Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
UnfortunateSexFart
May 18, 2008

𒃻 𒌓𒁉𒋫 𒆷𒁀𒅅𒆷
𒆠𒂖 𒌉 𒌫 𒁮𒈠𒈾𒅗 𒂉 𒉡𒌒𒂉𒊑


Boiled Water posted:

But does it work with any language besides american english?

Works with actual English too?

I get the appeal of swype but have a phablet and have been playing console video games since I could sit up so I'm sticking with two thumbs.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

7lip posted:

You can pry my BlackBerry from my cold dead hands. Although if there was a new Android with a keyboard I'd be all over it.
Motorola is supposedly releasing Droid 5 with slide-out keyboard some time in Q2.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Krispy Kareem posted:

The keyboard was a huge part of it. Also after using it for awhile you get really quick with the various shortcuts. I personally can't stand them, but my wife has both a work Blackberry and a personal Blackberry. Business in the front, business in the back.

The problem is they never adapted to the iPhone paradigm shift. The Blackberry engineers reportedly said the iPhone was impossible, even after it was announced, because they couldn't imagine a battery big enough to power that huge screen. They just didn't see the need for a form factor past their own until it was obsolete.
Steve Ballmer also laughed at how the iPhone wasn't suitable for businesses because it didn't have a keyboard. I think a lot of people were skeptical of the on-screen keyboard.

KozmoNaut posted:

I work for a telco, and by far the largest income source aside from wholesale traffic from other operators, is text messaging. Think of it, it costs literally nothing to send 128 bytes. Even unlimited messaging plans have an absolutely ridiculous profit margin.
Really. I wonder if/when more people will begin using internet-based chat programs like WhatsApp, where you can spam messages for free (okay, $1 per year). I'd use it more with friends, but I'm too cheap to pay for mobile data, and so are some of the people I talk to. The only good thing about SMS is that it works without an internet connection.

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

Collateral Damage posted:

Motorola is supposedly releasing Droid 5 with slide-out keyboard some time in Q2.

I really hope they do and that it's not some half-assed bullshit like the currently surviving keyboard anroid phones. That's one thing that's not obsolete, as I've discovered after getting a work blackberry after using a touchscreen-only HTC Desire for years. Typing up emails while maintaining eye contact during video conferences? Hell yeah.

Krispy Wafer
Jul 26, 2002

I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat

Grimey Drawer

Pilsner posted:

Steve Ballmer also laughed at how the iPhone wasn't suitable for businesses because it didn't have a keyboard. I think a lot of people were skeptical of the on-screen keyboard.

The first thing I tried on an iPhone 2G was the keyboard. It really was a novel thing to type on the screen with your thumbs. All of the on-screen keyboards I had used previously were made for styluses.

And the pinch to zoom was the poo poo.

Inspector_666
Oct 7, 2003

benny with the good hair
I don't know how anybody likes the tiny-rear end keyboards on Blackberry devices. They're such an rear end in a top hat to type on with big hands.

President Kucinich
Feb 21, 2003

Bitterly Clinging to my AK47 and Das Kapital

Inspector_666 posted:

I don't know how anybody likes the tiny-rear end keyboards on Blackberry devices. They're such an rear end in a top hat to type on with big hands.

Don't have fat hands; problem solved.

peter gabriel
Nov 8, 2011

Hello Commandos
My first smartphone was a blackberry with a slide out keyboard (I liked that idea because it had touchscreen as well and I wasn't sure if I'd like touchscreens) and I got it because it was 'the business phone' - I went to install Skype and it didn't exist for it.

Sold it.

Light Gun Man
Oct 17, 2009

toEjaM iS oN
vaCatioN




Lipstick Apathy

Inspector_666 posted:

I don't know how anybody likes the tiny-rear end keyboards on Blackberry devices. They're such an rear end in a top hat to type on with big hands.

Buttons have proper feedback and whatnot, which touchscreens will never* have.


*haptics and or solid holograms or whatever ok yeah they'll have it eventually.

Krispy Wafer
Jul 26, 2002

I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat

Grimey Drawer

peter gabriel posted:

My first smartphone was a blackberry with a slide out keyboard (I liked that idea because it had touchscreen as well and I wasn't sure if I'd like touchscreens) and I got it because it was 'the business phone' - I went to install Skype and it didn't exist for it.

Sold it.

I don't think Blackberries even had forward facing cameras until last year. My wife had one of those sliders and honestly it wasn't a bad phone, but holy hell did they skimp on just about every feature. Cheap camera, outdated internals, obsolete operating system, BUT WITH A KEYBOARD - $500.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

My biggest gripe with BlackBerry is the awful build quality. Out of our 80ish local users probably half of them have had their phone break within 12 months. Usually it's the keyboard that gives up, especially on the slider models. Most of them also have trouble with dropped calls and the phone randomly rebooting mid-call.

Fozaldo
Apr 18, 2004

Serenity Now. Serenity Now.
:respek::respek::respek::respek::respek:
I now have my first Blackberry for my new job and I hate it. The lock button is actually the top part of the case above the screen. Horrible location and terrible feel. The keyboard is also awful.

UnfortunateSexFart
May 18, 2008

𒃻 𒌓𒁉𒋫 𒆷𒁀𒅅𒆷
𒆠𒂖 𒌉 𒌫 𒁮𒈠𒈾𒅗 𒂉 𒉡𒌒𒂉𒊑


Inspector_666 posted:

I don't know how anybody likes the tiny-rear end keyboards on Blackberry devices. They're such an rear end in a top hat to type on with big hands.

I went with the Nokia e90 instead. It was fantastic and still to this day the best keyboard on a phone. Crappy OS though.

Luisfe
Aug 17, 2005

Hee-lo-ho!
My dad has a blackberry curve.

It is a piece of poo poo, the optic mouse thing is a complete piece of poo poo that freaks out if one tries to use it outdoors, and it reboots itself from time to time.

Misses calls too, which is bullshit.

uwaeve
Oct 21, 2010



focus this time so i don't have to keep telling you idiots what happened
Lipstick Apathy
Not to interrupt the RIM hate, but from a few pages back there was some VCRchat.

In sometime like 1983-5, my dad bought a VHS camcorder/VCR combo. The VCR was split into two decks, one of which held the cassette. For using the camera. Like you were tethered to this huge europurse brick thing that weighed probably 30 pounds as you were trying to capture precious moments.

I can't find a good picture but you oldsters will know what I'm talking about.

Ensign Expendable
Nov 11, 2008

Lager beer is proof that god loves us
Pillbug

leidend posted:

I went with the Nokia e90 instead. It was fantastic and still to this day the best keyboard on a phone. Crappy OS though.

I miss my G1, its keyboard was pretty great. Does anyone even make Android phones with keyboards anymore?

As for obsolete tech, I had 13 inch CRT TV with built in VCR (the recording was broken) that I kept around exclusively for House of the Dead 2. Shame those old lightguns don't work anymore.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

Ensign Expendable posted:

I miss my G1, its keyboard was pretty great. Does anyone even make Android phones with keyboards anymore?
There's the LG Enact and the Motorola Photon Q, but that's about it for Android 4 capable phones. Then you have the Motorola Droid 4 and LG Mach, but they're both 2012 models and at least the LG Mach only runs Gingerbread, don't know about the Droid 4.

Motorola is said to release the Droid 5 later this year which will have a physical keyboard.

Lowen SoDium
Jun 5, 2003

Highen Fiber
Clapping Larry

uwaeve posted:

Not to interrupt the RIM hate, but from a few pages back there was some VCRchat.

In sometime like 1983-5, my dad bought a VHS camcorder/VCR combo. The VCR was split into two decks, one of which held the cassette. For using the camera. Like you were tethered to this huge europurse brick thing that weighed probably 30 pounds as you were trying to capture precious moments.

I can't find a good picture but you oldsters will know what I'm talking about.

On of my friend's families had one of these growing up. It was only a few short years later that 8mm and VHS-C handi-cams started coming out and that thing started looking extra ridiculous.

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


uwaeve posted:

Not to interrupt the RIM hate, but from a few pages back there was some VCRchat.

In sometime like 1983-5, my dad bought a VHS camcorder/VCR combo. The VCR was split into two decks, one of which held the cassette. For using the camera. Like you were tethered to this huge europurse brick thing that weighed probably 30 pounds as you were trying to capture precious moments.

I can't find a good picture but you oldsters will know what I'm talking about.

I had one of those. It had a battery that was about 2x3 inches and about a foot long, and you needed two because the tape deck took one and the camera took another.

Ron Burgundy
Dec 24, 2005
This burrito is delicious, but it is filling.
Our office used to have multiple milk crates full of BlackBerry Bold 9000 carcasses to keep our fleet going. I could swap out the scroll ball in about 10 minutes, you had to go in from the back and take everything out. Most of what we have to deal with now is smashed screens on the new corporate baby, Nokia Lumias. I have to say that enterprise activation was a lot easier than setting up live accounts for people and all the associated set up of a Windows phone.

Obsolete tech, I just fixed a PowerMac G5 11,2. Still runs quite well.

Humphreys
Jan 26, 2013

We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule


I'm gonna go on a limb and predict failure:

Oh Sony...

"Sony and Panasonic announce the Archival Disc, a new optical disc standard for long-term storage"



http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/10/sony-panasonic-archival-disc/

carry on then
Jul 10, 2010

by VideoGames

(and can't post for 10 years!)

I wouldn't go that far. If they're just targeting enterprise backup or something similarly realistic it could be something that, while not exciting, isn't a flop. If they think they're going to replace BluRay and bring about some resurgence of physical media, they're insane.

e: reading the press release, this does almost come across as them trying to replace tape-based backup systems which, though sounding really old fashion, manage to currently outdo many other media in terms of reliability and data density.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

Apparently Facebook developed a blu-ray disc based system for long term backup storage. While normal optical media isn't archival rated, it's "good enough" for its purpose and presumably much cheaper than tapes.

http://www.itworld.com/data-center/402306/facebook-puts-10000-blu-ray-discs-low-power-storage-system

Pneub
Mar 12, 2007

I'M THE DEVIL, AND I WILL WASH OVER THE EARTH AND THE SEAS WILL RUN RED WITH THE BLOOD OF ALL THE SINNERS

I AM REBORN
Man, if something like those discs don't take off, in the next few years we might be on the verge of loving tapes out-living optical discs for practical purposes.

e: All those sci-fi novels written back in the '70s knew what was up.

Pneub has a new favorite as of 10:09 on Mar 14, 2014

smackfu
Jun 7, 2004

Pilsner posted:

Really. I wonder if/when more people will begin using internet-based chat programs like WhatsApp, where you can spam messages for free (okay, $1 per year). I'd use it more with friends, but I'm too cheap to pay for mobile data, and so are some of the people I talk to. The only good thing about SMS is that it works without an internet connection.

WhatsApp is already bigger than SMS in message volume. In some lower-income countries, you can get data plans that only give you access to WhatsApp for a buck or two a month.

Humphreys
Jan 26, 2013

We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule


smackfu posted:

WhatsApp is already bigger than SMS in message volume. In some lower-income countries, you can get data plans that only give you access to WhatsApp for a buck or two a month.

A few years ago I was working in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and EVERYONE had a mobile phone. Mind you these were villages where they all wore the traditional tribal clothing (grass shirts, bone through nose etc). It was surreal to see a flip phone hooked onto their hips. Turns out a Private firm bought a bunch of government telecomms gear and made it dirt cheap. $5 a month and they could call anywhere. And I'll be damned if I didn't have better reception 400km from the nearest major town than I do back here in a metro area in Australia.

Humphreys has a new favorite as of 02:37 on Mar 15, 2014

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
Vietnam was the same deal where you got better reception in seemingly remote areas due to them not really caring too much about having radio towers spoil the treeline.

Lazlo Nibble
Jan 9, 2004

It was Weasleby, by God! At last I had the miserable blighter precisely where I wanted him!

uwaeve posted:

In sometime like 1983-5, my dad bought a VHS camcorder/VCR combo. The VCR was split into two decks, one of which held the cassette. For using the camera. Like you were tethered to this huge europurse brick thing that weighed probably 30 pounds as you were trying to capture precious moments.

I can't find a good picture but you oldsters will know what I'm talking about.

Sounds like one of JVC's Vidstar portable systems:



The VHS monstrosity your dad had was actually the result of 15+ years of miniaturization and refinement the first-gen version was launched as the Sony PortaPak in 1967 and used their old reel-to-reel CV format:

Ron Burgundy
Dec 24, 2005
This burrito is delicious, but it is filling.
I still have the camera from that JVC ad somewhere. Nothing looks the same as a camera with a video tube. Whether that is good or bad is another matter entirely.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli

The Polavision. Polaroid's idea of an instant video camera.
This came out in the dying days of the 8mm camera industry. It used that cassette which had a special instant processing film.

However the quality of the footage wasn't that fantastic, it resulted in a limited exposure and poor colour and was often dark and murky.

Unlike 8mm, that could be projected after processing, this relied on a special viewer which did it's best to brighten up the dark picture.
It was somewhat adopted by experimental film artists and the industrial testing to shoot the results of tests without having to waste time and process it.

But overall this was a $68 million failure in an industry that was slowly becoming introduced to BetaMax and VHS tapes.

The technology developed later went into developing instant transparencies.

DarthBlingBling
Apr 19, 2004

These were also dark times for gamers as we were shunned by others for being geeky or nerdy and computer games were seen as Childs play things, during these dark ages the whispers began circulating about a 3D space combat game called Elite

- CMDR Bald Man In A Box


The HTC HD2 or HTC Leo. Still commands a niche market today due to the fact that: -

1. I think it the most powerful phone that runs Windows Mobile 6.5 so is still important to some businesses with legacy apps.
2. Geeks love it due to the fact you can get to run a multitude of OSes with ease; I used to have one.

In fact the price I paid 5 years ago for mine (200) was still the top price the company that I work with could sell them for used up until last year. We can still sell them for 150 with relative ease.

Spec wise I think it was similar to the iPhone 4. Also one of the OSes that was made to run on the HD2 could be set to run from memory. As you can imagine it was lightning fast and I've not seen anything like it since.

flippy piss posted:






Why did it take us so loving long to figure this out? Instead of putting the pins on the CPU, and then jamming that into the motherboard, put the pins on the motherboard, and have a metal contraption firmly hold down the pin-less CPU.

True story: when I got my first CPU with no pins it came pre-assembled. When I went to take it out one day I thought that the pins had been pulled from the CPU and were stuck in the mobo and panicked. Took me a while to realise what had happened.

DarthBlingBling has a new favorite as of 18:49 on Mar 15, 2014

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


carry on then posted:

e: reading the press release, this does almost come across as them trying to replace tape-based backup systems which, though sounding really old fashion, manage to currently outdo many other media in terms of reliability and data density.
I had some data backed up on CD-Rs years ago. Turns out the dye fades over time and I managed to burn over am already-used disc.

DicktheCat
Feb 15, 2011

DarthBlingBling posted:

True story: when I got my first CPU with no pins it came pre-assembled. When I went to take it out one day I thought that the pins had been pulled from the CPU and were stuck in the mobo and panicked. Took me a while to realise what had happened.

My great-uncle, who is a really excellent programmer, sucks at actually assembling his computers. He's ruined tons and tons of CPUs because of little pins and such. He'd always send it to my grandpa to put them together for him, even though he moved out west and it took forever.

I don't know why I shared, I just love the thought of this man who can make a computer do literally anything sitting there, unable to use said computer because he broke the physical components.

semiavrage
Apr 28, 2007

I'll show them... I'll show ALL of them...
I was reading earlier in the thread about Microsoft BOB and the Pac Bell Navigator. Both crappy "room metaphor" guis that ran over Windows.

When I was in elementary school we had something like this, but it wasn't BOB or navigator. It might actually have had an education focus... anyone know what I'm talking about?

I remember the most that textbooks and activities lived on a virtual "bookshelf," and that you could do anything you could do on a regular computer, like the internet.

Probably between 1999-2001... This is all I can remember but now I'm curious.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
It could have been IBM. I know during the late 90's they were creating skeuomorphic interfaces to experiment how people interacted with an environment that mimicked actions in life.

The biggest flaw they discovered was that people often had difficulties adapting real life actions on an interface or had trouble reading the graphics to determine what was interactive or graphical.

A good case study was the Real Phone. (1997)


The design was purposely setup in the hopes that intuition and familiarity with a phone would get them through.

One major flaw they had was that you had to pick up the receiver to dial; many simply saw it as a decorative graphic, let alone an intuitive function, despite the same action being done daily with a real phone.
A user would often fruitlessly click on a name to try and dial in the expectations that this interface would provide a quicker way to call someone.

Another I found was a skin for PowerDVD that was modeled exactly off a Sony DVD player; in that it was basically a graphic of the front of the player with as many buttons as possible mapped to the program's commands.

It utterly stunk as it was small, cramped and bitterly confusing as many DVD players tend to get slack on their front panel designs as they assume everyone is using a remote.
PowerDVD skins weren't much better as they tried to tuck away extra commands with slide out drawers.

Oh and Microsoft BOB actually appears on the XP install CD, as garbage data in order to pad out the space.

Sham bam bamina!
Nov 6, 2012

ƨtupid cat

WebDog posted:

A good case study was the Real Phone. (1997)
1997? That looks like friggin' 1992.

WebDog posted:

Oh and Microsoft BOB actually appears on the XP install CD, as garbage data in order to pad out the space.
Beautiful. Is there any way to access and use it?

Humphreys
Jan 26, 2013

We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule


semiavrage posted:

I was reading earlier in the thread about Microsoft BOB and the Pac Bell Navigator. Both crappy "room metaphor" guis that ran over Windows.

When I was in elementary school we had something like this, but it wasn't BOB or navigator. It might actually have had an education focus... anyone know what I'm talking about?

I remember the most that textbooks and activities lived on a virtual "bookshelf," and that you could do anything you could do on a regular computer, like the internet.

Probably between 1999-2001... This is all I can remember but now I'm curious.

I do vaguely remember something like this in the mid to late 90s. Our school's IT was horrible, we had Win3.1 and had to logout and back in to 3.11 if we wanted to use Pegasus WinMail. Also, every computer had either a No Fear wallpaper or something from rotten.com.

XTimmy
Nov 28, 2007
I am Jacks self hatred

WebDog posted:



Oh and Microsoft BOB actually appears on the XP install CD, as garbage data in order to pad out the space.
Why the necessity to 'pad out space'?

Ensign Expendable
Nov 11, 2008

Lager beer is proof that god loves us
Pillbug

XTimmy posted:

Why the necessity to 'pad out space'?

The disk spins at a uniform rate. Therefore, when reading from the outer edges of the disk, the laser covers more space in one revolution, so you can read more data. When burning you can shove something in the inner parts of the CD to push useful data out. Usually it's garbage data, but you could have some fun with it if you really wanted.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Lazlo Nibble
Jan 9, 2004

It was Weasleby, by God! At last I had the miserable blighter precisely where I wanted him!

Ensign Expendable posted:

The disk spins at a uniform rate. Therefore, when reading from the outer edges of the disk, the laser covers more space in one revolution, so you can read more data. When burning you can shove something in the inner parts of the CD to push useful data out. Usually it's garbage data, but you could have some fun with it if you really wanted.
Pressed optical media hasn't used CAV since the LaserDisc era. Data is written with the same linear density at the outer edges of the disc as at the center, so when you're streaming something off the disc that needs data to come off at a constant rate the drive adjusts the speed of rotation to compensate. It's been this way since they first published the Red Book standard for CDs. Doing it the way you describe would waste an enormous amount of space.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply