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is "phone" still the right term?? what should it be called?

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dan330

Extreme Android User
the devices that we have... android, ios, wp8, bb...
the devices that can make telephone calls...

we are using them less and less for making voice calls... in general.. i only use mine as a phone less than 5% off the time.

so.. should it still be called a phone?? smartphone??
i would think it is no longer a phone. it is a media-communication-informaton-personal assistant device.

what would be a more better name for these devices?
 
I call mine a PET.
I came across it , I think, in one of Douglas Adams' books.

Personal Electronic Thing
 
Phone sound short and neat. Even though you don't use it as a phone that much, it does not make it any less of a phone.

When you need a "cab" you are not looking for a horse and a carriage, you are looking for taxi, that's just the way it is

Phone sounds short and politically correct, I don't see any reason to call it anything else.
 
unnamedny said:
Phone sound short and neat. Even though you don't use it as a phone that much, it does not make it any less of a phone.

When you need a "cab" you are not looking for a horse and a carriage, you are looking for taxi, that's just the way it is

Phone sounds short and politically correct, I don't see any reason to call it anything else.
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when i ask for a phone (say in a hotel lobby).. they can give me a device that is only a phone. but i am talking about smart devices...

when i call for a cab (outside a hotel).. why would they give me a horse?
 
Simple. My life holder. Or life for short. Every once and a while, my kids will bring it to me saying mom, you forgot your life. Or one time my daughter told me to get a new life when it was acting funny. :-)
 
Mobile Computer.

Why?

It has all the components, modem, and telephony has been reduced to an application =P
 
unnamedny said:
When you need a "cab" you are not looking for a horse and a carriage, you are looking for taxi, that's just the way it is
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Sometimes I'm looking for a man and a tricycle.

In the UK, the full name for a cab or taxi is "Hackney Carriage", that's what it says on the license as well. But most of the time they're not in Hackney, London, and they don't tend to use carriages these days.
 
dan330 said:
when i ask for a phone (say in a hotel lobby).. they can give me a device that is only a phone. but i am talking about smart devices...
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It depends on the hotel. It also depends on the context. I don't think people would get confused if I call my SGS3 a phone.
 
Ten or so years ago they'd be called Pocket PCs. Today given how similar they are to Star Trek devices I use the Starfleet designation PADD. Personnel Access Display Device.
 
nickdalzell said:
Ten or so years ago they'd be called Pocket PCs. Today given how similar they are to Star Trek devices I use the Starfleet designation PADD. Personnel Access Display Device.
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Indeed. IMO, the only thing that ST missed in their version of the device is that people still physically exchanged them from officer to officer to pass reports, instead of merely wirelessly sending the data. They seemed to treat them more like clipboards with paper rather than personal mobile terminals.

....Sorry, been a trekkie for far too long.:D
 
mikedt said:
Sometimes I'm looking for a man and a tricycle.

In the UK, the full name for a cab or taxi is "Hackney Carriage", that's what it says on the license as well. But most of the time they're not in Hackney, London, and they don't tend to use carriages these days.
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funnily enough, an old law which they forgot to update is legally all black cabs in london have to have a barrel of hay in the boot/trunk. It was for the horses.
 
Joelgp83 said:
Indeed. IMO, the only thing that ST missed in their version of the device is that people still physically exchanged them from officer to officer to pass reports, instead of merely wirelessly sending the data. They seemed to treat them more like clipboards with paper rather than personal mobile terminals.

....Sorry, been a trekkie for far too long.:D
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I'm a huge Trekkie, too, and I have always marveled at the same thing. I'm sure it's to give the extras something to do, but it DOES look odd. I especially like when the Captain takes an impulsive stroll through the bowels of the ship and someone runs up with something for him/her to sign. Thank God they were saved a trip to the bridge to hand-deliver the email! :D
 
Well, mine's a Note 2.

That s-pen and the receptacle have inspired me to bestow upon the device the name dart gun.
 
I've been calling it a mobile. I do agree that calling them "phones" is becoming less and less accurate. Its more of a mobile computing device that just happens to have a cellular radio built in.
 
I've always loved Trek too. The tablets also played video which is almost exactly like the way Netflix does on my iPad. In one episode of TNG called The Bonding one was shown playing a home video, previously unheard of in real life at the time. That has to be the best example of the way they were used today, only a couple decades early. I do often wonder how much of our current tech was inspired by Star Trek such as cell phones and tablets...

I am still waiting for the day when I can say "Computer Delete Audio" to mute the smart tv
 
nickdalzell said:
I've always loved Trek too. The tablets also played video which is almost exactly like the way Netflix does on my iPad. In one episode of TNG called The Bonding one was shown playing a home video, previously unheard of in real life at the time. That has to be the best example of the way they were used today, only a couple decades early. I do often wonder how much of our current tech was inspired by Star Trek such as cell phones and tablets...
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You know that tiny hand scanner they pull out of the top of medical tricorders? Bluetooth.:D
 
It's being called a phone for a sake of the simplicity of pronunciation. It does not matter if it's not exactly a "phone" anymore. You do not call men boobs "genecomastia", or "Callicebus aureipalatii" some monkeys. It'd be an absurd for someone try to change the name of "road bike" just because it does not have the engine. or "hybrid bike" just because it has an electric motor.
 
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