Tag: cell phones

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A Silly Little SmartPhone

Over on “The Birdsite” there continues to be no end of apologists, seekers of Lord Manchild’s (as I’ve nicknamed Musk) attention, and defenders of Elon Musk’s every move. Twitter is Going Great chronicles so much, but this new nonsense takes the cake. Attention-Seeker Liz Wheeler jumped into the fray on Twitter basically challenging Musk to take action if the Twitter app is pulled from the App Store and Google Play. According to her, “Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?” I…

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Camera Evolution

On the eve of the iPhone 14 announcement, I thought it would be good to pause and look back on this fantastic comparison the folks at Simple Ghar mocked up. The team over there went through and compared photos from Samsung, Apple, and other smartphones going back to 2000. To compare the capabilities of camera phones over the years, SimpleGhar’s experts gathered data on the tech specs of the best-selling devices and those that made a significant leap in image quality. Then, we created mock-up images of the effect each camera phone would have on a consistent set of sample…

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T-Mobile Looks To The Stars

In an event that wasn’t leaked beforehand or tipped off to any insiders, T-Mobile made a big announcement last week. The company, which merged with Sprint recently, will partner with Starlink to fill in gaps within their coverage map. The coolest part? It will work with existing cell phones without the need to buy special equipment. Eli Blumenthal at CNet has more. …with this program T-Mobile users should be able to connect to the SpaceX satellites through a “new network, broadcast from Starlink’s satellites using T-Mobile’s midband spectrum nationwide.”  Although the company hasn’t yet offered specifics on where the network…

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BlackBerry Meant Well

There is a fascinating time between January 2007 and January 2010 in the world of smartphones. This short 3-year span was one where Apple was blazing a trail with the iPhone and other manufacturers responding in kind. One standout is the BlackBerry Storm phone. It was a revolutionary failure. Rewinding to Steve Jobs’ unveiling of the iPhone, we were told something we’d never considered as consumers prior: the buttons on a phone were set forever. The iPhone could change or hide buttons whenever. At this time the BlackBerry line was THE smartphone to own. Many came for it and it…

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Next Of Kin

The unveiling of a new product is a milestone for any company. Years of R&D, hundreds of hours in meetings, immense time and money spent, all to coalesce into a single moment: the launch. Every company has high hopes for their new products, but some fly higher than others. Even mediocre products can float along for years before a company kills them off. In 2010 Microsoft held one of their unveilings. A mysterious new product aimed at an under-targeted demographic was to unleash a new era of communications. They had all their ducks in a row: the experience of an…

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The Longform

Page ‘Em

It’s a beautiful day in the woods. Far off the grid, away from stores, people, or even shelters more stable than a tent, Jeff Wilson is backpacking through deep woods. It’s a return to nature that brings him enjoyment and is a complete disconnection from society. But Jeff has no connection to the world at large and in this case, unaware of what is coming. He is deep in the forest when a loud series of beeps emits from his pocket. The small plastic rectangle continues to sound until Jeff pulls it out and silences it with a push of…