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Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

retro.social

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Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#41

Post by lelanthran »

jauco wrote: post #29

Actually, do things ever get easier to tinker with as technology matures? Is it easier to build or repair a radio now than it was when they were first sold? A computer? A car? A washing machine? A vacuum cleaner?

> Is it easier to build or repair a radio now than it was when they were first sold?

"Build"[1], yes. "Repair", not really. A lot of things (like radio) can be an isolated module you just drop in.

Right now a bright HS student can produce a clock radio by plugging together an arduino, an I2C FM receiver, I2C display, an I2C audio amp and a speaker. Pop it all into an enclosure and you have a real clock radio.

Compare to building a clock radio back in 1990 - you'll have to understand how to wire up an op-amp, the principles behind op-amps, how to drive the readout from a clock, etc.

-------------------

[1] By "build" I assume you mean "assemble from parts".

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#42

Post by easyThrowaway »

nadagast wrote: post #10

I enjoyed this. But reading the claim that the iPhone was bad compared to other phones of the day makes me question it all. That's so incredibly backwards. It _was_ a much better internet in your pocket. If you couldn't see that, it says something about you, not phones.

My Nokia 5800 express could connect to a VPN and run a bridged internet connection over Bluetooth in 2008. I clearly remember using it in Switzerland around 2010 to pay for a tramway using a QR code.

Sure, UI was way worse compared to UIKit but in term of features Symbian phones were light-years beyond the iPhone at least until the iPhone 4.

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#43

Post by dgellow »

charamis wrote: post #20
MarcScott wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to recall I had a windows phone at the time, with a full keyboard. I could use OS maps on the thing, and although it didn't have GPS, it could get my rough location by tower. My mate had an iPhone, and it had an app where you could pretend to drink a pint of beer.

That might prove the novelty of the App Store back then. Also, let’s not forget that its’ screen was better than most other smartphones of its time. It was a rather limited phone, but not bad exactly.

The App Store wasn’t planned on release. Apple was pushing for html5 mobile apps at the time. If people had native apps it was via jailbreak

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#44

Post by ldng »

nadagast wrote: post #10

I enjoyed this. But reading the claim that the iPhone was bad compared to other phones of the day makes me question it all. That's so incredibly backwards. It _was_ a much better internet in your pocket. If you couldn't see that, it says something about you, not phones.

It. Was. Bad. But Apple managed to strongarm telcos and it came with free unlimited 3G.

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#45

Post by ldng »

ldng wrote: post #44
nadagast wrote: post #10

I enjoyed this. But reading the claim that the iPhone was bad compared to other phones of the day makes me question it all. That's so incredibly backwards. It _was_ a much better internet in your pocket. If you couldn't see that, it says something about you, not phones.

It. Was. Bad. But Apple managed to strongarm telcos and it came with free unlimited 3G.

Strike that, not 3G, 2G and Edge !

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#46

Post by bushwart »

oliwarner wrote: post #25
nadagast wrote: post #10

I enjoyed this. But reading the claim that the iPhone was bad compared to other phones of the day makes me question it all. That's so incredibly backwards. It _was_ a much better internet in your pocket. If you couldn't see that, it says something about you, not phones.

It was bad if you had a Nokia smartphone, or a Blackberry. Lots of people felt they weren't ready to give up their keyboards. It's hard to make objective judgment when you're in one tribe's trench.

It got a lot harder to text while driving with the loss of physical keyboards. I used to write messages without needing to take my eyes off the road.

At least now I can leave people long, rambling voice notes with the excuse that I'm behind the wheel!

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#47

Post by mcphage »

fsh wrote: post #18
nadagast wrote: post #10

I enjoyed this. But reading the claim that the iPhone was bad compared to other phones of the day makes me question it all. That's so incredibly backwards. It _was_ a much better internet in your pocket. If you couldn't see that, it says something about you, not phones.

The original iPhone was genuinely terrible. A 2006 Nokia could surf the web on the go and tell you where you are. The iPhone could do neither, since Apple did not include a 3G modem or GPS. It also did not have any apps, and one of the key features highlighted by Steve Jobs was voicemail . The 3G one year later was the first truly usable iPhone.

> and one of the key features highlighted by Steve Jobs was voicemail

Visual voicemail was, and is still a fantastic feature, and phones without it existed for an embarrassingly long time afterwards. I don't remember the last year I had to dial a special number and type in my password, in order to get my voicemail read off to me one at a time in order, but... it was not a small number year.

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#48

Post by mcphage »

dwedge wrote: post #9

Those angry emails from guys (it's always guys) felt so contrived and wedged in just to attack other guys. I reminded me of the tweet about how people online invent someone doing a hypothetical situation and then get mad at them

> I reminded me of the tweet about how people online invent someone doing a hypothetical situation and then get mad at them

You really think that bit was hypothetical?!

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#49

Post by mcphage »

> back then, it sucked so hard that web designers with a decade of experience would crank out articles about trying to achieve "the Holy Grail of web design," which was three columns, a header, and a footer, with stuff in the middle bit and links in the left bit and maybe some other links in the right bit, that didn't fuck up in some hilarious or obscure way. Shit that was trivial and intuitive with tables, but absolutely fucking impossible with CSS.

This fact (which is 100% true) makes me so angry about CSS. They had a really good idea—separate structure from content. But they didn't design CSS about what people Actually Wanted To Do, so for what, a decade plus? CSS was this steaming pile of hacks and hoops and bullshit. Designers wanted 3-column layouts. They wanted pinstriping. They wanted drop shadows. They wanted to center things vertically. And rather than make those dead simple, they made them all pains in the ass. Why spend all that time designing and developing and proselyting a technology, without ever thinking about what sort of thing people will want to do with it?

Re: Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026

#50

Post by dwedge »

mcphage wrote: post #48
dwedge wrote: post #9

Those angry emails from guys (it's always guys) felt so contrived and wedged in just to attack other guys. I reminded me of the tweet about how people online invent someone doing a hypothetical situation and then get mad at them

> I reminded me of the tweet about how people online invent someone doing a hypothetical situation and then get mad at them You really think that bit was hypothetical?!

Of course it was. The whole article was written in a hypothetical structure. "You do this, then that happens"
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