On phones....
It's no secret that I hate phones. With a vengeance.
I have a blackberry 8830. It's supposed to be one of the world's finest smartphones. I hate it. It's slow, the apps suck, the UI sucks, and mostly everything about it sucks. I hate using it. It hates me. When I bought it apparently it was like the world's best phone. Ok, fair enough, maybe I just don't grok it. Or maybe it's just a piece of crap.
The best thing about having it is when I go out with friends and I pull it out; someone always asks "How do you like your phone?"
I always say, "I hate it." Then for some reason they get all emotional about it.
"Well, have you tried the iphone?" they always say. First of all, in order to make the iphone useful, you have to jailbreak it. This is apparently ok, because if you don't know, iphones are apparently ok, and blackberries to a certain extent, but not windows phones, they're apparently more evil. Apprentley if you're into OSS, then the iphone is the place to be.
So I live with my blackberry with the google features; mail, calendar, etc. "Exchange for the rest of us".
I am waiting to see what android brings to the table, and as of today what symbian brings to the game as well. I think RIM is in trouble because they suck at UI and making an easy-to-use phone. I think apple sucks for the obvious reasons, though I suspect they'll get the typical get-out-of-jail free card that they seem to enjoy.
But "Wait Jorge, I saw 'David Garrett' and 'Matthew Zeuthen' using iPhones at FOSSCamp, FOSDEM and other open source conferences, surely how dare you lecture us on fucking cellular phones!" I can't speak for these mythological creatures, but I'm sure they'll be at guadec trying to justify how they sold us out. :)
What phone are you looking forward to? Is Android the long sought after solution to this problem? Will I finally get an easy to use phone that doesn't suck? And even if it does suck, will it being open source make it suck less?
Dude, you need one of them thar iphones... it does calls and everything.
Posted by: troldrik | June 24, 2008 at 18:46
My question is, why even assume you won't hate your phone? It's software, and http://we.hates-software.com . All hate, all the time.
Pick your least hate -- unfortunate but true.
Posted by: Luke Kanies | June 24, 2008 at 18:51
You don't have a phone. You have a very dumb, crippled, encumbered handheld computer.
I have a device that makes and receives phone calls. ie: a phone
I also have a crackberry, so I feel your pain.
What I think you need is a WLAN card for your small laptop. Walla: internet access with real applications, a real keyboard and a real OS.
Posted by: tm | June 24, 2008 at 18:55
I'm looking forward to the openmoko / neo freerunner.
Cheaper and more open than an iPhone. Less encumbered than a blackberry (or iPhone), and it happens to run Linux.
Posted by: Alan Pope | June 24, 2008 at 19:16
I'm looking forward to a phone that isn't completely locked down by a carrier. Saywhat you will about the iPhone, but the tech is pretty cool, and the design is really slick. The biggest issues are the control freaks running the show: Apple and AT&T. I'm not willing to give either of them a free pass on why the iPhone is completely locked up.
I'm also looking forward to one of these mythical Linux phones showing up on planet Earth. It seems I have more of a chance to see a Yeti, bigfoot, the tooth fairy, and the loch ness monster sitting down for tea than I have of seeing a Linux phone in the wild.
THe blackberry was the phone I was looking forward to checking out when I decide to get a new phone. I think I'll wait some more.
Posted by: Craig Maloney | June 24, 2008 at 19:38
Android (or OpenMoko) being open source makes the inevitable suck be your problem. At least that means you can do something about it though. When the iPhone sucks you have no way of fixing it or getting it fixed.
I worked at Danger for four years and it was really nice to have the complete source code for my phone on my laptop so if I wanted to change something I could tweak the source, rebuild it and flash a new image. I miss that a lot. It's really important for a device I use all day.
Ian
Posted by: Ian McKellar | June 24, 2008 at 20:10
When there's a Unix-running phone that's more open than the iphone and is actually usable (so, scratch anything ever made by Motorola or the OpenMoko platform), I'm there. Totally. In a heartbeat.
Posted by: Matthew Garrett | June 24, 2008 at 20:10
I don't know anything about the hardware yet, but if even a few of these Android apps live up to these poofs of concepts, I'm sold.
http://www.ismashphone.com/2008/05/top-50-google-a.html
I think Google/Open Handset Alliance is definitely going about the software development aspect the right way. This Android Developer Challenge helps, too
Posted by: Wade Menard | June 24, 2008 at 22:50
I guess the real question is what do you want from a phone?
Personally I want to have a device that allows me to make and take phone calls from my friends. Note that I'm not particularly concerned about accepting calls from strangers, and I honestly don't think it matters whether it is a cell phone or not.
The thing is that what I want doesn't have to be what other people think of when they picture a 'phone.' Obviously it's not going to be a ham radio, but a pda with Gnome Meeting, (Ekigia now I guess) with gateways that I can have control over would be sufficient for my needs. Most of the time. It could even be a Jabber client with peer-to-peer voip built in so that I can decide if I would like to change from IM chatting with the person to actually talking to them.
It doesn't have to have voice mail. In fact there are times I would prefer that it didn't. If one builds it on jabber the 'phone' could be built to look like a cell phone, or N800, and work across open AP WiFi, or pay to be part of a community wifi network and have 'roaming' capabilities. Add a WiMax or 3G modem, and the 'phone' works wherever you can get data service.
Some might suggest using an N800 or N810 with an Astrix server to provide yourself with such phone service. That misses the point of not caring if I'm attached to a 'phone' network. For that matter a Sharp Zaurus sl-5500 would cover that. No need to go with even a 770.
The only other thing I would like is that it support true hands free operation. Whether that means speaker phone with voice recognition to initiate calls, or something else, doesn't really matter to me. It can even be a wired headphone and mic, or a bluetooth headset.
But that's me. I'm not particularly impressed with any of the 'smart phones' out there. I happen to use a SideKick3, but won't be replacing it with a 4 or any other SideKick when it kicks the bucket. It's not that the platform is closed, just that pretty much everything that I would like to do with it can now be done with other hardware on the market, for the same or less, and without the pricey monthly service charges.
Posted by: rusty | June 25, 2008 at 00:28
Pretty much every phone I've seen is, for some reason, unusably shit. I'm not entirely sure why this is, since surely the problem space can't be impossible, but apparently it is.
Posted by: daniels | June 25, 2008 at 02:20
Bring on the OpenMoko FreeRunner with Debian I say!
Posted by: pabs | June 25, 2008 at 08:25
Well, I have to say if you already have a BlackBerry, you're used to a proprietary phone that won't do anything with your computer, so in that regard, the iPhone would be a much more usable and slick replacement for that. I'm considering that switch, but I'm holding out hope for Android. (Like Craig though, not *too* much hope, unfortunately.)
The BlackBerry is reasonably good for proprietary developers, which is why we have premier products like all the Google ones (Calendar sync and Talk would be hard to give up without adequate replacements), Facebook, and the Flickr uploader. Apple will attract a better community than that, I'd wager.
Jorge, you have any trouble with your trackball yet? Mine stopped working and, for me, that was the last straw. "Damned RIM went and reinvented obsolete technology that has very specific and common problems with dirt." Following the instructions only marginally helped: http://tinyurl.com/2wmvo4.
Posted by: Andrew Conkling | June 25, 2008 at 08:56
Andrew,
My trackball works fine, though I think I preferred their old side scrolling wheel thinger better.
Posted by: jorge | June 25, 2008 at 12:57
Weren't the Palm phones open? I mean, couldn't you put apps on them? Yes, PalmOS isn't Unix. But i have an n800, and though it's Unix, it's hard to tell.
I go a little further about hating cell phones. Mine only rang when i was driving. I don't want to talk on the phone while driving. So i ditched it.
Unfortunately, the phone companies no longer provide pay phones. So i may have to get a phone for safety reasons. Perhaps one that can only call would be good.
Posted by: Stephen | June 25, 2008 at 15:03
All phones suck, I don't look forward to any of them honestly. I use the FREE phones you get when signing a 2 year deal that ring when someone calls and dials when I need to call. Everything else is what my computer is for. Plus, I rarely answer my phone unless I feel like talking or it is my daughter. Everyone else I ignore, unless it says Jorge of course!
Posted by: nixternal | June 26, 2008 at 00:22
I have some old crack nokia phone. It has like a 8 colour display. The buttons suck when writing sms. I am unable to see a thing on the display when the sun is shining.
Basically I (can) only use the calling and alarmclock features.
The phone costs 40 euro wholesale.
Although you get what you pay for and it has the most important feature (primairy feature is calling, some people forget that). I would not recommend it.
I am orientating on a new phone, but they all suck so I guess until I thr^H^H drop it against the wall by accident I will stick with this one. Please post it on your blog if you found a phone which does not suck.
Posted by: Herman Bos | June 26, 2008 at 02:13