If phones were designed to please their owners, rather than corporations

Aside from economies of scale and any NDAs you need to sign to get your hands on parts that aren’t antique, the question would depend on how you handled the RF portions of the design.

The FCC would be unhappy to have your random hackjob floating around anywhere in the licensed bands, and only somewhat less unhappy about what it may be doing in the ISM band. If, however, you were using already-licensed modules for those purposes(eg. cell modem, wifi board, BT dongle) they would be much less likely to care.

I think that if you are going for full-scale production and sale you’d still need to at least pass the tests as an ‘unintentional radiator’ and fall within Part 15 power levels; but on a small scale prototypes flout that all the time without incident; and if all the serious RF were handled by approved modules there wouldn’t be much chance of screaming neighbors complaining about interference.

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Peaceful and uncomplicated :slight_smile:

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I can say one thing, if the phone were designed with my interests in mind they wouldn’t have dared to add the ‘Advertising Identifier’ “feature”. Yes, it was even worse back when they exposed the phone’s UUID; but the new feature isn’t an ‘improvement’, it’s a bandaid on a bullet wound.

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Isn’t pretty much every product sold created with the goal of profiting the manufacturer while “leaving behind the smallest amount of value possible while still making it a product that you’d be willing to pay for and use.

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I though it was slick and conceptually provocative. I’m sure China’s unrestricted-design-paradise situation can ultimately lead to groundbreaking, status-quo-challenging new products that are better for the consumer.

I’ve even seen a bit of this genuinely user-forward-design philosophy “trickle sideways” here to Brazil in the form of dual-sim phones or the newly introduced US$150-equivalent Xiaomi that’s roughly competitive with US$1000-equivalent Samsung and Apple phones.

But soccer-ball designs and the “Farreri” knockoff-novelty fare shown hardly supports the lofty message of the video or even does justice to what the new wave of Chinese designers have been up to. That’s a pretty weak answer to “if phones were designed to please their owners”.

Early days, I guess. This will become more interesting.

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Like when you told me that I shouldn’t say “white men have an advantage,” because that might not necessarily be true in different cultures or different centuries, you seem to be always arguing that we have to direct all of our comments to every single person on the planet (and even, apparently, in different centuries).

It’s a perfect standard form of writing to address “you” as “the person to whom this concerns.” See, this doesn’t even make any assumptions about the readership of BoingBoing (x% Westerners, or something), it just means that, if this story doesn’t concern you, don’t read “you” as literally “you.”

Here’s some examples from a very quick search I did of recent BoingBoing article headlines. I didn’t link to them, but if you like you can find them and comment on them how terrible the headlines are because they don’t apply to you (or that they might not hypothetically apply to you, even if they just so happen to in this instance):

  • OgoSport Discs let you play volleyball, Frisbee, or paddle ball. Doesn’t this article assume I am not disabled?!
  • Walmart’s new employee video really, really doesn’t want you to unionize. Doesn’t this article assume I work for Walmart?!
  • Watch Elon Musk unveil Tesla’s Powerwall, a $3K battery for your home to ‘change the world’. Doesn’t this article assume I have a home?!
  • Encrypting your laptop demystified. Doesn’t this article assume I have a laptop?!
  • Make your motorcycle kickstand more stable. Doesn’t this article assume I have a motorcycle?!
  • Earthquake prediction and your smartphone: could phone GPS help predict the next big one?: Doesn’t this article assume I have a smartphone?!
  • Unlike: You can now serve your future ex with divorce papers on Facebook. Doesn’t this article assume I will get divorced?!
  • Starbucks Via instant coffee packs are great when you are in immediate need of a caffeine fix. Doesn’t this article assume I drink coffee?!
  • NSA has ability to embed spying software in computer hard drives, including yours. Doesn’t this article assume I have a harddrive?!
  • Google bans “graphic nudity” from hosted blogs, will decide if your art is porn. Doesn’t this article assume I make art?!
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Thanks for the RF info.

I was thinking less about my random hackjob, and more about something like Phonebloks or Project Ara. Though with ARA I would expect it to be tied into Google’s ecosystem.

Wouldn’t necessarily need to be all plug-and-play like those designs, either. I could envision an online storefront where you select the modules you want and someone slaps it together for you.

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I would not tell you what you should or shouldn’t say. What I said was that your statement was indeed applicable within certain qualifications. The qualifications would actually be what make such a statement true, so to me they seem like a significant detail to gloss over.

That it may be a common practice would make it no less sensationalistic.

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AliExpress will give a nice gateway to some of these goodies.

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I have to have a mobile phone for work.

But I choose to live out of mobile phone range. It’s peaceful. :relaxed:

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If it bothers you that much, you are going to have to find some other language to use, because in standard English we use the word “you” in senses other than “you specifically,” and “we” in senses other than “a group to which both you and I belong.”

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This game of yours, month after month, grows tiresome.

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I can’t do it. I work mostly remote (not in an office) in tech managing a team so I pretty much have to be available during the day wherever I am and “day” is flexible when some of my reports are in Europe or Asia.

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Your smartphone was designed to deliver as much value as possible to its manufacturer, carrier and OS vendor, leaving behind the smallest amount of value possible while still making it a product that you’d be willing to pay for and use

Android user, huh?

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Why might one choose to do so?

Because it is common in use. Consider it an idiom.

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Like how my ex, who was an EMT, used to refer to any and all medicine as “aspirin”?

A friend’s husband is like this. His life is so peaceful and uncomplicated. She gets all the calls from the kids, the schools, family or friends who need help, last minute change-of-plans, etc.

Yeah, it’s great for him.

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Yes:

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“This product has some level of export control/restriction, so may be delayed by 2-3 business days when shipping outside the United States. Contact us with questions, or we will contact you after you place your order.”

I wonder what qualifies a simple module for this treatment. The bureaucrats what come up with this kind of crap should be summarily executed.

Cheaper, and without export BS, here, same type and free shipping:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-SM5100B-four-GSM-GPRS-mobile-phone-module-supports-EGSM900-DCS1800/32378809073.html

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