Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

This topic was created by Ossi .

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  1. Ossi

    Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

    I was just reading the story about the phone manufacturers' squeezing ever more pixels into their screens, and I was thinking about what things you want but the industry never seems to give you. Here's my list:

    Phones that compromise their thinness to give you more battery life (OK, Motorola have tried this)

    Higher resolution laptop screens at affordable prices

    A new Psion 5 - pocketable, instant on, great keyboard, long battery life, well-designed software.

    1. JulianB

      Re: Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

      Phones that make and receive calls better (e.g. with a weak signal). It seems that everything about mobile phones has improved in leaps and bounds apart from their core function.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: everything about phones has improved leaps and bounds apart from

        ...

        and their battery life, which went down dramatically with this "smart" phone thingy (from something that lasts up to 2 weeks, down to 1 day)

        1. ratfox

          Re: everything about phones has improved leaps and bounds apart from

          I am shocked, shocked, that a million-pixels color display uses more battery than a LCD…?

      2. Ken 16 Silver badge

        Re: Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

        The phone I use for work related functions is a Samsung Wave s8500 and it was the last attempt I've seen to make a smartphone that is also a good phone. I can turn it off at night and know the alarm will wake me, the battery lasts about 3 days, it gets good signal everywhere and voice call quality is excellent, as is the screen resolution, camera etc. The smart part is compromised by the Bada OS which was too isolated to attract developers but the hardware is excellent.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

      Debian “jessie” upstream on the Psion 5. It seems to be stuck with 3.0 and an etch hack. If rpi/raspbian can run, then so can this.

    3. Steven Roper

      Re: Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

      Never mind laptop screens, I want a bloody desktop monitor capable of more than the bog-stock 1920 x 1080 they've been stuck at for the past decade. Even the 1920 x 1200 ones are getting hard to find and the few that still exist cost the bloody earth. Meanwhile phone and tablet screens are pointlessly increasing resolutions to levels where a scanning electron microscope is required to see a single pixel, while desktop monitors remain as nothing more than ordinary HD TV sets.

      Where's my goddamn 4096 x 2560 desktop monitor!

      1. Steve Todd

        Re: Tech that we want (but they never seem to give us)

        I want a bloody desktop monitor capable of more than the bog-stock 1920 x 1080 they've been stuck at for the past decade.

        You can't have been looking too hard. 2560x1440 screens aren't hard to find starting at about £400. 4K screens start at a little over £500 (though these are currently in limited supply).

    4. therealmav

      3G service

      Bugger 4G, i'd be pretty happy if the mobe networks could just see their way clear to delivering 3G coverage in those godforsaken wildernesses like (say) the M4 corridor. And yes O2, I am talking to you.

      1. Dave Lawton
        Flame

        Re: 3G service

        3G coverage, huh, what about delivering enough signal everywhere in the UK, so that the phones don't flatten their batteries just trying to enable voice calls. All of the operators, I'm looking at you, don't ignore your customers when they tell you there's an issue, and don't LIE when responding.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Psion 5

    +1 for the new Psion 5.

    1. G R Goslin

      Re: Psion 5

      I disagree. I feel that the Psion PDA family peaked at the 3mx (and not the rubber covered one!). The 5 had a number of significant problems. The structure was weak and easily broken and the battery life was pants compared to that of the 3 series. For versatility, give me the 3. Iknow from where I speak. I introduced the psion into the company I worked for, and arranged the purchase of all the Psion's that came into it. One persistent complaint was that people went on holiday. When they came back, both batteries were flat and all data gone. But only with the 5

    2. Christian Berger

      Re: Psion 5

      Of course a new "Psion" would need to be POSIX compatible so you can run your normal software on it. For example it could be running something close to Debian optimized so it'll "suspend to RAM" whenever you close it. That should certainly doable. Nokia has shown it to be possible with their Nokia N770

  3. Alan Bourke

    Non-reflective laptop screens.

    SHOOT the marketing department and GIVE US THEM.

    1. The BigYin

      Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

      Some things are better in gloss. How about a material that can switch between matte/non-reflective and gloss? Press a button; boom.

    2. silent_count

      Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

      Add to the list, 'higher vertical aspect ratio displays' - 16x9 may be fine for watching movies but it's bullocks for getting work done. I'd kill for a laptop with a 4x3 display with a decent resolution.

      1. Stumpy Pepys

        There is one

        Thing is, it's the Chromebook Pixel

        1. Steve Todd

          Re: There is one

          The Chromebook is a vast £49 cheaper than a 13" Retina MacBook Pro and gives you 96GB less storage, hardly a bargain.

          1. Spanners Silver badge

            Re: There is one

            You missed out the best reason for getting one. It's not from Apple.

            1. Sean Timarco Baggaley

              "You missed out the best reason for getting one. It's not from Apple."

              Because Google are such paragons of virtue: They'd never, ever, consider reselling your personal information to other companies, despite that being their core business!

              I sometimes wonder why Snowden bothered.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: There is one

              You missed out the best reason for not getting one. It's from Google.

        2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

          Re: There is one

          The problem with the likes of the Chromebook pixel and the Macbook retina is they are expensive largely due to the high resolution. For example, my el-chepo Acer chromebook is 1366 x 768 on an 11.6" screen - that is enough resolution for any viewing distance I can actually use, but the overall screen is just too small!

          The option for, say, 1366 x 1024 on a 15.4" screen (4:3 aspect ratio) would give me 33% more vertical space and should not cost much. Scaling to a 17" 4x3 monitor would be even better!

      2. bpfh

        Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

        Non reflective 4x3 laptop screens... like wot everyone stopped making 12 years ago?

        Actually, my company has recieved some matt screened Dell's recently to my total surprise!

        1. P. Lee
          Facepalm

          Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

          I have a dell E6510 quadcore i7 with a non-reflective screen with 16G RAM and an SSD.

          I love it right up to the point when I have to lift it - then I want an MBA.

      3. 0laf
        FAIL

        Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

        +1 for the 4:3 screen.

        I've a rather ancient HP laptop that is much better than my newer Dell for actually working on.

        Also proper feckin keyboards.

        Send the Chiclet keyboard to hell

        1. frank ly

          Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

          Go to eBay (or similar) and get an Acer Travelmate 8000 (or similar). Also on eBay, get a replacement battery and an SSD PATA drive for it, 16GB or 32GB will be fine. Install LInux MInt (or similar). Enjoy using it. I already had the Acer so I just had to get the battery and PATA SSD :)

      4. poohbear

        Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

        No, you need to go the other way.

        http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/displays/53885-philips-298p4qjeb-superwidescreen-monitor/

      5. P. Lee
        Happy

        Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

        Haha!

        I have a Compaq/HP NC8000 with 4:3 screen! I suspect the other reason for 16:9 is the width it provides for the keyboard. It's quite good for web browsing as I can see more of the web page.

        I went into an apple shop the other day and asked for a laptop matt screen. The cult member just looked at me blankly. It was hilarious. I can no longer find that option on their website, which is less funny and more sad.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

      I'm looking at one now, but it's a Lenovo, so much $$$ and non-consumer model so it's Apple league $$$$.

      1. The BigYin

        Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

        You get what you pay for, although Lenovo quality has slipped of late.

    4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

      Yes. Whatever happened to the HSE (or whoever) regulations on non-reflective screens?

      Anyone remember all those hang-on screen adapters? Cheap ones made from a mesh, better ones made with polarised glass that every office seemed to be festooned with until newer screens were purchased with non-reflective coatings. Part of the same regulations that mandates adjustable height seats and "screen breaks" away from computer screens for 5 minutes every hour or so (or whatever the rules are. I've forgotten now)

    5. proud2bgrumpy

      Re: Non-reflective laptop screens.

      So go buy an old IBM or new Lenovo Thinkpad - nice non-reflecting non-glossy screens. The 'shiny shiny' screens you buy from the high streets are designed solely to look attractive in a store with low ambient lighting - ie: they are designed to be sold, not to be used. Most Thinkpads are *given* to corporate users, so they aren't involved in the buying process.

  4. SpeakerToAliens
    Childcatcher

    Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

    Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them rather than your Service Provider and where *you* decide what information the Apps can send elsewhere rather than the phone or App provider.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

      Sure, as long as you are ready to pay the full price for your smartphone.

      Seems most customers are cheapskates that want their cake, eat it and not pay the bill....

      When what you fork out for smart phone is about 1/3 of the devices' "real" price don't expect to have much of say about what goes in it....

      The real customers are those paying the remaining 2/3 of the price... service providers and other personal data "monetizers".....and they call the shots....

      1. Pen-y-gors
        Thumb Down

        Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

        "Sure, as long as you are ready to pay the full price for your smartphone."

        I did - and my Sony Experia still won't let me uninstall Facebook, Twitter, a load of silly games etc...and I really can't be arsed to go through the faff of tooting it.

        No more Sony for me.

        1. Terry 6 Silver badge

          Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

          There's a world of difference between preinstalled "apps" and unremovable apps that are imposed on the device, demanding updates as available and just cluttering the dratted thing.

          I don't mind Twitter Book being on there. I do mind not being able to remove it, and I hate getting messages telling me there's an update waiting.

          1. Chairo
            Megaphone

            Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

            FWIW:

            Open "settings", select "Manage Apps", press the "All" button, search in the list for "facebook" (hint, it will be somewhere under "f"), select the app, press the "Disable" button - and there will be silence.

            Yes, the app will still be on your phone, but it will be removed from all menus, not start anymore and not ask for updates.

            A good part of Google's apps can be disabled in the same way. You might lose some functionality, but that's part of the deal, I suppose.

            Now, what I would like to have is in the same area, but slightly different. Most smartphone makers go with Google's decision to split the internal storage in two parts, to avoid adding an SD card. It's an ugly, messy workaround for Google's decision not to add an SD card slot on it's hardware and makes no sense whatsoever on a phone with such a slot. I would like them to stop this. Stop messing up the partitioning of 500$ hardware just to save some cents on a pre-installed SD card! You hear me SAMSUNG, SONY, HTC, HUAWEI, ...?

            No? - Well, it was worth a try.

      2. Eddy Ito

        Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

        The real customers are those paying the remaining 2/3 of the price... service providers and other personal data "monetizers".....and they call the shots....

        So you're saying the monthly bill doesn't include the loan/rent for the hardware itself and the $200-500 fee for opting out of the contract early is really because it is such a hassle tweaking the network to account for the change. You must be a laugh riot at parties.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

        My phone was subsidized and there are no AT&T or service provider installed apps on it. I think your argument is bunk.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

        > Sure, as long as you are ready to pay the full price for your smartphone.

        I did. To the nastiest no-name Chinese manufacturer that a non-Chinese speaker could find.

        What I got in exchange is a remarkable copy of a top-of-the-line big-name manufacturer's job with vanilla Android installed. After rooting to remove most Googleness and signing up to the F-Droid market I have an eminently functional phone that actually does what I want it to.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

          Same here, dude.

          A day or so getting up to speed with how to re-flash and configure the OS.

          Now got a phone that's smart on MY behalf plus the toolsets and knowledge necessary to do the same for anyone else who wants it.

          Fuckin' A!

    2. 0laf

      Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

      Strangely my Nokia 920 Windows phone is the best I've had for this. I've been able to uninstall everything that I didn't want.

      The actual phone function is the best I've had for a long time too since...my Nokia 6630 classic which was a symbian feature phone .

      1. Pookietoo

        Re: uninstall everything that I didn't want

        Does it let you uninstall Windows? Because that's what I'd want.

      2. Tommy Pock

        Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

        True, that. My Lumia 1020 will even let me uninstall 'Nokia Camera'.

        So I did. I don't need three camera apps on one phone.

    3. DrXym

      Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

      There are phones which ship with Cyanogenmod like the Oppo and OnePlus so it's possible to do. Some phones can also be root but it's definitely not for the squeamish.

      Cyanogenmod has a nice feature called Privacy Guard to be able to kill certain permissions whether the app says it needs them or not. There is no excuse the base Android doesn't provide this.

    4. Paul 77
      Linux

      Re: Smart phones where *you* decide which Apps are on them.

      The Jolla may be what you want - comes with almost nothing on. Runs Sailfish or Android apps.

  5. Kaltern

    Innovation before profit would be quite nice.

  6. bazza Silver badge

    New Psion 5

    Definitely. There must be a new one of these!

  7. chivo243 Silver badge
    Joke

    Can anything be on my Christmas list?

    Flying car

    site to site transporter

    beer through the water fountains at work

    and...

    universal charger, the only real request on my list!

    1. The BigYin

      Re: Can anything be on my Christmas list?

      > universal charger, the only real request on my list!

      Isn't that mico-USB and now mandatory in the EU?

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