022.  LOL

[gadgetgal613]

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@Reever wrote:

Ive long been of the opinion nobody needs these expensive devices. Many of us lived happily from the 1950s into the 1990s without being tethered to a telephone.

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People also didn't have indoor plumbing or electricity.  People who don't keep up with technology regret it sooner or later.  When I first stated doing Home Care, I had Patients with rotary phones.  Most companies had automated answering set up with menus for people to use.  When the time came to press 1 for this or 2 for that, they weren't able to do it.  You had to have a "tone" phone to procede.  I lost count to how many times I had to use my cell phone to help these people.  So you may want to live in the past or glorify days gone by, I choose to stay up to date. 

[shoesnbags]

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@Sooner wrote:

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@Reever wrote:

Ive long been of the opinion nobody needs these expensive devices. Many of us lived happily from the 1950s into the 1990s without being tethered to a telephone.

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@Reever You can get by without a washing machine, refrigerator, power steering and radio in your car, and television too.  But do you want to?  

I don't think you would be happily back in the 1950's.  Manypeople weren't burdened by electric bills from an air  conditioner in the 50's though--so is that a good thing? 

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@Sooner 

@Reeverwill have to answer for herself, but there are folks who actually would be happy to be "back in the 1950s."  I'm definitely not one of them!!

[paixmcdao]

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@Reever wrote:

Ive long been of the opinion nobody needs these expensive devices. Many of us lived happily from the 1950s into the 1990s without being tethered to a telephone.

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Which electronics do you utilize to send emails, and comment on message boards?