If you're like me and many of the technology enthusiasts I know, you own a wireless phone that does more than just make phone calls. Some people feel that a phone should be just that - a phone, period. There's nothing wrong with that.
Many of us long for an all-in-one device that offers good phone quality in addition to all the other forms of communication (e-mail, etc.), camera, video, entertainment, music, games, internet, and the list goes on.
Before I go getting too long-winded, please follow this link and read the well-written article or just watch the video. If you're at work, no need to actually watch the video - you can listen to it minimized. The video covers most of the written story. The man who wrote this article really hits the nail on the head and puts in to words, very intelligently, exactly how I feel. I tend to rant and complain about this very subject frequently - more often in person to people I know, rather than on the net.
http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone/
In Japan (and a few other countries), the phones don't have text messaging options. That's because on their phones, it's called e-mail... and the carriers don't charge them extra for using it. Their phones are at least a decade (my estimation) ahead of the best we've got here, and can do almost anything many full computers here can do. All that functionality in their pocket AND without being nickel-and-dimed to death by their carriers for every little thing. Their phones are not locked down - they can install anything that will work on them without restriction.
Of course, here in America, the wireless phone service providers are making a huge profit at the expense of taking away the freedom and options of the consumer. I know - we're free NOT to buy their phones or plans, but I think you understand what I mean. The wireless service providers can be quite profitable (perhaps even more so) if they would only quit locking us down to ONLY the things they want us to do on "their" phones and charging us for every little extra thing these phones do above and beyond talking. A great example is the iPhone. It is basically a full (and fairly powerful) computer with a touch-screen interface. Apple and AT&T will only allow people to access a small fraction of its potential as they keep it tightly locked down and do their best to iBrick any phone that has been freed up to do more or made to work on other networks.
I'm so f-cking tired of large companies getting together and holding back the progression of technology available to the average consumer just to keep offering us crumbs and charging for every little thing that we can do (for all intents and purposes) free on our home computers. I wish consumers would band together and collectively show them that we're tired of it. As Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister put it more than 20 years ago: "We're not gonna take it - anymore!"
I'm not anti-big business at all. I'm just fed up and tired of big business deciding how I get to enjoy my techno-gadgets and for charging fees for every little f-cking thing we do with then that accesses the wireless network. Give me a f-cking break.
There - you see? I get really angry about this matter, which is exactly why I tend not to discuss it in depth online. But the author of the linked article makes my points with such intelligent articulation and without the use of implied f-bombs.
What are your thoughts?
Don't you want more from your gadgets?
Do you care that whatever phone you do own is capable of doing so much more with the hardware that exists in it, but it's been crippled by the carrier that sold it to you (or offered it to you for 2-year commitment)?
I've got a mid-range phone. It does some neat things, but I know it could do so much more. Sadly, it never will. What a waste. Not just of the hardware, but of my f-cking time. I'll keep growing older having to wait for the dipsh-twhere to buy abortion pill abortion types buy abortion pill online