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Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

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Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#61

Post by JKCalhoun »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #30
d--b wrote: post #27

I went to Japan in 2004. I hiked a mountain and at the top saw a woman talk to someone on her flip phone. At some point she said something like “hey do you want to see the view?”, she then turned the phone around and I realized she had been video chatting the whole time. I was so amazed. I bought a Wap-capable NEC that year, it felt so ahead of anything we had in Europe!

It was a weird time, being in the USA and learning that Europe and Japan had all these great technologies in their mobile phones that we didn’t have. It sucked being so behind the times here. It’s interesting that now every country has the same high tech mobile phones, though there are still niche devices that may only be produced for a specific region.

Then: I want emoji too!

Now: .

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#62

Post by JKCalhoun »

noobermin wrote: post #49
d--b wrote: post #27

I went to Japan in 2004. I hiked a mountain and at the top saw a woman talk to someone on her flip phone. At some point she said something like “hey do you want to see the view?”, she then turned the phone around and I realized she had been video chatting the whole time. I was so amazed. I bought a Wap-capable NEC that year, it felt so ahead of anything we had in Europe!

That with the video of shakira someone posted, it's a shame Japan now has a reputation for being behind the times now, I wonder how much the language barrier had to do with why none of the tech companies in japan other than those tied to video games have an international footprint today.

I assumed it was the lack of a homegrown OS? It seems OS's turned out to be a pretty big deal when device complexity moved beyond menu/+/- buttons on the side of the device.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#63

Post by EddieDemo »

owl57 wrote: post #55
justinator wrote: post #2

In the early 2000's, I remember in art school I did a project that involved driving around the country, leaving tiny sculptures wherever I went. To keep people updated where I was, I made a Perl script that accepted messages and photos sent to it that I authored on my fancy Sony Ericson picture phone. The script would update a website showing the photos and messages in reverse chronological order. Took maybe about 3…

But note how you invented only the better half of Instagram. The other half is all the "social" shit: "Tell us your email to see more John's photos", "Have you seen recent posts from Kate, Mike and Cristiano Ronaldo", etc.

Bear in mind; we're all on HN looking for high-quality content from strangers, rather than from our own personal network(s).

The trend across all social media is to feed us with more 'high-ranking' content from 'strangers' because it's typically what we want to see more of, based on the analytics. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook — all of them are pivoting to feed us more content from people outside of our personal networks as fast as possible.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#64

Post by vbezhenar »

poisonarena wrote: post #47
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a weird time, being in the USA and learning that Europe and Japan had all these great technologies in their mobile phones that we didn’t have. It sucked being so behind the times here. It’s interesting that now every country has the same high tech mobile phones, though there are still niche devices that may only be produced for a specific region.

example of country specific niche devices for the curious?

I'm not sure about specifics but when I was looking for android devices with small screens (like 3") last time, I found some indian smartphones. They were ultra-budget and I wanted something premium so I didn't pursue it further, but it was definitely something I never saw in the public market.

Another specific niche might be babushkaphones. It's a cell phone made for babushkas. Basically huge buttons, screen with huge fonts, dumbed down interface so people with very little technical knowledge could use them to be on line.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#65

Post by zinekeller »

poisonarena wrote: post #47
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a weird time, being in the USA and learning that Europe and Japan had all these great technologies in their mobile phones that we didn’t have. It sucked being so behind the times here. It’s interesting that now every country has the same high tech mobile phones, though there are still niche devices that may only be produced for a specific region.

example of country specific niche devices for the curious?

Well, Japan had plenty, including devices that integrate NFC for payment (before smartphones globally routinely have it) and built-in digital television receiver (while a lot of phones in Asia have analogue TV receivers, Japan's are usually digital in part because their digital TV format (1seg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1seg) have been developed with this in mind).

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#66

Post by neurostimulant »

arpa wrote: post #36
wodenokoto wrote: post #7

MMS' where ridiculously expensive when they came out. 2-3 times a regular text message wouldn't do it. On top of that, MMS was janky AF (probably still is. I don't know anyone who uses them on purpose). Unclear if receiver could receive your message. If they couldn't, you still had to pay. Sometimes they'd receive a link instead of a picture, sometimes just junk. Pictures where already pretty lousy straight off the p…

MMS actually work now as everyone has data on the phone. Ten years back, MMS was crap.

Sending MMS internationally is still hit and miss. There is a reason whatsapp replaced MMS for most people (outside the US).

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#67

Post by jinto36 »

noobermin wrote: post #49
d--b wrote: post #27

I went to Japan in 2004. I hiked a mountain and at the top saw a woman talk to someone on her flip phone. At some point she said something like “hey do you want to see the view?”, she then turned the phone around and I realized she had been video chatting the whole time. I was so amazed. I bought a Wap-capable NEC that year, it felt so ahead of anything we had in Europe!

That with the video of shakira someone posted, it's a shame Japan now has a reputation for being behind the times now, I wonder how much the language barrier had to do with why none of the tech companies in japan other than those tied to video games have an international footprint today.

I'd also suggest that the "bubble" era had a long tail in terms of innovation- the huge R&D investments that were made in the 80s and early 90s were still showing results into the early 2000s. Then we started to see the result of a recession that ended up spanning more than a decade.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#68

Post by neurostimulant »

julian_t wrote: post #48
stevejb wrote: post #6

I just watched this video on a plane, going nearly 600mph at 33K ft above northern Canada. The pace of technological evolution I have experienced in my lifetime is absolutely miraculous.

I often think about this. My grandmother was born at the end of the 1800s (yes, I'm old) and remembered electricity and the first car coming to her rural village in Wales. By the end of her life she'd lived through two world wars, seen men on the moon, could talk to her relatives in Australia on the phone, and been on holiday to America on a 747. And what always amazed me was that she grew up with people (mainly farm…

Heck, I grew up in a village and I remember my family didn't have electricity when I was 6. Fast forward 25 years later, everyone there has fiber optic internet.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#69

Post by slfnflctd »

ilyt wrote: post #52
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #50

"Phonemakers never expected it to takeoff, it was teenagers who decided that this was the way to keep in touch" Makes me wonder what new trends dinosaurs like us don't see coming. VR?

VR isn't something average teenager can afford yet. I can see something that's a mix of VR chat and some creation tools a'la Dreams would be a hit. User generated content for VR Chat is already popular and making it possible to make the game in the game is natural next step

> isn't something average teenager can afford

The best selling VR headset is cheaper than either a smartphone or a gaming console, though, is it not? You don't really see anyone arguing that teenagers can't afford those. Also, this stuff is usually bought by parents anyway.

I personally think a larger market will probably emerge for AR than for VR due to friction factors, but from what I've read, teenagers are in fact using VR right now.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#70

Post by AnotherGoodName »

poisonarena wrote: post #47
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a weird time, being in the USA and learning that Europe and Japan had all these great technologies in their mobile phones that we didn’t have. It sucked being so behind the times here. It’s interesting that now every country has the same high tech mobile phones, though there are still niche devices that may only be produced for a specific region.

example of country specific niche devices for the curious?

Not a device but a lot of norms: Digital everything. Even digital drivers licences. It's a norm to carry only a phone and keys in some parts of the world. Even payments have a different norm. The vending cart lady has tap and go payments and has done for over a decade now. When I moved to the USA I had to buy a wallet for the cards they use here. That was 5 years ago and the USA still isn't there yet.

Banking. Not a niche device but there's no need for Venmo or PayPal type apps in much of the world. The government mandates all banking system Apis and there's instant free transfers to other accounts. I just had to pay a $10 transaction fee for a bank transfer in the USA and it was a hassle (not done phone to phone but through routing and bsb numbers).

Taxation. It's a government integrated system. It still has a ton of special tax edge cases but for the most part you log in see your employers entered wages and tax paid and acknowledge. It's a much much better app than TurboTax and for the exceptions they are just checkboxes for meeting the criteria and fields for amount spent in the category etc. No TurboTax premium required since it's the government's app.

Universal public transit apps. You tap on the ferry with your phone and tap out of the train station later in your trip. It's all integrated.

In fact riffing on taxation why isn't there more done online. Why do I need to go to the DMV short of an in person driving test?

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