Dedicated TXT device

[p.dath]

I was wondering, why doesn't someone make a cheap deadicated TXTing device?

I look at a lot of "younger" people and they only use their phones for TXTing. So why not produce a device that does just that. Scrap the speaker, microphone, 3G, GPRS, email, Bluetooth, WiFi, colour screen, and all those extra bits that add to the cost, and make a $100 device that just meets this markets needs.

I'm sure there must be a good idea why some enterprising company hasn't jumped on this bandwagon.

[Laava]

Good idea but the kids you talk of want all that other stuff regardless. So it would be a small market segment.

[Winston001]

What I wonder is why doesn't a canny manufacturer make a plain old-fashioned phone?? With a decent range and large buttons. Sod bluetooth etc etc. :mad:

[YellowDog]

A basic mobile phone is very cheap and all you need. You can pick up old phones on Trademe from $20.

Easiest and cheapest option is send TXT messages straight from you PC via the Internet.

[p.dath]

A basic mobile phone is very cheap and all you need. You can pick up old phones on Trademe from $20.

Easiest and cheapest option is send TXT messages straight from you PC via the Internet.

Not particularly portable ... and if you have to carry around a computer then it is not a cheap TXTing device.

[kevfromcoro]

...Easiest and cheapest option is send TXT messages straight from you PC via the Internet.

How do you do that??

[Spyke]

I think I would buy 1, that way if it broke it wouldn't be expensive to replace.

could possibly have the retail price at like $50 that would be a huge profit still. they could have it so its 1 cent a txt or something.

[Ragingrob]

My phone has a colour screen, video camera, bluetooth, whatever, and it cost $79 new from Vodafone lol... It'd be a waste of resources for them to make anything cheaper than that!

[wbks]

Fuckthat... I like that I can go on the net, take pxts, call people when I'm in too much of a rush to txt, and get other peoples files without those vodacom bastards leaching off me

[Ixion]

What I wonder is why doesn't a canny manufacturer make a plain old-fashioned phone?? With a decent range and large buttons. Sod bluetooth etc etc. :mad:

A lot more to the point is WTF the manufacturers can't get their shit together and come up with phones that aren't just a rehash of something from centuries ago.

Where' can I get a phone with a holographic projector ? Huh? Huh ? Why can't my phone be programmed to act as a remote for alarms and doors and such like ? Huh? Huh?

And have you tried to watch streaming video on a phone? It's just downright painful

And even the most basic stuff they do have is'nt properly interfaced. I can send a txt, and it has the date and time stamped on it, so I know when it was sent. But why in heaven's name are the geocoords not also stamped on the txt (optional setting of course for when you don't want them). Hell's bells it took them like twenty years just to get GPS in the things.

I get so pissed off with trying to work around luddite laziness.

PS . Why d' y' want large buttons? The whole point is to make them smaller. And when , in sweet Jesus' sake are they going to get voice activation and recognition working properly. Why the hell should I HAVE to press buttons. Just make the phone do what I tell it. Yes I know what they claim. I've tried it. It's crap.

Oh. And why can't the phone function as a small portable Xray machine. that would be really useful.

[YellowDog]

How do you do that??
Search Google for it. Lots of firms offer online TXT services.

BUT here is your cheap answer:

http://www.bulletin.net/product-txtwidget.html

[wbks]

A lot more to the point is WTF the manufacturers can't get their shit together and come up with phones that aren't just a rehash of something from centuries ago.

Where' can I get a phone with a holographic projector ? Huh? Huh ? Why can't my phone be programmed to act as a remote for alarms and doors and such like ? Huh? Huh?

And have you tried to watch streaming video on a phone? It's just downright painful

And even the most basic stuff they do have is'nt properly interfaced. I can send a txt, and it has the date and time stamped on it, so I know when it was sent. But why in heaven's name are the geocoords not also stamped on the txt (optional setting of course for when you don't want them). Hell's bells it took them like twenty years just to get GPS in the things.

I get so pissed off with trying to work around luddite laziness.

PS . Why d' y' want large buttons? The whole point is to make them smaller. And when , in sweet Jesus' sake are they going to get voice activation and recognition working properly.Maybe it's just our funny kiwibird accent? Why the hell should I HAVE to press buttons. Just make the phone do what I tell it. Yes I know what they claim. I've tried it. It's crap.

Oh. And why can't the phone function as a small portable Xray machine. that would be really useful.For bikers:whistle:

[RantyDave]

I was wondering, why doesn't someone make a cheap deadicated TXTing device?
Because if you run a telco a mobile phone is not a communications device, it's a revenue creating device. A phone that can't chew through minutes is going to create less revenue. A phone that can ... will. The other thing is that the telcos pay the device manufacturers a handy wee kickback - at least a couple of hundred bucks a pop and quite often more (this is why you sometimes get free mobiles). The only do this because (drum roll) they're intending to get the cash out of you later. You see where this leads, right?

Dave

[Winston001]

Because if you run a telco a mobile phone is not a communications device, it's a revenue creating device. A phone that can't chew through minutes is going to create less revenue. A phone that can ... will.....



Agreed. But from what I see of my children they never make or receive calls, nor do their friends. Everything is text. Of course they don't have much money and $10/month is what they spend.

[Laava]

How do you do that??
hw du dat
Easy!

[Winston001]

A lot more to the point is WTF the manufacturers can't get their shit together and come up with phones that aren't just a rehash of something from centuries ago.

Where' can I get a phone with a holographic projector ? Huh? Huh ? Why can't my phone be programmed to act as a remote for alarms and doors and such like ? Huh? Huh?

And have you tried to watch streaming video on a phone? It's just downright painful

And even the most basic stuff they do have is'nt properly interfaced. I can send a txt, and it has the date and time stamped on it, so I know when it was sent. But why in heaven's name are the geocoords not also stamped on the txt (optional setting of course for when you don't want them). Hell's bells it took them like twenty years just to get GPS in the things.

I get so pissed off with trying to work around luddite laziness.

PS . Why d' y' want large buttons? The whole point is to make them smaller. And when , in sweet Jesus' sake are they going to get voice activation and recognition working properly. Why the hell should I HAVE to press buttons. Just make the phone do what I tell it. Yes I know what they claim. I've tried it. It's crap.

Oh. And why can't the phone function as a small portable Xray machine. that would be really useful.

Very Star Trek. ;)

I had a Palm once - dropped calls left right and centre. Watched a mate try to use his Blackberry in Central Otago......wandering up a hill until he finally got a signal. In the meantime my old Kyocera had a strong signal without going anywhere.

The Telecom guys locally tell me most of the modern phones, particularly the high-tech multi-function ones, have weak phone technology. They are made for cities not mountainous places like NZ.

[Mschvs]

The reason is pretty simple, that a text only device would only target a specific market, and that device has to connect to the network anyway, which means even if you disallow it to call, the device would still technically have the capability to make phone calls .... like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Besides the fact that you can pick up a cheap phone that texts and call for about $100 anyway!!

[Ixion]

Because if you run a telco a mobile phone is not a communications device, it's a revenue creating device. A phone that can't chew through minutes is going to create less revenue. A phone that can ... will. The other thing is that the telcos pay the device manufacturers a handy wee kickback - at least a couple of hundred bucks a pop and quite often more (this is why you sometimes get free mobiles). The only do this because (drum roll) they're intending to get the cash out of you later. You see where this leads, right?

Dave

Don't get me started. Just don't. I have maintained before that the cell phone (and specifically txting) is of such great social benefit and value that it ought to be made freely available . We should NOT have to pay for txts. We should NOT be held captive to the rapine mercenary exploitation of corporations to be able to send txts, (why isn't it txtz BTW) ) , any more than we should to be able to breath.

Oh, and I thought of another really cool feature that the manufacturers should incorporate in phones.

If they built in a small HPLC, (dead easy with nano-technology), they could program it to sample the surrounding air, and analyse for pheromes. Female ones of course , though I suppose there could be an alternative model for Honda riders. Them they could display the result on a bar graph, like the signal strength display.

That way, if you were chatting up a chick, you could just glance at your phone to see how horny she was getting, and know if you were going to get laid or not. Saves all that waste of time chatting up some frigid cow who isn't going to come across anyway. Dead easy, I reckon, if the manufacturers just spent time working on what people want instead of feeding us a stream of obsolete twentieth century technology. And obviously, such a device would be an inestimable boon to all mankind.

[Mschvs]

Telco's themselves make bugger all margin off the actual handsets themselves, which is why instead of offering you a discount on the handset, most sales people in phone stores will offer you accessories at a cheaper price, the margin is usually less the 20%. when you sign up to a plan of course, they are happy to discount the phone off you as they are then guaranteed revenue for x number of months (duh I'm pointing out the obvious here). Point is, a phone manfacturer might make a phone that say costs them $10 to make ... they then sell it to the likes of Vodafone etc for $75 and Vodafone sells for $99. It's the manufacturers making th money of handsets themselves, and good luck convincing them to lower their margins!

[p.dath]

Agreed. But from what I see of my children they never make or receive calls, nor do their friends. Everything is text. Of course they don't have much money and $10/month is what they spend.

This is what I had observed as well. And as far as revenue collecting - why bother going to the expense of making a part of an electronic device which is never used. Save the expense, and make more money.

[p.dath]

Telco's themselves make bugger all margin off the actual handsets themselves, which is why instead of offering you a discount on the handset, most sales people in phone stores will offer you accessories at a cheaper price, the margin is usually less the 20%. when you sign up to a plan of course, they are happy to discount the phone off you as they are then guaranteed revenue for x number of months (duh I'm pointing out the obvious here). Point is, a phone manfacturer might make a phone that say costs them $10 to make ... they then sell it to the likes of Vodafone etc for $75 and Vodafone sells for $99. It's the manufacturers making th money of handsets themselves, and good luck convincing them to lower their margins!

Ahh, but the stores get a cut of your monthly contract that you commit to. So forget the handset sell - that is worth nothing.

[p.dath]

...
If they built in a small HPLC, (dead easy with nano-technology), they could program it to sample the surrounding air, and analyse for pheromes. Female ones of course , though I suppose there could be an alternative model for Honda riders. Them they could display the result on a bar graph, like the signal strength display.

That way, if you were chatting up a chick, you could just glance at your phone to see how horny she was getting, and know if you were going to get laid or not. Saves all that waste of time chatting up some frigid cow who isn't going to come across anyway. Dead easy, I reckon, if the manufacturers just spent time working on what people want instead of feeding us a stream of obsolete twentieth century technology. And obviously, such a device would be an inestimable boon to all mankind.

That's classic. Forget the phone. Could I just get the horny meter?

[Mschvs]

Ahh, but the stores get a cut of your monthly contract that you commit to. So forget the handset sell - that is worth nothing.

That's what I was saying dude!

[Deviant]

I've always wanted a device that if you were in the proximity of someone you thought was hot, you could activate it and it would send a signal out to any other of these devices out there in range.

If they are keen, they check who's in the region, check the ID (which would be a face pic or something), and if they like that person, they "reply" to that broadcast.

Then if the first person was aiming for someone else, they can decline the reply or accept it, letting both parties know there's mutual attraction.

That would allow a guy (or girl) to hit on someone without fear of a public knockback, or the socially awkward "I wonder if he/she feels the same way" situation where neither have the guts to ask each other.

It would make getting together less tense and stressful.

But then I recently realised that this stress and tension is what makes hooking up so good. If it was easy, and on tap, it wouldn't hold so much value for us.

[Ixion]

Agreed. But from what I see of my children they never make or receive calls, nor do their friends. Everything is text. Of course they don't have much money and $10/month is what they spend.

Nor no more do I. Except sometimes from old people. Voice comms is a dead technology. Txt is the way of the future. But the phone companies need to get with it and build in voice recognition, so you can just speak the text and the software abbriviates it and sends it. That also gets round the txting whilst driving problem.

It needs to be a bit smart of course, like a secretary. So if I dicate "txt X and say that he's a greedy cunt andafter that rat shit waste of time demo I wouldn't pay a brass razzoo for his crap" , it txts something like "Thx ++ 4 xclnt demo. Sure we cn do buz jst need sm revlidtn on pricng"

[p.dath]

I've always wanted a device that if you were in the proximity of someone you thought was hot, you could activate it and it would send a signal out to any other of these devices out there in range.

If they are keen, they check who's in the region, check the ID (which would be a face pic or something), and if they like that person, they "reply" to that broadcast.

Then if the first person was aiming for someone else, they can decline the reply or accept it, letting both parties know there's mutual attraction.

That would allow a guy (or girl) to hit on someone without fear of a public knockback, or the socially awkward "I wonder if he/she feels the same way" situation where neither have the guts to ask each other.

It would make getting together less tense and stressful.

But then I recently realised that this stress and tension is what makes hooking up so good. If it was easy, and on tap, it wouldn't hold so much value for us.

Man that is way too complicated. The human species might stop breeding if we built in that much complexity.

Better to develop some confidence and just simply speak to the oppose sex (assuming that is what you are seeking ...).

[RantyDave]

I have maintained before that the cell phone (and specifically txting) is of such great social benefit and value that it ought to be made freely available . We should NOT have to pay for txts. We should NOT be held captive to the rapine mercenary exploitation of corporations to be able to send txts
I hate to mention it, but I do believe Mr Ixion has come up with one of the great inventions of the 21st century. But not for the reason he thinks. Let me elaborate...

There's this property of radio waves that higher frequency ones can carry more information. So high frequency ones are "worth" more. But there's also this property of radio waves that low frequency ones are better at going through hills, rain, buildings etc. There's also this property of the IT industry that it always tries to make things bigger, better, faster, more and as a result we keep building phones that use more data and ending up having to use higher frequencies, more battery power and more expensive components in the process.

We should go the other way.

We, as a country, should build a form of cellular radio that runs at very low frequencies, with very large cells and using very basic technology. We should make a form of text based communication that has really really incredibly cheap infrastructure behind it. I reckon by using lower frequencies, more transmission power and putting down fewer cells we could build one of these for about one hundredth the cost of a cellular infrastructure .... about $6M for the whole country (sheesh, perhaps a bit more than that then). Free texting, for everyone, for ever.

And before everyone goes all techno-wizardy on me just look at all the applications that are being built on short messages right now?

* SMS, 140 characters max
* Twitter, 140 characters max
* Facebook status updates, probably 1k each
* Push email (a la iPhone), no more than 10k if you don't allow attachments
* Shit, there's no reason why we couldn't pipe KB over it

This is doable. Shame I'm currently doing other cool shit or I'd be ditching my job to do this. Perhaps I'll write to Mr Joyce and see if I can goad him into action - shit, his new broadband network could backhaul this without even breaking into a sweat.

Dave

[Squiggles]

That way, if you were chatting up a chick, you could just glance at your phone to see how horny she was getting, and know if you were going to get laid or not. Saves all that waste of time chatting up some frigid cow who isn't going to come across anyway. Dead easy, I reckon, if the manufacturers just spent time working on what people want instead of feeding us a stream of obsolete twentieth century technology. And obviously, such a device would be an inestimable boon to all mankind.

That was fucken hilarious.

[Lias]

I want to know why we dont have cybernetically implanted phones directly wired to our cerebral cortex.

[MSTRS]

...And when , in sweet Jesus' sake are they going to get voice activation...


...
If they built in a small HPLC, (dead easy with nano-technology), ...

It's the idiots in the imp-breeding program, you Old Trout...

[Gremlin]

PS . Why d' y' want large buttons? The whole point is to make them smaller. And when , in sweet Jesus' sake are they going to get voice activation and recognition working properly. Why the hell should I HAVE to press buttons. Just make the phone do what I tell it. Yes I know what they claim. I've tried it. It's crap.
Pah, you've obviously got a crappy phone. My Nokia E71 adds voice tags to every single contact, automatically. Say it at the prompt, and it will dial it.

Of course, being the tags are automatic... you err... can't set them, so you have to know the entire contact name, which defeats the purpose a bit (if you put company names in etc). Then you have to say the contact like the phone, so it understands you :pinch:

Who wants a simple phone? I browse the web, play music, take pictures, upload pictures, use Fring (connects to MSN and Skype for me), 2 gmail accounts and the work email via Mail for Exchange (plus contacts, calendar etc), Google Maps.... what can't it do is a better idea? I barely check my gmail accounts from a PC, its faster to do it on the phone. It connects to my bluetooth headset when at clients (handsfree), connects to car radios, connects to my GPS while on the bike...

Oh, I can also send and receive txts and phone calls... cool huh? :woohoo:

[Ixion]

Pah, you've obviously got a crappy phone. My Nokia E71 adds voice tags to every single contact, automatically. Say it at the prompt, and it will dial it.



Prezactly so. In *theory* it works. In practice it's crap. You have to know the exact name. And if you've abbreviated it, you're shit out of luck. It should be able to figure out my abbreviations. I can, so it can't be hard. And you just try getting it to do something more than a voice call! And who makes voice calls these days ? How do you send a voice commanded txt through your phone? In *theory* "Text (insert name here)" on mine is supposed to. Hah! Let alone "open Google maps and goto current location' Nine times out of ten all you get is "please repeat" message recorded by some chick with a ghastly voice who obviously totally desparately needs to be rooted by an elephant that's been away at sea for the last three months. It's crap.