Phones: Less Talk, More Data

By  |  Friday, May 14, 2010 at 11:38 am

Speaking of the New York Times, here’s a nice story on the inevitable transformation of wireless phones into tiny computers that happen to be able to make phone calls. Maybe it’s time to come up with that new name for these gadgets. (I keep advocating for “PC,” but I seem to be alone…)

 
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  1. Bouke Timbermont Says:
    May 14th, 2010 at 11:02 pm

    Well I certainly agree we are moving towards an all-IP-based phone system, I don’t think we should start calling cellphone differently. I mean: we still use the name ‘computer’, while most people don’t actually ever use the calculator app on their PCs now do they? If you really want to call everything by it’s function, computer would now be called something like “human-interface communication, information and entertainment device. It also does work stuff”.

    Same with TVs: they are more than just offering tele-vision: nowadays you interact through them, ordering TV-shows, managing your movie-library or even surf the web.

    Come to think of it, we actually call systems by the function that sets them apart from our other devices: a TV is still a TV, despite the browsing, because it does offer a better viewing experience than your iPod or PC. Phones are called phones despite the online-functionality, because they are just better at making calls than your PC or iPad with skype.

  2. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    May 15th, 2010 at 1:14 am

    iPads, obviously!