It has been ages since I started a new blog series, but for the last couple of weeks an idea for a new series has been brewing: My Techviews.
As you can guess from the title it is not going to be about movies (although there surely will be some tech/movie related posts), but it is a new series where I will be sharing my thoughts about tech related things. This might sometimes be some new tech I think is awesome, but it could also be about my frustrations with them. I hope you will enjoy reading this new series as much as I like writing it.
Mobile Phones
The first subject? Mobile phones. Around 80 percent of people (5.9 billion) own a mobile phone and that number is quickly growing. I have had one since 1999 and in those 14 years I have probably owned about 6 or 7 different models, so roughly a new one every 2 years. The reason for upgrading was easy for a while, since you would get one for “free” when renewing your contract and phones were quickly changing, being able to perform more fuctions. A couple of years ago I started looking at the costs and realised it would be cheaper to buy the phone myself and just get a “sim only” subscription, which is a lot cheaper. After this, the only time to upgrade my phone would usually be when it didn’t work properly anymore, but looking around me I feel like I am one of the few people doing it that.
My own phone
When is the last time you got a new phone? I bought the one I have now at the beginning of 2011. While my old phone was still working (a Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic) I got a new one because of 2 reasons:
1. I was watching quite a lot of movies on my phone and each time had to convert them to a format the phone would be able to play. It started to get annoying and I wanted a phone which could natively play specific formats.
2. The most important reason though was that I knew I would become a father that year. I wanted to have a great camera with me at any time, so I could snap great quality pictures
What I ended up buying was the Nokia N8, which has a 12 megapixel camera, a great videoplayer and the option to connect it to a TV via HDMI in order to watch movies on a big screen. It is a phone I still use every day (although my movie watching is now done on my Nexus 7) and I don’t feel the need to replace it. Sure it is running Symbian and does not have all the cool apps available on iOS and Android, but to be honest I don’t miss that. The functions for which I bought the phone are still great. The camera, even though this phone is over 2 years old, still is as good (or even better) than the latest phones coming out. The phone is still working perfectly and does exactly the things I expect it to do (besides the standard phone functions) which are being able to check my mail, make pictures and listen to music.
Do you really need to upgrade?
I’m a big fan of gadgets and read about the latest developments each day. Phones are getting faster, screen resolutions higher and more options are always added. Buying a new shiny gadget is always tempting, but you should just ask yourself: Why do I need a new phone and what are the things the phone you want offer that your current phone doesn’t? It might be a bit quicker, but do you really need a faster more powerful phone if you are doing basic things with it? I can imagine that if you are big on gaming it might add something, but the few (milli)seconds of saved time might not be worth the premium price you pay for them.
But what if you are looking for a new phone and have movies in mind? In next week’s installment I will try to suggest some phones you might want to consider.
A year ago, we “upgraded” from older Blackberries to the iPhone 4. The Blackberries had gotten tired and iPhones were on sale for 99 cents. We hate them. They do everything EXCEPT make phone calls. The audio sucks. I use it for emergencies. I carry a Canon Powershot S100 everywhere. It takes pictures almost as good as my DSLR. It’s nominally larger than a cell phone. Why would anyone take important pictures on a telephone exceptional point & shoots are available at a great price? I’m no fan of cell phones. We miss our Blackberries.
The people I know who have iPhones generally don’t complain about them, but I don’t know how much they use them to actually makes calls 😉
Personally I’m very happy with the pictures my N8 makes, quality is great and a phone is something I will carry with me at all times. Sure a purpose built device will produce better pictures, but at the formats I print pictures (if I ever do) the quality is good enough. Went to Norway last year and most of the pictures I took were with my phone…they looked great in a photo book I made.
A lot of people use their phones, but if you’ve never tried a camera — nothing fancy, just a regular little point and shoot, you would see differences that might surprise you simply because there are so many more things you can do with a camera you can’t so with a phone. Even if all you ever do is post things on line (which is mostly what I do too .. a almost NEVER print pictures anymore). But a phone is way better than no pictures. I wish cell phone makers would remember that the original purpose was to be able to make voice contact and maybe put some effort into voice transmission quality. It’s obviously not happening; I’m not going to tilt at that particular windmill.
I do have a camera and I agree it makes better pictures, but I just do not carry it around as much 🙂
Interesting question. I tend to drag my feet on technology but then jump in whole heartedly.
My first mobile phone was a standard Nokia that came with the contract in 2000. I then got an additional mobile phone through work in 2002, a Nextel radio (walky-talky) phone. In 2003 I got whatever Nokia came with the renewed service contract with my personnel mobile phone service. In 2005 when I became partners in a company and jettisoned the Nokia and went with Blackberry reluctantly–I was not a fan of the easy access people would have to me and the constant connectivity.
My business partner being a mobile phone fanatic, I knew when the iPhone was first released we would be getting it, and we did in 2007. I kept that phone until the iPhone-5 came-out, and I upgraded to it in 2012. By the end my first generation iPhone was running very slow, the few apps I do have would crash constantly, and Apple was no longer updating the operating system.
I’m still not the biggest fan of the constant connectivity, but I do take advantage of it.
Any smart phone is a great tool. It is an all-in-one device that allows me to take photos during a walk-thru with clients, send photos of problems/questions to the appropriate design professional, read and reply to e-mails that require immediate attention, as well as actually call someone to communicate. The apps have also made my life easier–the metric/English unit converter being used weekly.
I’ll most likely keep the iPhone-5 for as long as the operating system is supported by Apple. Hopefully as long a run as my first iPhone.
So you do use your phones as long as you can Victor 🙂 I could do without the constant connectivity, but then again it is cool to be able to check your mail wherever you are (that’s what I use mostly)
Well…sadly yes, you do need to upgrade as they tend to die after 2 years. I’ve had my Blackberry for 2 years and it is definitely close to its last day. 🙂 However I am gonna get exactly the same as I quite like it. I am not really interested in the latest mobiles as I couldn’t care less about stupid apps and features. 🙂
My experience is that Nokias don’t die quickly…most I had still worked well! Good idea to get the same one because they probably have become way cheaper.
I haven’t carried a cell phone for five years. I suppose I should probably pick one up again for emergencies (can’t rely on quarters and pay phones when there are hardly any more pay phones), but that’s really the only pressing concern.
Wow, not a lot of people have no phone and I think it is cool you are doing without! You could get one of the very basic ones like John’s Phone 🙂 : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1330125/Johns-Phone-Worlds-simplest-mobile-phone-lets-make-calls.html