Reg readers take mobile makers to task When Freeform Dynamics asked you for your opinion of your mobile phone, you didn’t hesitate to give it to us. Both barrels, in some cases. We asked you a bunch of multiple-choice questions which delivered some interesting statistical information. But we also asked you to comment here and there. Your replies gave us some real …
We don't all live next to base stations.
My 5 year old Sony Ericson works so much better than my brand new (cheap though) Samsung, both for reception in my out of the way village in Cambs, and for the menus. The SS was obvious designed by a cadre of monkeys randomly bashing coconuts against banana and seeing where the bits landed.
.. get rid of the so.-called "helpful" menus on mobile voicemail.
Their sole and single purpose is to waste time, which thus turns into extra revenue minutes on a truyl staggering scale for no benefit to the end user (I think the last person who didn't understand what voicemail or a recorded message was must have buried quite a while back)..
This is also why they are often impossible to bypass (the best example of that I had recently where a voice mail system started again from the beginning if you dared to touch a key too early).
"deliberate ploy to make you hit internet connection functions by accident in order to deliver more revenue to the telcos"
haha - "oh, hold on - it's run off to the internet again" - used to be a frequent comment when using almost-smart phones like the k800, where every second button seemed to fire up either a web browser or some really heavy, gaudy, pay-content-delivery system which you had to wait to load (5/10 seconds) and then menu -> quit ->YESIMFRIKKINSURE before you could get on with using it....
I want my phone to have a strong transmitter and a sensitive receiver. I mean, the primary use of a phone is to make phone calls, right? That's ALL I want. The rest is fluff that is better handled by other equipment.
That's why I carry a ten year old Nokia 5185. It is unaffected by Sonoma County's notorious so-called "dead zones". Can't ask for more than that out of a telephone :-)
Hell, I once carried on a conversation up the Oakville Grade, down Trinity to Cavedale, and Cavedale to 12 without once losing the connection ... Try THAT with your iPhone or Crackberry!
The mobile makers make the phones for the carriers, not for us, the customers.
I want a decent (quad band) phone, that does nothing else (except texts), but I prefer the flip phone form factor, because the mic reaches my mouth and the ear-piece reaches my ear. It's simple ergonomics, that you can then make a phone that's smaller in the pocket, while physically blocking extraneous noise. And still have room for buttons that accommodate my fat fingers, and a screen that I can read without my glasses. Plus of course better battery life.
All that could probably be done for £50-60, and I'd happily buy direct. But it's not happening with the current business model, and the money hungry carriers desperately want me using the net, MMS and buying music, hence the feature-creep.
On the cynical person in the survey I could point out that my first Razr had a hardwired internet button that couldn't be disabled, right next to the on/off hang-up button. Every time you pressed it you got charged about 15p to download Orange's crappy WAP portal. You're only paranoid if they aren't out to get you...
I would like to see a cheap, dumb, jacket pocket sized addon unit, standardised for all top phones.
Outside, the lid could incorporate a trackpad (for use by left hand) plus a solar cell perhaps. Open lid to reveal e-paper screen (8x grayscale), plus k/b as big as will fit.
Now attach phone to rhs of lid for close data/power path & provide speaker & camera, its OLED screen would show part of a page around the mouse position.
Unit could contain an ultra-cap for when phone needs to be a short distance away, & might need a slider control for when the text gets lost in the background.
There, design done for you, now someone make it please.
Personally, I don't even want a phone that does texts, nevermind accessing teh intertubes.
Everything apart from voice calling is an unnecessary add on, and I agree about the deliberate placing of internet access keys to catch people out.
The best place for a mobile phone is at the bottom of the nearest harbour.
We saw an ad a while back that said "Want to order a pizza on your iPhone? There's an app for that!" My wife turned to me and said "couldn't you already order a pizza with any phone?" That's the kind of thinking we need with phone makers! Just make one that can place and receive calls. Anything else you want to spend, put into longer battery life. In my ideal world, there would only be around 5 kinds of mobile phones, and none of them would have internet capabilities.
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