Cell phones are not just for talking while driving anymore. The cell phone carriers grew tired of just charging for anytime minutes, and added camera and videocamera functions, along with web access and texting. Entire cottage industries have sprung up to sell us ringtones, cell games, music and video. The most recent entrants in this field are Big Media companies News Corp. and CBS, with the former launching a European cell content store called Mobizzo and the latter starting a pay service with video news alerts for mobile phones.
What content do you want on your cell phone? News video or downloadable music? Games or special ringtones? Nothing? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I’ll choose the best ones for next week’s Your Take Roundup.
How about, OMG, a PHONE that actually performs well.
Access to the media I already have on my computer and my TiVo. Honestly, I’ve already got more to read/watch/listen to than I have time for. Rather than pay $1.99 a download, I’d pay a hefty price ($10/month? $20/month if it’s really well executed?) to access all my content anywhere. But cellular carriers are used to charging piecemeal, and it will be hard to break them of that habit.
i’d like to have rss feeds on my cell phone. i need to keep track of info when i have a free minute or two in my day. i’d also use those rss feeds for family and close friends to send me time urgent text — which would activate a vibration on my cell phone.
i need for others to have that kind of cell phone, too, so that we don’t live in a society where cell phones ring every other minute in both public and private places.
we need to increase the quantity of serenity in this world, without losing connectedness.
None. I just want my cell phone for what is was created: make calls. Send messages. Trully, I’d love having a digital camera that could also make phone calls. Cell phone cameras still aren’t as good as I would like to.
My family and friends content and context.
Across the globe, there is only one nature in common of what a mobile phone operator works: try its best to grasp bucks as much as possible out of the pocket of a subscriber, along with a series of trail-blazing value-add services, which a subscriber who has signed up for one item of services or two is given mixed feeling of what he or she pays for: Is it worth paying and keeping up with what a mobile phone operator brags.
I use my phone for business, and I don’t need or want it to do anything more than calling and voice mail. Cell phone service is already expensive, and I’m not interested in paying a premium for a fancy phone or extra services. I don’t need to be wired all the time. I already have a camera; I already have a computer. I don’t need to replicate that functionality in another device.
I would like to be able to choose my phone options when I get the phone and perhaps change those options online. The ability of cell phones to connect to the internet (and incur high charges) I find unnecessary and a nuisance since the web buttons are big and easy to hit on accident.
Also, I find it annoying that I have to pay to receive a text message when I have no option about whether or not I want to receive one. Text messaging seems like a scam when compared to e-mail and the advanced technology we have. Did pagers charge for every page received (I’m not quite sure, that was before my time, but it seems like it would defeat the purpose)? Why should we have to pay to send a short message to someone in our service that it would be free, although sometimes inconvenient, to call?
Phones should be phones, cameras should be cameras, PDAs should be PDAs, etc. etc. etc.
I’m tired of all this gadgets that promise to do everything, but don’t do anything well.
I use my phone to make calls, my computer to keep my schedule, and my ipod to listen to music. That’s it, I’m happy that way.
Cell phones can have as many features as the manufacturer wants to put on them as long as the consumer has the choice to take advantage of them or not. And if not, then no penalities for just sticking to the basics.
I HAVEN’T JOINED THE CELL PHONE NATION. SHOULD I BRAG AND TELL MY PRIMARY PHONE IS A LAND LINE ROTARY PHONE CIRCA 1960.
I want my cell phone to function efficently and effortlessly when I need it, and to have service in between houses, inside of houses and anywhere else I want to use it, not just when I’m driving down the major freeways. I also want my cell phone to stay together when it accidentally falls to the ground, and to last longer than the current quality control failing three month limit on electronic effectiveness that seems to pervade our modern sensibilities and products.
Sure, games would be nice, but if I can listen to music, I’m not going to be playing games, and if I can actually call someone, and they have service and their battery is charged or their LCD screen can actually be viewed in the sun, I’d be a whole lot happier. However, the ability to hack my DVR onto my phone or even laptop and then using bluetooth to send my media to my phone, is tantalizing, but after trying to watch Austin Powers: Goldmember on a video iPod, I’m not sure how willing I am to fork over the money to pay for “compatibility,” when nine times out of ten, some error message will pop up. And not just because I’m on a Mac.
Personally, for cell phones, I’d ideally want something that is pragmatic and recreational: I want to be able to take calls and meet buddies at Philadelphia Park, for example, and then call my wife and let her know that I’ll be home after a game of touch football. The nuanced I-Phone of 2010 does this easily