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“When we all have pocket telephones”

openculture.com

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Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#171

Post by simonblack »

wnoise wrote: post #161
temporallobe wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just in an awkward social situation the other day where someone left their phone on a table at a party and walked away to do something. Some guy was telling an interesting story and we were all trying to politely listen, but suddenly that phone started ringing at full volume. Everyone just kind of ignored it at first but it kept ringing. I was annoyed and wanted to reach over and mute/end the call, but, you don…

When batteries were removable, removing them was the standard way to make unattended, ringing cell-phones stop.

They may be making them with non-removable batteries, but they still have ways of turning them off.

I've discovered that the fastest way of turning them off is with a mallet.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#172

Post by _carbyau_ »

abeppu wrote: post #133
warner25 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't encountered that yet, but I'm starting to encounter mobile apps as required proof of membership for things. My family got a membership to a children's museum a few weeks ago, and the expectation is that my wife and I have their app on our phones to get inside. For our second visit, I brought our printed receipt, but my wife had to stand there downloading and installing their app so that we could use our gue…

I think the worst part of this is businesses that do this all have different crappy apps. My gym has their own app that must be scanned upon entry. But their app is often slow and unresponsive, and unpredictably logs out. Often at the entry, a person will be stuck trying to reload the app, possibly hindered by their phone having switched to the gym's questionable wifi. Multiple other people will be stuck behind them,…

> businesses that do this all have different crappy apps.

I want "app containers" on my phone to limit these apps and feed them fake data as needed.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#173

Post by Eleison23 »

bsza wrote: post #5
huseyinkeles wrote: post #2

what's more interesting to me is at the date of this comic, even the landline phones were not fully adopted :)

Yet it predicted the future more accurately than Blade Runner (1982) where people still use pay phones in 2019.

Star Wars did a horrible job at documenting the past, too! They invented laser beams and all the hokey religious dudes thought energy swords were better?

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#174

Post by LinuxBender »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #84

> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…

Up until recently I had a flip phone and often left it at home. Nobody ever sneered at me for a lack of a phone. I've never been anywhere that required one. Why are people allowing anything like you describe to exist?

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#175

Post by masswerk »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #56

That comic got one small detail incorrect: in 2022, phones are rarely in pockets, because most people can't stop using theirs long enough to put it in a pocket.

To be fair, phones have become a bit too big for pockets. I'm looking forward to carrying handles. (If transistor radios could have them, why not phones?) ;-)

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#176

Post by bombolo »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #84

> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…

In sweden in most train stations you can't buy a train ticket without having a phone.

Major stations will at best have a couple of ticket machines. All the other ones will have none.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#177

Post by lrvick »

danudey wrote: post #138
darkwater wrote: post #9

I think the joke is still good, because it's still a bad manner to have your phone ringing and buzzing in many situations (a concert, at the opera etc). I mean, it's actually an impressive comic, it imagines a possible future tech and correctly identifies some real misuses, 70-80 years before it became reality.

When cell phones were in their infancy, I remember reading an article, some kind of op-ed, about how they were ruining society. His primary example, his primary complaint, was a situation where he was at dinner with his wife and his own cell phone rang. A friend was calling him! On his phone, at dinner! How incredibly, unimaginably rude could someone be? To call someone while he was in a public restaurant, at dinner…

Meanwhile I -still- think anyone who pulls out a cell phone when spending time with other humans is an asshole. Leave it at home or turn it off. You can doom scroll later.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#178

Post by lrvick »

temporallobe wrote: post #149
darkwater wrote: post #9

I think the joke is still good, because it's still a bad manner to have your phone ringing and buzzing in many situations (a concert, at the opera etc). I mean, it's actually an impressive comic, it imagines a possible future tech and correctly identifies some real misuses, 70-80 years before it became reality.

I was just in an awkward social situation the other day where someone left their phone on a table at a party and walked away to do something. Some guy was telling an interesting story and we were all trying to politely listen, but suddenly that phone started ringing at full volume. Everyone just kind of ignored it at first but it kept ringing. I was annoyed and wanted to reach over and mute/end the call, but, you don…

You are nicer than me. I would have powered it down instantly.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#180

Post by lrvick »

bsza wrote: post #5
huseyinkeles wrote: post #2

what's more interesting to me is at the date of this comic, even the landline phones were not fully adopted :)

Yet it predicted the future more accurately than Blade Runner (1982) where people still use pay phones in 2019.

My primary phone number rings a payphone in my office. I missed having them around.
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