ADN

[quote]Battery lasting.

While the phone has an autonomy of over 200 hours in idle state, when you use the camera or when you play mp3s, basically you consume processing power aka battery.
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true that and good point BlindG. I think that kind of thinking will keep some people from having a single-use mp3 phone, but the logistics are pretty easy. bring your wall-charger, and plug into wall of coffee shop, bookstore, or whereever (like work). have charger in car. Also, they have a thing you put batteries in, and it connects to my phone. and a spare battery in my laptop bag, and a phone to usb cable make it more than easy to make sure power is available. I also don't talk on the phone much, by most people's standards.

the other thing is the right now, my cell phone plays mp3 longer without needing a charge than my girl's iPod or either laptop.

Now, when you have to use a camera, the use of it, rarely exceeds 1-2 minutes and most of the times, you can still see the drain in battery. Imagine playing a series of songs in a trip through your phone. You'll end up without a cell within the first 30 minutes, ESPECIALLY if the mp3s are bigger (better encoding) which would mean that there's more processing power needed within the fixed time of the song!
Also, like emanon VERY VERY WELL pointed out (man, I had NEVER thought of that!), the sells of phones outnumber digicams and mp3 players ONLY because the phone itself is a "necesity" (to me, it's still under debate, whether a phone is a necesity for EACH AN EVERY SINGLE PERSON) and you can hardly find a phone these days that doesn't bear a camera and soon mp3 players.

Otherwise, I don't think that phones would be able to outnumber these specific-use devices.
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but to be honest, i will still walk and whistle or hum more than I walk around with a soundtrack of other people's music. I use it for memorization, reviewing my own recorded speech for typing up, or designing my own sound patterns for meditation.

I think all this technology garbage with fancy prancy in-built .mp3 players & camera gimmicks etc. is to just divert attention away that the damn network service itself is bloody CRAP!

Taking away from the whole idea on what the product is supposed to to- COMMUNICATE WHEN AWAY FROM A LANDLINE.


I know the problem doesn't happen everywhere, but I can walk two paces in my parents garage that's behind the telephone exchange tower, or drive along the coastal highway, and have no service. CDMA phones which are supposed to work everywhere, don't work at all more than 200km inland.

I hate all these poor-quality camera features etc., they are just gimmicks.

What's next- a car that wipes yourself when you have to run for a piss or shit behind a tree when out on the road?

I think Pete may have uncovered a conspiracy that unites the battery manufacturers and the cell phone service providers against the poor consumer. Either your battery will be dead so you can't complain about the crappy service, or you will distracted by your mad dash to purchase more energy cells to notice the crappy service.

On a more serious note, I read a study recently that measured the battery life of an mp3 player while it played DRM and non-DRM material. The extra processing required to play the DRM file resulted in close to 30% less playing time.

Sorry for the rant, folks. It's just that, I get so pissed off when I read about these gimmicks, since the mobile phone network service in Australia is so damn poor, especially when you need to rely on communication in remote places (you only get decent coverage in metropolitan areas, and those are few). And of course about the batteries & DRM.

QUOTE(Pete @ Nov 29 2006, 02:45 PM) Sorry for the rant, folks. It's just that, I get so pissed off when I read about these gimmicks, since the mobile phone network service in Australia is so damn poor, especially when you need to rely on communication in remote places (you only get decent coverage in metropolitan areas, and those are few). And of course about the batteries & DRM.

Oh, i feel you pete. i had cingular, and it wouldn't work in my house.

but, my girl got verizon,.. and we drove from california to louisiana to florida to newjersey, and she never once lost service. my cingular phone didn't work ANYWHERE i tried along the way. when we got to our destination, i changed immediately.

and when you are like me and drive 45 minutes to work through rural highways, a cell phone is crucial.

i got snow-swiped last year, and if my phone wasn't there... my car would have been found a week later.

in the winter, i carry food and a survival kit in my car, including snow gear.

... but you are right,.. no bell and whistle on my free decked out cinguar phone was worth the initial featureless phone i got with my basic verizon package.

I have all that because I can claim it as an expense, and my company get's me a good discount.