RE: Why are our mini-computers called smartphones?
August 9, 2018 at 4:46 am
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2018 at 4:50 am by I_am_not_mafia.)
Last time a time a type of computing device was called a mini-computer, they were the size of cupboards. They were called mini computers because normal computers were the size of rooms. These were called mainframes. A smartphone has many orders of magnitude more processing power than the majority of mainframes in computing's history.
When we moved to Germany in 2011 I ended up buying our first smart phone for my husband. He used it as a portable translation device, for the map and to locate shops and services. It was invaluable for that. There was no one to actually phone him though.
We made the mistake though of taking out a contract with O2 to pay for it. They were a nightmare from beginning to end. First giving us too many sim cards that we had to pay for, and then having to cancel it a year in advance. We only managed to convince them to stop taking money out of our account for a service we weren't using when I can prove that we had moved out of the country.
(August 9, 2018 at 3:12 am)Aroura Wrote: That's probably it, for most people. But my husband and I didn't own smartphones (well, we had windows phones very briefly) until we decided to move overseas. Now, I hate using the phone feature, and every time it rings (which is about twice a month at most), I about have a panic attack. I think my husband's is used as a phone maybe 5 or 6 times total in the last 14 months.
We text each other if we need to communicate, and other than that it is basically my GPS and portable translator. I do have a word game and coloring book app on there for if we are stuck somewhere and me or my daughter are really bored, and I can and do use it to access AF to play mafia if I'm out for a while. But as a phone? No. That is it's least used function for us.
When we moved to Germany in 2011 I ended up buying our first smart phone for my husband. He used it as a portable translation device, for the map and to locate shops and services. It was invaluable for that. There was no one to actually phone him though.
We made the mistake though of taking out a contract with O2 to pay for it. They were a nightmare from beginning to end. First giving us too many sim cards that we had to pay for, and then having to cancel it a year in advance. We only managed to convince them to stop taking money out of our account for a service we weren't using when I can prove that we had moved out of the country.
