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The first minute of every phone call is torture now

theatlantic.com

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Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#311

Post by bashinator »

bombcar wrote: post #256
jmbwell wrote: post #186

Article plays up the fumbling for effect, but is otherwise spot on. The PSTN was immensely overbuilt. Old Western Electric equipment is, literally, built of tempered steel, from the crossbar switches in the CO to the red telephone on the desk. The human artifice erected in between, electrically and mechanically connecting a microphone at one end to a speaker at the other, was staggering in its analog complexity, and…

There is also something incredibly "simple" about the end result of an analog connection - literally a pair of wires connected across thousands of miles. Digitalization has added so many layers people don't even know - it's sad that there aren't many actual direct analog connections you can make anymore to see how "realtime" it was.

I love my electric guitar.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#312

Post by barbazoo »

poxrud wrote: post #291
barbazoo wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to jinx it but I haven't gotten any robocalls recently. I'm in Canada and I wonder if the regulations the CRTC introduced around STIR/SHAKEN might have made a difference already?!

I'm also in Canada and get about 5 scam calls per day.

That sucks. Maybe I'm just lucky then. Possibly it depends on the carrier?

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#313

Post by JoshTriplett »

binkHN wrote: post #262
tristor wrote: post #188

I have never had any of the issues described in this article and I've been using AirPods w/ an iPhone and a MacBook since AirPods came out. My issue with phone calls is 1. Robocalls 2. Robocalls 3. Robocalls 4. Robocalls 5. Robocalls I've been all over the world, and it is straight up fucked how bad this issue is in the US and it's not like this elsewhere. It's completely fixable, but American telcos make money off l…

My Pixel phone has largely solved this for me. The built-in Call Screening is stellar and I don’t get bothered by robocalls much anymore because of how well the phone handles these.

Likewise. Half the spammers hang up the moment I activate call screening, the other half (probably automated) keep talking and then I hit the spam button. All the (marginal) benefit of saying "take me off your spam list", far less trouble.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#314

Post by Cederfjard »

coldpie wrote: post #232
jobs_throwaway wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dating apps over phone calls is an absolutely ludicrous take that demonstrates a disconnect from reality

Definitely not. It depends on who you and your circle of friends are, of course, but dating apps are definitely way higher usage than phone calls among anyone I know. I use my phone as a phone less than half a dozen times per year. If the phone functionality vanished, I don't think I would mind.

You only do voice calls six times in a year?

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#316

Post by monocasa »

imchillyb wrote: post #180
midoridensha wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's a _phone_. Phone calls are it's primary function. No, it's not. You sound like a dinosaur. A phone's primary functions are 1) text-messaging apps, 2) camera, 3) dating apps, 4) banking apps, and various others. Phone calls are somewhere around #20.

You sound like you’re disconnected from reality. Phone = Telephone: The term telephone was adopted into the vocabulary of many languages. It is derived from the Greek: τῆλε, tēle, "far" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice", together meaning "distant voice". Distant voice communication is the entire purpose for a phone. Just because you want or expect your phone to do more, doesn’t make your desires the primary function of the de…

And geometry is from the Greek γῆ (gê) 'earth, land', and μέτρον (métron) 'a measure', referring to it's original use as a tool for surveying farm plots in flood plains. It's obviously expanded much past that original definition to the point now that the original definition is simply one small application of the tool. In fact an application that the vast majority of practitioners will never administer.

Names change much slower the function generally.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#317

Post by 01acheru »

bbarn wrote: post #246
tristor wrote: post #188

I have never had any of the issues described in this article and I've been using AirPods w/ an iPhone and a MacBook since AirPods came out. My issue with phone calls is 1. Robocalls 2. Robocalls 3. Robocalls 4. Robocalls 5. Robocalls I've been all over the world, and it is straight up fucked how bad this issue is in the US and it's not like this elsewhere. It's completely fixable, but American telcos make money off l…

I get the same issues I did in the US here in Iceland, fwiw. I get the added bonus of no longer being able to use many voice activated features because names aren't phonetically pronounced or simply have characters that aren't recognized by CarPlay. "Call Þórunn mobile." "I don't have a Thorin." "Call Porun mobile" "I don't have a porun".

I had to call my mom "Mamma" in every possible field for Siri to call her when I say "Hey Siri call mamma" (I'm Italian but my phone is in English).

Before that she was only "mamma" as first name but I had other "mamma zoe", "mamma ale", "mamma gio" and Siri always wanted to call "mamma zoe" when I said "Hey Siri call mamma".

After filling some fields of my mamma she started asking "Who would you like to call?" and started saying all mammas in my phone book, but when I said "mamma mamma" she started calling a random one or not getting it.

Now that I have my Mamma (first name) Mamma (middle name) Mamma (last name) of company Mamma nicknamed Mamma with email mamma@mamma it works... go figure!

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#318

Post by wollsmoth »

floren wrote: post #282
joshstrange wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, the 2 most annoying thing for me when I have to call into a business: 1. "You can find the answers you need online at our website: w w w dot our business name dot com" - First I would never call if I could do what I needed online, second get me to the menu already. I hate waiting 30-60sec+ for a prerecorded message that doesn't tell me anything new. 2. "We are experiencing higher than normal call volume" - Bu…

I had a recent trip to Japan, wanted to exchange some yen before I left, so I called around to a bunch of local banks and got to experience some exquisitely terrible phone systems. The worst, and this is a new one to me: you get a 30 second message about how you can do everything online (except ask if they sell foreign currency), and how the menu options have changed, and then you finally pick the option to talk to a…

Yeah, you gotta give em like a weeks notice and even then they might give you a bad rate.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#319

Post by hericium »

Upon reading just the title, I thought this is going to be about prolonged, slowly spoken automatic pre-IVR messages, which appeared during COVID with "due to the current situation, we kindly ask you to be patient because we're understaffed and have more calls".

Now it's just unspoken "you learned how to wait during COVID so fuck you and wait", often mentioning opening hours, even when you call during those hours, website address and other nonsense before a human is even notified about a phone call at the other end.

Fuck you and wait.

> Instead, this: Hello? … Wait, hello? Can you hear me? Okay, hold on. Ugh. Okay, okay, just a second. I have to get my earphones to connect. Damn it. Okay, never mind, I’ll just hold it up to my head. Hi, ugh, sorry about that.

Noone I know has these issues. The author seems to be impaired in smartphone handling or the US cell infrastructure started to suck. No such issues in Europe to my knowledge. These sound like the issues with Zoom and Meet, not phones. "Can you hear me? Can you see me? Am I presenting?".

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#320

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

01acheru wrote: post #317
bbarn wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the same issues I did in the US here in Iceland, fwiw. I get the added bonus of no longer being able to use many voice activated features because names aren't phonetically pronounced or simply have characters that aren't recognized by CarPlay. "Call Þórunn mobile." "I don't have a Thorin." "Call Porun mobile" "I don't have a porun".

I had to call my mom "Mamma" in every possible field for Siri to call her when I say "Hey Siri call mamma" (I'm Italian but my phone is in English). Before that she was only "mamma" as first name but I had other "mamma zoe", "mamma ale", "mamma gio" and Siri always wanted to call "mamma zoe" when I said "Hey Siri call mamma". After filling some fields of my mamma she started asking "Who would you like to call?" and s…

I think I have a solution for you, and it's going to be a mother.
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