Thought I'd create a thread so we can ask questions that puzzle us with out fear of being trolled.

Rules:

1. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask - no laughing at anyone no matter how dumb the question
2. Keep your answers civil - no "OMJF RTFM N00B!"-type answers
3. No answer is too dumb - yes really
4. No questions that would be better placed in another thread/forum
5. All questions should be in bold and prefaced with a huge red "Q:"

   	Code: [color=#FF0000][size=200]Q:[/size][/color]

I'll go first.

Q: What's with all the touchscreen smartphone thingies? I use a Motorola RAZR V3 to call and text and I use my computer to compute. What do the rest of you do? I'm puzzled.

its just an evolutionary fad, like having camera on phones: if yuo dont have one then yuo are apparently behind the times. I used to have a Sony Ericsson K750i, which served me very well till it popped a few days ago. trying my hardest to find a newish phone without all the smart phone gubbins, but its rather difficult

Q: last night/this morning (depends whether you go by time or sleeping patterns) i managed to get into a club without being asked to show any ID, which is lucky because despite being 18 i didnt have any, and id just walked for 15 minutes through the snow to get there. am i officially a man now?

I don't have one yet, but I do plan to.

The main thing is email and web access "on the go". Although I can do basic email with my old Nokia, it's a real pain and I can't open attachments. Emails are now the single most important way of communicating in business, so for people who spend a lot of time out of the office it's pretty much expected for them to still have access. It's certainly more important to me than being able to text!

The alternative is to carry a netbook with you, but it just doesn't compare to the convenience of a phone which you can keep in your pocket.

I got an HTC Touch Pro in 2008, bought an iPhone last year - light and day in terms of usability, although the Touch Pro was more useful, if less usable, than the original iPhone.

Having access to my Email when on the move is very useful. The web browser isn't a replacement for a notebook or desktop version, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is very useful. If I am out and about and I need to find the address or phone number of somebody or a business, a quick Google gets me the number or address. Click on number or address and either call it or see it in Google Maps.

It isn't an essential accessory for everyone, but it can be useful.

Dunno about anybody else, but I much prefer having a pocket computer than a pocket phone. Back when mobile phones were just phones I didn't have one at all.

You see that's the bit I don't get.

Why would I want need email access on the go? Anyone that needs to contact me specifically can ring me or text me because they'll have my number. Anyone who doesn't have my number isn't important enough and can wait. Anything that absolutely requires internet access and a computer is going to be too complex for a phone to manage and will have to wait. And if it can't wait it should have been better organised.

Again I'm puzzled.

Email is a far better method of communicating than speech is. All the important details are in the text. If someone phones me, I have to stop what I'm doing and write it all down. Even assuming I have a pen and paper, there's a high chance I'll lose the information. You can't lose an email. It also serves as a permanent record which can be referred to and replied to, forwarded to relevant people and used as proof of authorisation.

If someone phones me when I'm up to my eyeballs, whatever they wanted me to do is quite likely to get forgotten. Phone calls are usually annoying, and usually less important than the work they interrupt. Emails are serious communication for serious people.


You can't schedule emergencies. You can't tell God not to break something until "it's more convenient for me"; that's just not how it works!!

I have a job to do, and that job demands that I react in a timely fashion. To do that job, I require access to information. A smarter phone would make that very much more efficient.

No, to become a man you must pass many rituals. Walking in to a nightclub without ID is not one of them.

Because I am system administrator and help desk for a company with three offices in 2 different states, so I am moving around a lot. If I get a request when I am visiting another site and not sitting at a desk, I can check to see if it is an emergency and react to it, without having to unpack my laptop or find a free machine to log into.

Like I said, it isn't applicable to everyone, but it is damned useful for some jobs/situations.


How? How are they going to text me a report, which I need to quickly read and react to? How am I going to read a contract and decide whether it is what we need, or it needs adjusting, before I get back in the office to sign it? How can I check the details of an order confirmation, checking the right specifications, when just listening on the phone, important information can be missed and waiting until I am back in the office might be too late.

Same for problems, the users generally send a screen dump of the problem, which is great as what they generally describe has little if nothing to do with what the actual problem is. If I am on the move, I can also remote into the network with VPN and take over their machine and sort out the problem...

[quote="rustybucket"]Anything that absolutely requires internet access and a computer is going to be too complex for a phone to manage and will have to wait. And if it can't wait it should have been better organised./quote]
My brother rang me yesterday, whilst I was shopping in the local DIY store and needed my banks SWIFT code and address, there and then, he was waiting in the bank, trying to transfer a large sum of money. A few seconds on the banks website, I had the SWIFT code and address for him... No having to wait for me to get home, check it out, ring him back and wait for him to drive to the bank again next week.

Essential? No. For everyone? No. Useful? Yes.

Neither is walking out of said nightclub with a girl who has no ID either

I think that's what it must come down to - someone else's time is more important than my own.

Which I don't understand.

Which in turn leads me to believe that there's something deeper that I don't understand.

Seems like a good answer to me.

P.S. I'm not trying to be obtuse here - I genuinely don't get it. I've got several friends who panic if they don't have their phone with them. One of them is a physio and she insists on having it even if she's not on call. My thought is if you're not on call it's someone else's job.

I can understand why someone such as a telecomms engineer might need one whilst travelling between calls. In that case it's surely up to the business to provide it. But why would he need it in the evening when he's with his family?

I'm confused. Mind you I don't see the need for the majority of laptops either.

::dons Luddite hat::
::stands in corner::

That's pretty much my job description, and the company will pay for it when I finally get one.

Thing is, I don't see the point in carrying two phones so I never carry a personal one. Only drug dealers have two or more phones, surely?

Additionally, it's nice to be able to Wiki something from the sofa without getting out and booting up a laptop. Wiki on the iPhone is very usable.

I somehow doubt that, in the future, people will be referring to the stirring emails sent by Obama in the election race, however.

Ah! Clouds are parting here.......

I would never dream of mixing work and leisure to the point where I insist on having a second mobile just like I wouldn't use my work computer for personal things.


You see I'd prefer to keep my living room computer-free. I hate even having a landline phone in there. Thusly I have a dedicated computery-thingamibob room and that's where it stays.

So I much prefer to go into the next room, fire up the abacus, check Wikipedia, turn off the abacus and then return to the sofa. It allows me to focus 100% on the one thing I am doing rather than pretending that I can multi-task.

Q: Am I wierd?

No, I don't think so - it makes you old. I know plenty of 40-year-old boys.

IMO "Man" is something different.