True innovation breakthru -- A washable cell phone
LoopyByteloose
Posts: 12,537
I know, the Forums are all about electronics. Add water you get trouble. Add soap and water, you get even more trouble.
But the Japanese seem to be on to something here. With there strong urges for clean, they have created a cell phone that actually may be more durible.
It just could be a real money maker as others have simply ignored the issue.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2015/12/05/2003634027
I personally find it interesting because really successful designs do add more percieved value. And that value is often created in unusual and surprising ways. This adds another dimension of choice to cellular phones.
But the Japanese seem to be on to something here. With there strong urges for clean, they have created a cell phone that actually may be more durible.
It just could be a real money maker as others have simply ignored the issue.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2015/12/05/2003634027
I personally find it interesting because really successful designs do add more percieved value. And that value is often created in unusual and surprising ways. This adds another dimension of choice to cellular phones.
Comments
* reasons not to "borrow" a cell phone.
It's bad enough when I use a public restroom and I hear guys in the stalls talking on their cellies while doing the you know what. It's really gross. Do people really have so little impulse control they can't not respond while in the john?
Women are probably equally guilty of such a thing, people don't stay off the phone when they are sick either, reaffirms why you don't want to use a strangers phone.
Remember, never shake hands with anyone. In fact its better never to touch a human being.
Oh, and never breath in anything they have been breathing out recently.
I grew up outside as a free range kid. Was into everything everywhere. Raised my own to the same standards as much as life would allow.
My own peer group is middle age now, and the differences can be seen clearly. Same for my kids.
Just saying...
As for the phone. Ok, being really waterproof is kind of cool, but not all that compelling of a feature to me. Honestly, the phones with removable batteries stand a really high chance of surviving the toilet, given a person removes the battery quickly. Give that same phone an alcohol dip, clean, shake, dry, and a day in something like a bowl of rice, or some other thing that can absorb, and chances are pretty good.
If you want to clean your phone, a very light solution of 1 part alcohol, small amount of dish soap or clear shampoo, and 3-5 parts water is extremely effective, and easy to do. Power down, spray the phone, get it clean, air or blow dry, and you are off to the races!
I'm not entirely sure a full on soap and water bath makes any sense for a phone.
Well, no, I have been growing a hatred of that damn phone.
Locks me out multiple times per day, and I have to re-enter my pin.
Or it just locks up totally and needs a battery yank to get it going again.
Totally useless as a WIFI access point out in the forest, disconnects every minute. Signal there is not so good but other phones work better at the same location.
The OLED display is fading, colours are going yuky and muddy. The status bar is "burned" into it. It's like the old days of burning the screens of CRT scopes and terminals.
The screen glass cracked, spontaneously, no mistreatment.
The battery only ever stayed charged briefly.
If there was anything salvageable inside it would already have been subject to a Dave Jones style tear down.
I was not an Apple user before. I used to use phones
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Why does one need a washible cell phone?
The Animal Channel today in Taiwan showed a woman that accidently had an elephant snatch and swallow here iPhone.
They confirmed it was okay by listening for the ring in the elephant' abdomen
So the only thing that could be done was to dig through the poop and look for it.
++++++++
The simple fact is that a completely sealed cell phone is possible with induction charging, wifi computer link, and bluetooth interface for audio.
The next challenge is to make one 'dishwasher/laundry safe'. The dry cycle in a dishwasher actually is an oven that cooks everything dry. After all, you might just discover your cell phone has gone through both the washer and dryer at a laundromat if you do your wash like I do. I never check pockets beforehand.
I guess I too was a 'free-range kid'. How odd that we have to use that term in today's world.
I would not say I have been rough on my phone. Apart from the cracked screen I don't see how any of the complaints I listed can be attributed to mistreatment. That phone has spent most of it's life either in the soft, warm, pocket of my coat or resting on a desk at work and table at home. Hardly strenuous.
As for "should have upgraded years ago", well perhaps. Those who are lucky enough to be as old as I am have a different perspective on things. One could easily have seen the same phone in the family home for two or three decades. Not to mention that sewing machine that was bought by grandmother when she was a lass. Those 8 bit computers we bought as teenagers, Sinclair, Commodore...still work as well as they ever did. And so on. The replacement rate of such things now a days is shocking. Given the massive expense of them a ten year life span would be more reasonable.
Anyway, besides all that, the crappy user experience of this Galaxy rather puts me off getting anything similar. It was an original Samsung Galaxy GT-I9000 by the way.
Perhaps it's time to build my own phone.... Raspberry Pi + screen + phone module + Bosh 9 axis IMU would be a good start.
The truth is that one may never see a really rugged cellular phone with a really wonderful OS. Not enough cash flow.
Just sitting on one in your back pocket can break the screen, and I am barraged with ad ware that my previous phone was unable to deliver. I keep having to study how to turn off more and more items that are hostile to my tranquility.
Isn't it obvious that the cellular phone people desired to create a device that was physically barely duriable enough. The plan is not longevity, it is a perpetual parade of upgrades to new platforms -- same thing with experienced we decades of MS products. Everyone want to copy the MS playbook even though the end-game is resentments.
Sorry, I was just born pre-Consumerism, back when products felt they has a social contract to product a duriable product. I bought Sears-Roebuck Craftsman tools because they really did have a human-lifetime warrenty. Anytime one broke, they would replace it at no charge.