Potentially Useful or Plain Stupid?
Following on from last week's article about useless features, AAS now asks which hardware features you would like to see added to phones that aren't currently present. Could analogue volume controls? What about FM radio aerials?
Potentially Useful or Plain Stupid? - Some hardware suggestions for modern mobile phones
In a sequel to last week's Useful Or Useless article, we take a look at some hardware features which aren't present on current phones, but perhaps should be. As always, please don't take these ideas too seriously, and do read the "On The Other Hand" sections which follow them.
- Standard Size Batteries (AA, AAA etc)
When the first personal portable devices such as Sony's Walkman and Psion's Organiser appeared, they almost all used normal third party battery sizes. This continued for many many years, and even in 2001 Nintendo's Game Boy Advance used two totally standard AA batteries. There are in fact still some devices that have compartments designed for standard batteries, such as SanDisk's Sansa Shaker, though these are becoming very rare.
But devices began to demand so much power that it became impractical to use throwaway batteries with them. Recharging was so much more convenient, and practically every device started including a built-in proprietary cell which could be charged while inside the gadget.
Was the move really necessary though? There are rechargeable standard size batteries now, and always have been. The capacity of a single AA or AAA rechargeable lithium battery is comparable to a dedicated mobile phone battery, as is the volume and weight, so would it be a good idea to use standard size batteries in a phone?
It would certainly make life easier in terms of buying spare batteries, and would allow a battery to be easily used in many different devices. Battery prices would also go down as manufacturers could concentrate on just one or two sizes.
And, perhaps most handy of all, in an emergency you could use throwaway standard batteries, which are available in practically every supermarket and electrical shop in the world.
ON THE OTHER HAND: It's not quite as simple as it seems once you delve into the details, rechargeable AA and AAA batteries may have enough capacity but may not be able to supply the correct voltage required by a modern phone. Another headache would be their shape, which tends to be much thicker than phone batteries and so require thicker phones (or at least bulgy ones), and they would also demand physical connections at both ends of the battery.
- Wi-Fi Video Calls
Suggested by several AAS readers in response to our previous article, a potentially very popular use for a phone's front camera would be videophone calls through Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi calls don't suffer as much from latency as phone network calls, and they are usually much cheaper or free. This is already possible on many computing devices, including Nokia's own N800 and N810 internet tablets, but for some reason it's rare on phones, possibly due to pressure from phone networks wanting to preserve video call profits.
ON THE OTHER HAND: Whether made through the phone network or Wi-Fi, video calls have an innate lack of privacy and convenience compared to voice calls (though the privacy can be somewhat restored using headphones).
- Torches
Whatever happened to proper torches on phones? Once they were everywhere, then they seemed to disappear completely. Screens are fairly bright, but they're no match for a dedicated white LED which concentrates its light more tightly in one direction. In theory LED camera flashes could be used instead, but most flash-equipped cameraphones don't allow this by default.
ON THE OTHER HAND: The brightness of a screen is perhaps good enough for most people, and adding an extra LED would take up space (though allowing camera LEDs to be used would not require any extra space at all).
- Side Lights
This has been mentioned before but it deserves to be mentioned again: if a phone has its screen pressed against the side of a bag, it's impossible to find when it's ringing. A solution to this was present on the Nokia 3220 and 2650, lights along the sides of the phone so that it's visible from many angles, but apart from these two models nothing else seems to include such lights. Surely it's time they made a comeback, at least on one model?
ON THE OTHER HAND: Some (rather conservative!) people might consider them a bit gimmicky.
- Analogue Volume Controls
How often have you been listening to music on a phone and found that the perfect volume lies between two of the notches on the virtual volume control? It's frustrating, and it feels like a step backwards for audio equipment, because old-fashioned analogue volume controls allowed a practically infinite number of volume settings. Perhaps analogue volume controls could make a comeback?
ON THE OTHER HAND: The analogue dials seen on the Walkman etc were actually rather large, and took up a lot of room as the dial consisted of a rather large wheel with just its edge poking out of the side. They were also very easily nudged in your pocket, and would frequently get knocked onto a wrong setting because nothing physically locked them into place. A much easier answer may simply be to increase the number of virtual volume notches in phone music player apps.
- FM Radio Aerials
"Bored of the music on my phone, think I'll listen to the radio." (gasp) "Oh no, I forgot my headphones, and it won't work without them!"
Yes, the FM radio is both the best and worst feature on a phone as it offers access to totally free radio stations but it can't receive a darn thing without headphones plugged in to act as the FM aerial. A way round this would be some sort of built-in aerial which could slide out when required, as seen on portable radio sets.
ON THE OTHER HAND: This writer can just see the comments now: "Nooooo, no no no, no more aerials on phones! They look so stupid!" Phones with aerials have an unenviable reputation as being primitive and belonging to past generations of hardware. The first mobiles without any visible aerial were regarded as an aesthetic breakthrough, and it seems unlikely that most people would ever want to go back to something resembling a walkie talkie.
Published by Tzer2 at 5:42 UTC, November 19th 2008
Categories: Comment, Hardware
Platforms: General
Feature Discussion
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Apart childish jokes.
The features i have always wanted.....and suggested nokia 2 years ago before the nokia n95 release in competion in order to win one of this milestone....but not won..
'THE POSSIBILITY TO RECORD FROM RADIO IN MP3'
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'Audio and Video Chat'_hope the talented guys of Lonely Cat Games make it through with their new awsome Slick'
Video calls over wifi - I dont think the telephone companies will allow a video call that is divided between voice on their network and video on another (wifi) network. Yes, video chat over IM clients like MSN/yahoo/google would be awesome. I dont think this will be that difficult. You can already chat over IM clients using apps like fring.
I agree a telescopic aerial is very old-skool (although Japanese ISDB-T and Korean DMB TV phones use them!) and presumably wouldn't be any use while the phone's in your pocket but perhaps someone will find a way to shrink the FM aerial enough to be built into the phone.
I don't know much about radio transmissions, but it seems to me that if they can produce an integrated FM transmitter (a la N78) they ought to be able to make an integrated FM receiver too.
ILG
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symbian.site666.info
Sorry, I should have made this clearer in the article: by "wi-fi video call" I don't really mean a phone network videophone call, but a video call through a totally separate non-phone service.
For example Skype on computers offers video calling, as does Google Talk on Nokia internet tablets, so either of these services could (technically) be implemented on wi-fi-compatible smartphones. That's what I'm suggesting, basically.
[quote]Oh what I wouldn't give for an FM aerial on my phone.[/quote]
Just had a thought on that, too late to add it to the article but here it is anyway:
If DVB-H television channels can be received on a phone without an external aerial, could radio stations be sent as part of the DVB-H multiplex?
Of course you'd need a DVB-H phone to do this, but perhaps it will become a standard feature one day?
[quote]I hope people post stuff other than asking for a bigger megapixel camera or optical zoom or standard xenon flash[/quote]
Yeah, those features are already available on some models, so if people really want them they can get them.
[quote]Or, how about a clock-work battery top-up - if they can do it with radios then surely a phone is not going to be rocket-science.[/quote]
Good idea, especially for people in remote or poor areas without access to a power source. The "$100 laptop" has a wind-up charging system for exactly that reason, and of course the massive success of wind-up radios in developing countries is well known.
Come to think of it, I'm fairly sure a third party manufacturer has actually released a wind-up phone battery charger, can't remember its name though!
The gentle pulse of the E71 (which i hope can be turned off), is much more pleasant, if you need something other than the indicators on the home screen.
Hardware extensions:
- an included FM aerial, that could use the headphone cord to improve reception, i.e. it only gets the very strongest signals without the headphones being plugged in.
- TV/VGA out
- USB master, so that hard disks, external keyboards, mice etc can be used.
For me it is more about software improvements:
- PIM sync at least as good as Palm used to be;
* Configurable so that if there is clash, there would be choices like; make me decide which one is correct or newest wins or PC or phone is always master etc
* multiple calendars, multiple note categories etc
- built in office suite at a functionality & quality level like Psion had
- synchronisation of text files in a folder between PC and phone
ILG
DAB maybe?
A compass.
HD video capture capability - ie faster processer require I guess
There are endless software improvements possible, but those are the hardware ones I can think of
Yep. Two of my female colleagues have stuck with v old silver clamshell Nokias that flash when you've got a txt or missed a call because they (like many women) keep their phones in their handbags so frequently don't hear the ringtone in noisy environments and obviously wouldn't feel the phone vibrating when switched to silent at work as its not in their pocket (where most men keep theirs I'll wager). Really simple thing, but noone seems to be offering this functionality any more.
A quick glance down into a handbag takes a lot less time than pulling out the phone, pressing two buttons to unlock and then having to repeat to put the phone away.
Extra bonus: apparently it's a lot easier to do the glancing thing surrepticiously several times when you've been stood up at a bar without everyone else in the place knowing :)
This gave me an idea, why not TV-in. Ie the ability to connect the phone to a tv and then record what's on to mp4 files. Obviously there are licensing issues that probably prevent copying from radio as well but surely nokia could overcome them. Vcr's were around for years and nowadays anything is downloadable (albeit illegally). Another way of looking at it is this. I can either video tape one of my favorite tv episodes with poor quality, or simply plug in the phone to get perfect quality.
Come on nokia show some guts for the sake of user experience. And throw out drm while you at it.
I can't see any legal problems about recording onto a phone from the radio or television, as long as you're the only one who can view or listen to the recording.
Video recorders connected to TVs have been legal for 30 years now, and tape recorders connected to radios have been legal for even longer. Distributing those recordings to others is illegal, but recording purely for personal use (as a form of time-shifting) is totally okay in the eyes of the law.
"TV In" sounds like a very good idea, tape a programme and then take it with you to watch on the train. That's no different to recording something on a PVR or video recorder, just a lot more portable.
[quote]I have a very simple request (this already exists in WM phones) - LED indicators. Its very handy if you have some sort of tiny light flashing on the top of your phone to indicate minor things like you have a missed call or you have a new message or your bluetooth is on, etc.[/quote]
That already exists on quite a number of phones AFAIK, usually the ones that have e-mail as a major selling point.
It's also on some budget phones such as the Nokia 7070, with a light that flashes to indicate a missed message or call on the outside of the clamshell.
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