BS: Do You Want a New Phone?

Subject: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:41 PM

New wireless/cell phones are appearing that combine accurate GPS, social networking, and other "services" that are amazing, and are likely to be extremely popular with large numbers of people. The most recent new releas is the Apple iPhone 3G, and reports are that people are standing in long lines to get one.

An article at MSNBC gives a quick look at some of the new features:

Using a cellphone to tag along

Combination of GPS, Internet and mobile phones means a new set of tools

By Ellen Nakashima
The Washington Post
updated 2:00 a.m. CT, Sat., July. 12, 2008

With Loopt, available on the iPhone and other smartphones, users can locate one another on a map anytime their cellphones are turned on, said Brian Knapp, the company's chief privacy counsel. "You can have your own little broadcast message: 'Hey, I'm at this cafe now. Join me,' '' he said.

Then there's Pelago's Whrrl, which Pelago Chief Executive Jeff Holden said aims to show users "cool places" that their friends have visited and recommended. "You can filter it down through the eyes of your social network, the ones who I trust to get a great dinner,'' he said.

Whether these are things that look "fun to have" or "useful," the article also notes:

Mark Rasch, a security consultant and former federal prosecutor, said the social network aspect of location technologies poses risks. "As these things integrate into Facebook and buddies lists, suddenly I'm not sharing information with five or six people, but maybe with 200 or 300 people," he said. "If the cops want to find me, they don't have to find out where I am; they can go to somebody on my buddies list."

And

Merchants can use this information to target ads, malls to entice shoppers, insurance adjusters to calibrate premiums, employers to catch moonlighters and parents to keep an eye on children. But what many users may not realize is that by sharing this information, they are creating often permanent records that can tell not only wireless providers, but also social networking sites, other users, and potentially law enforcement and civil attorneys every place they are and have been, as long as their phone and tracking device are on.

Obviously, you'll want to read the full article before commenting, as you'll want to see all the good things these phones can do. Equally obvious is that carrying a "tracking device" that continuously records every place one goes could be extremely helpful to some and extremely embarrassing to others.

Thoughts and Comments?

John

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:49 PM

I want a phone that allows me to talk to someone who isn't standing next to me. That's all. No GPS, camera, buddy locater or WiFi needed.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:53 PM

No.

I prefer the simpler approach: an ordinary phone that sits on my desk at home. A corded phone with only 2 extra features: call answering and call display. Nothing more than that.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:59 PM

Go to You Tube and try "Phone Popcorn".

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 06:04 PM

It'll be compulsory to carry them before too long, I predict. Combined with identity cards.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Greg F.
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 06:21 PM

Another solution in search of a problem. Yuppie Toys-R-Us.
Please. Enough already! Learn to read a map & you won't need GPS.

But I'm sure its a good& great thing that Homeland Security, the CIA and the NSA (or MI5/MI6, etc.) will know where everyone is, what they're looking at, and who they're talking to every minute of the day.

George Orwell would be proud- or appalled.

Morons.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 06:23 PM

Well, I can't say I share the paranoia about being tracked and all that. Basically, I figure the details of my life are pretty innocuous, and anybody bothering to track me would find out anything interesting.

But we have a new law in California that prohibits use of a hand-held phone while driving. I don't want to wear one of those weird Bluetooth headsets, so I want another solution. I want a one-button speakerphone.

With my current cell phone, I have to make the call and wait for the other party to answer, then push a button twice and (maybe) turn on the speakerphone. My home phone has a "speaker" button that works perfectly. Push it, and you get a dial tone. Push it when the phone is ringing, and it answers the phone.

Why can't I get a cell phone that works like my home phone?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 06:48 PM

We have the technology! Mine works that way Joe and it came free with $20.00 in air time.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 06:49 PM

Dial the number, press speaker and I am off to the races.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 07:02 PM

Joe. maybe what you need is a new car!! Mine has a button on the steering wheeel that starts a phone call--the bluetooth software asks me who to call, and I tell it, and it does; it also holds the CD while I am talking and resumes playing it when I hang up the call. Truly awesome.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 07:30 PM

The real question is, why can't you get a cell phone that morphs into a swimming pool at the touch of a button, complete with attached bar, awning, chairs, and mixed drinks? I'm surprised no one has marketed that yet. What's wrong with those product development people???

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 07:50 PM

And can you imagine activating one of those while driving down the highway at about 80 mph? Now, that would be fun! Yessiree.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Joe_F
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 08:53 PM

Remember Drew A. Kaplan, who put out a yuppie catalog that was the epitome of a salesman gushing over his merchandise? Well, in 1985 or so he sold me a telephone that I have never seen bettered. It has a QWERTY keyboard on which you can type any handy mnemonic you've stored for the person you want to call. Like many good things, there is now nothing like it on the market. Mr DAK seems to have gone on to worse things.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: MarkS
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 11:00 PM

Hey, these new phones are fantastic.

Now if I can only remember where I left it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 11:52 PM

Jack - give me a brand name and model. This may be my lucky day!!
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 11:58 PM

No, my phone is fine. It has GPS, but there's a lot of lonesome here:
the county (not the state) is 734,720 acres (297,561.6 hectares); the population is about 78,155, or 9.4 people per acre, only about 65,000 of them are located here in the "Big City" and our smaller co-joined neighbor. Lots and lots of empty out there, and if I get into trouble I want to be found.

Besides, I can always turn the GPS thingie off.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 12:03 AM

Suppose the GPS thingie was on and the government was keeping tabs on you. So you attach the phone to the leg of a migrating wild goose and set it free... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 12:10 AM

Or drop it in a cop's patrol car....

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 12:21 AM

I can hear it now:

"Gee Jack, don't you remember that I loaned my phone to you so that you could call your wife? I wondered where you went with it, 'cause I didn't find it again for about three days."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 02:00 PM

I will only replace my Nokia 9410 with another Nokia 9410.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 02:30 PM

here it is Joe!

Kyocera Oystr Phone Series

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 10:00 PM

That phone is "awesome" and "great". Says so right on the website, attested to by the users who said it was.

Subject: RE: BS: Do You Want a New Phone?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 10:41 PM

My wife and I find call answering or whatever it is called more than we want to deal with. We never check, and people tell us they have left messages.
If the call is important, they will call back.

(Firmly in the crank phone era)