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Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

martinruenz.de

271–280 of 345 posts

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#271
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Representing a person by a country-specific number is a horrible UX Phone numbers (and physical addresses) are examples of semi and fully federated systems. You use the standard and establish contracts and your teleco or post office and connect to anyone else in the world. Your Google Hangouts/Skype/Facebook are closed, walled garden, proprietary systems. Keep that in mind.

I do hate the walled garden aspect of them. I agree they are far, far, far from innocent. But from a UX standpoint they are vastly superior to having to deal with people trying to reach me on my US number while I'm in China, or trying to reach one cell phone when I'm carrying another. Also, the telco operators love to nickel-and-dime consumers for things like roaming charges. I'd love to see more competitors come out…

Set up a (sub)domain that DNS resolves to your phone number.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#272
post #179

Or that just means that we still call the device in our pocket a "phone" for legacy reasons. If we are okay with having a third party handles our messages, VoIP etc, why not the phone app?

I've mostly deprecated phone numbers as a way of reaching me for the following reasons: - Representing a person by a country-specific number is a horrible UX. All of my contact methods besides phone number remain the same no matter where I am in the world. Several of my contact methods (Facebook, LinkedIn) enable directly "dialing" my real name and intelligently locating me by social proximity instead of asking the c…

Anecdotally everything has moved to WhatsApp and the like even for voice calls. Even more interesting, there seems to be a trend to not even make calls and just go for chat most of the time!

That said, while phone calling has fallen out of favor, phone numbers are still the main form of 'identity' people have, and if anything the dominance of WhatsApp/Messenger has made it more common in my circles to share a phone number rather than a FB username.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Manufacturers are under no obligation to provide you with a device to your particular specification I don't think wishing that a niche was filled constitutes assuming that manufacturers have any obligation.

A niche that appeals to almost no one and alienates the telcos that manufacturers partner with. So it looks like the free market is working in this case.

>A niche that appeals to almost no one and alienates the telcos that manufacturers partner with. So it looks like the free market is working in this case.

Okay? Who on earth said it wasn't? The original comment wasn't even particularly bitter about it. Saying you wish something existed doesn't preclude understanding the market-based reasons it doesn't.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#275
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always found it weird how everyone I know seems much more cautious about phone usage than me: for example, I've never understood why people don't answer numbers they don't recognize. I'm slowly realizing that this is because apparently people are inundated with spam calls? I think I may have received one solitary spam call in my entire life. I can't really account for the discrepancy

> I've always found it weird how everyone I know seems much more cautious about phone usage than me I wouldn't say I'm cautious, it's simply that if it were important, why would you call? I basically consider phone calls as unimportant as paper letters. Check in on them every few weeks.

> I wouldn't say I'm cautious, it's simply that if it were important, why would you call?

Claiming this in general is trivially rebuttable by the fact that I know many people who feel precisely the opposite: if it's important you call, if not you text.

If anything, that view is less irrational than yours: a mode of communication that's immediate, loud, sustained for many seconds, and hits a device that most people have on them constantly fits far more easily with realtime urgency than any other mode of communication.

On top of THAT, there are still stupid legacy systems (that are nonetheless important) that use old forms of communication. My insurance was cancelled while I was on a backpacking trip and they called me and sent me a letter without bothering to send me an email. The fact that Blue Shield are fucking idiots doesn't change the fact that I was without proper medical insurance for th rest of the year (due to ACA enrollment limits). I could easily see the same being true of phone calls.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#276
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been joking lately that there is a new one syllable word for "personal computer": phone. At the current rate that's how the language will shift. I suppose we'll know if people start referring to things like "macOS deskphones" and think "laptop" always meant "laptop phone". :) It's like those futurist ads from the 50s (and 80s/90s) AT&T that soon there will be phones capable of amazing things everywhere in our li…

Mobile phones are called "Handys" in German. It's become such a satisfying and appropriate name for handheld computers, as distinct from traditional personal computers. In British English, they've always called cellphones "mobiles", which is also a nice short name for mobile computers.

Likewise in French, 'portable', similar to mobile.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#277
post #272
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mostly deprecated phone numbers as a way of reaching me for the following reasons: - Representing a person by a country-specific number is a horrible UX. All of my contact methods besides phone number remain the same no matter where I am in the world. Several of my contact methods (Facebook, LinkedIn) enable directly "dialing" my real name and intelligently locating me by social proximity instead of asking the c…

Anecdotally everything has moved to WhatsApp and the like even for voice calls. Even more interesting, there seems to be a trend to not even make calls and just go for chat most of the time! That said, while phone calling has fallen out of favor, phone numbers are still the main form of 'identity' people have, and if anything the dominance of WhatsApp/Messenger has made it more common in my circles to share a phone n…

Ah Whatsapp - the app that demands full accesss to all your friends,family and work contacts just to work. Nope.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always found it weird how everyone I know seems much more cautious about phone usage than me: for example, I've never understood why people don't answer numbers they don't recognize. I'm slowly realizing that this is because apparently people are inundated with spam calls? I think I may have received one solitary spam call in my entire life. I can't really account for the discrepancy

Where do you live? I'm the same, 0 spam calls ever, but I live in NZ.

California, USA

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#279

I have never heard of a "Wileyfox Swift". If you need an awesome and capable Android 7.0 based dual SIM phone with zero carrier crapware/bloatware and a close to stock Android experience, the OnePlus 3T (64 or 128GB version) is a good choice. Since Oneplus' falling out with Cyanogen Inc, and the financial failure of Cyanogen, Oneplus' own OxygenOS is essentially a re-implemented CyanogenMod that has all of the same f…

I've almost buyed the Wileyfox Swift last week, but I'm glad that I've seen discussions around Truecaller and the Zen ads, which changed my mind and opted for a BQ Aquaris X5 Plus instead.

I recently bought a Swift 2+. I still like it.

Hopefully, Zen can be disabled with the next update: https://www.reddit.com/r/wileyfox/comments/64xga8/it_should_...

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#280
post #181
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is a regional thing, but I'm British and I'm not sure I've ever heard a first language British English speaker use the word "auto" for a car. I'd have said that was purely an Americanism.

I think you're right. I am dual nationality US/UK so sometimes I tend to cross my metaphors. Perhaps a better, British example would be the word "motor" instead of "auto". Used in words like "motorway", but I've never heard anyone actually use it to mean "car" outside of 80s cockney rap. (Which is apparently a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Ullo_John!_Gotta_New_Motor%3F )

I've heard "motor" used quite frequently for "car", but only ever hear it from my 70yo father now (UK English).
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