Sorry for making a confusing muddle of things there.
It sounds like we are generally in agreement regarding the technical “miracle” of the cell networks functioning at all. As a big rhizomatic free-markety morass of nets all plugged in one to the next, it does a pretty darn good job. (And indeed I am comparing it to the monolithic, centrally planned usurious-rate-Ma-Bell monopoly system of yore here, (which incidentally had phenomenal clarity and infinitesimal latency - particularly for local calls)).
The thesis is this effect leads to an “uncanny valley” type situation - driving people away from the medium - the voice call.
It strikes me as similar to the Standard American English phenomena, whereby it’s said that with the proliferation of mass-radio-broadcasting, the stations desires for announcers to speak with a region-less “average” accent, and perhaps most germane - a need for a clipped, and hyper-articulated voice to overcome the limitations of the days microphones and reproduction methods - wiped out many regional accents and led to a widespread shift in the everyday speech style of the majority of the country. In the U.S. (and elsewhere I’m sure), we literally speak a language which bears the contours of the technologies we behold.
Had Rockbox had a power like Google behind it the story of mp3 players would have been different. It’s power and versatility was incredible. Sansa’s running RB were fantastic, till they finally made the hardware incompatible.
To me, Moto G is the iPhone killer, a “pretty damn good” phone under $200 with basic Android. But I’ve never felt I had to own “the best”. Especially in something so ephemeral.
Well, with Ventu out of business, maybe there’s a market for a lower priced luxury Android handset.
As for the question the piece ended up with — whether punk sales can support a $1B unicorn valuation — what one sees when not blinded by Rubin’s reality distortion field is a recent phase of his making what could be called inferior but expensive copies of better stuff out there. Someone tell me how Android has enriched companies other than Google by enabling them to sell smartphones at a loss.
Most (if not all) of the recent smartphones sold by T-Mobile in the US support HD Voice (i.e. the AMR wideband codec), and I’ve found that when I make a voice call that uses it, the voice quality is stunningly good. In my case, I’m on one of the cheaper handsets, to boot. Calls to landlines are as good as a landline can get as well, but HD-to-HD is amazing.
I’d be surprised if any of the major carriers don’t support HD Voice by now. Your mileage may vary, especially if you’re using a budget MVNO like TracFone, or a budget sub-brand like Cricket or MetroPCS.
Lag doesn’t seem to be a problem, at least not noticeable, when I’ve made calls via LTE.
Indeed - actually what drew my attention to the issue was when I was on a T-Mobile family plan and someone with whom I had long calls with on the regular switched to Verizon. The ease of communication dropped - and it wasn’t due simply to the apparent audio quality, but rather the weird timing stuff. T-Mobile has been pretty good at advancing the art it seems. I’m on Fi now, and it’s been reasonably OK. I do think that - (aside from the lag stuff), in certain carrier/hardware combinations we are approaching a mature-ish stage in the medium.
On balance - performance equaling a Western Electric Model 2500 on an in-local-exchange call might simply just not be possible - due to physics limitations posed - not only by the transmission network, but ultimately by the acoustical possibilities afforded by the very small microphones and speakers in mobile handsets. There’s nothing like the sense of presence that you can have with that mid-century technology - subtle voice details like breath and background ambience.
found a fun tool - (the call-quality equivalent of ping) :
The Voice Latency Echo test number may be reached at: +1 (802) 359-9100
If you want a real blast from the past, Evan Doorbell’s Phone Tapes are an awesome view (from a phone phreaker’s perspective) of what the old network was like. It’s probably just as well that by the time I learned what a blue box was and how it worked, it was fast becoming obsolete. Had I made contact with the right (wrong) people at the right (wrong) time, I would have been risking some time in a “Gray” box.
The Sansa Connect? I think someone finally managed to get past the signed loader and get RB in there. (I forget if it required a little surgery to make it work.) I should take a look. I had one from a discount warehouse, and gradually Yahoo amputated all the Internet radio functionality at the mothership.
No, last one I had was the Clip that I had dangling from a belt loop, I think it was the Clip Jam that had a new incompatible hardware design. I’ve gotten over it and am liking lightweight bluetooth headphones (not buds, echhh) with Smart Audio Player on the phone. Best advantage, besides no cord to catch on crap and break the jack, is I can hear and answer the phone too, and it automatically interrupts the book. Disadvantage is that to listen to NPR I have to plug in a 6" length of cord from an old headphone for an antenna.
Had I made contact with the right (wrong) people at the right (wrong) time, I would have been risking some time in a “Gray” box.