341–345 of 345 posts
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And then we had "microcomputers" (desktop PC sized). Rather disappointed we didn't call laptops "nanocomputers" and phones "picocomputers" :)
In Swedish, the term "stordator", literally "big computer" refers to a mainframe. I really like your idea of nano and picocomputers. It's consistent, and really reflects on the miniaturisation that we have seen since since the invention of the computer.
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I think everyone here calls them cellphones. I call them mobiles and everyone gets it. Handy... wouldn't work in Canada, and I suspect not in the U.S. either.
Handy (CA, US etc) == handjob (GB etc). Presumably handy is an abbreviation of handjob. I know blowjob is in common parlance at least on both sides of the pond. Perhaps it is just as well DE didn't pick blowey or blowie (those are in use over here in a similar way to handy on the left edge of the pond.) Handy could work in the UK except that it is extensively used already as an adjective eg: "that's a bit handy" or "…
Although blower is slang for a phone in the UK.
I was out riding motorcycles with a friend. He went down and was pretty broken up. As the ambulance loaded him up, I tried to use his Android phone to call his wife to let her know he had been hurt and what hospital he was being taken to. It was a stressful situation but I could not find the phone function at first easily (no idea which distribution). The phone function is still really important!
You can do an emergency call without even unlocking the phone. At least in Australia I'm pretty sure it is a requirement to be able to make emergency calls immediately.
Even though my phone has a pattern lock, there's an icon of a telephone handset that you can swipe to make an emergency call without unlocking.
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I don't carry a phone in my pocket, I carry a personal computer that also makes voices calls over cellular networks.
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…