{"id":2607,"date":"2017-06-28T11:47:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T18:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/?p=2607"},"modified":"2017-06-28T11:47:41","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T18:47:41","slug":"more-curmudgeonly-smartphone-bashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/?p=2607","title":{"rendered":"More Curmudgeonly Smartphone Bashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago I had the opportunity to use an iPhone. Unbelievably, the thing took eight keystrokes<\/em> to simply hang up an in-progress call.<\/em> Eight! I am not making this up:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. After 30 seconds or so of idleness, the phone locks itself due to security measures. (The phone for some reason considers itself to be “idle” even though it is actively in use for a call at the time.)<\/li>\n
  2. Given virtually all calls last longer than 30 seconds, that means you must first get the attention of the now-locked iPhone. Press the one and only actual mechanical button offering tactile feedback the device has (1 keystroke, 1 in total).<\/li>\n
  3. It is now time to enter the unlock code for the phone (4 additional keystrokes, 5 in total, and counting).<\/li>\n
  4. Despite the device being a phone, and a phone call being actively in place, for some reason you are now in the phone’s default mode, which has nothing to do with making or managing telephone calls. Tap the icon that puts the phone in phone mode (1 additional keystroke, 6 in total, and counting).<\/li>\n
  5. Despite there being a phone call actively in place, when you enter phone mode you are placed in the mode where you can make an additional call, not for managing the existing in-progress call. You must manually select the current call (1 additional keystroke, 7 in total, and counting).<\/li>\n
  6. You are finally now presented with the desired icon to click on that will end the call. Click on it (1 final keystroke, grand total of 8).<\/li>\n
  7. Congratulations! You have at long last managed to hang up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    By the time that’s all done, odds are at least 50-50 the other party has long since hung up already and the call has timed out before you could hang it up.<\/p>\n

    Why would I want to have a device that packs so many non-phone duties into itself, and implements its total set of duties so poorly, that using it for its primary intended purpose is then severely compromised? The nearly 40-year-old 2500DM set<\/a> on my desk never has firmware to update, will never radically and unexpectedly change its user interface, and has a set of hook switch buttons that are always there waiting for me to use them on a moment’s notice whenever I want to hang up on a call. Even the cheapest flip phone has an END button that’s always there waiting for me to use it. Neither phone decides in the midst of an in-progress call of all things<\/em> that it’s “idle” and now needs a password to be unlocked.<\/p>\n

    The killer came when I realized that this is an iPhone, and Apple has a well-deserved reputation for the best-designed system software. That is how the best<\/em> smartphone on the market implements its user interface. The other smartphones are almost certainly worse.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A few months ago I had the opportunity to use an iPhone. Unbelievably, the thing took eight keystrokes to simply hang up an in-progress call. Eight! I am not making this up: After 30 seconds or so of idleness, the phone locks itself due to security measures. (The phone for some reason considers itself to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcap.name\/blog\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}