Elliot: Smartphone is just plain wrong!
Cathie: Hmm.Ahh, smartphones are inanimate objects; they can’t be wrong ... or right. I think you’re being obtuse...
Eliot: Are you calling me “obtuse”? Are you calling me an angle?
Cathie (shaking her head, but smiling wrly): I am surprised you even remembered that from geometry...
Elliot: My geometry teacher was so old she was a friend of Euclid’s .
Cathie: You’re in an open loop here, how about some focus?
Elliot: Suuuuure. What I meant was: the term “smartphone” is a misnomer; making phone calls is the least important function of a smartphone and ...
Cathie: Remember the story David Thornburg tells. Until his wife Norma bought him an iPhone, he used his feature phone to make calls – since that’s pretty much all it could do. But now, he is so busy with apps on his iPhone that he resents it when someone interrupts him with a call.
Elliot: That’s precisely the point!
Cathie: It takes a while before new technology is properly labeled. We called it a “horseless carriage” since we knew what it wasn’t .
Elliot: Yes, it took a while before the term “automatic mobile” came about. Computer Shopper called the new Atrix 4G a “super-phone.”
Cathie: YUCK – that’s worse! How about “palmtop computer”?
Elliot: That certainly follows in the tradition of desktop and laptop computers.
Cathie: How about “personal computer”?
Elliot: OUCH! That term is reserved for desktop and laptop computers. How about “really truly this time we mean it personal computer”?
Cathie: I don’t think so, but…. Folks out there in Blogville, it is YOUR TURN. Indeed, “Smartphone” is just plain wrong. So, what term do YOU suggest?
« Mobile Learning at the Tipping Point! Echo, Echo, Echo..... | Main | A Tale from a Singaporean 3rd Grade Classroom: Transitioning from “I tell” to “We find” »
02/13/2011
Horseless Carriage is to Smartphone as Automobile is to
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
The comments to this entry are closed.
Want to post a comment?
At the bottom of each post, click on the "Comments" link to submit your feedback.
Recent Posts
- New location, please update your links
- The Khan Academy: I told you so – teaching is easy!
- Schools Need to Start Where the Students Are: Schools Need to Start with Mobile Technologies
- Korea Goes Mobile Learning in 2015 – As We Predicted! (Sort of)
- Hear Ye, Hear Ye: It is the Dawning of The Age of Mobilism
- University Undergraduate Computer Science Majors: From Playing Videogames to Starting Work at $100,000+
- Carts of iPads = Carts of Laptops = Déjà vu all over again
- A Tale from a Singaporean 3rd Grade Classroom: Transitioning from “I tell” to “We find”
- Horseless Carriage is to Smartphone as Automobile is to
- Mobile Learning at the Tipping Point! Echo, Echo, Echo.....
Recent Comments
- moncler down on Today is just the beginning for iPad-like devices
- Moncler Doudoune on Today is just the beginning for iPad-like devices
- monclerjackets on Don’t leave home without it- Your Cellphone
- monclerjackets on Don’t leave home without it- Your Cellphone
- belstaff on The News from Project RED: “Technology Can Impact Learning”
- North Face Coupons on The News from Project RED: “Technology Can Impact Learning”
- North Face Discount on The News from Project RED: “Technology Can Impact Learning”
- North Face Outlet on The News from Project RED: “Technology Can Impact Learning”
-
call recording on Horseless Carriage is to Smartphone as Automobile is to
- Moncler outlet on Information Technology Is Distracting. Go Back to Textbooks? Not a Chance!
About Going Mobile
We will address topical issues that arise as technology continues in its inexorable way to engender changes in K12. Here is your opportunity to express opinions about the changes that technology has wrought. Read more about us.
The opinions expressed by Going Mobile authors are their own. Copyright 2010 Professional Media Group. All Rights Reserved.
How about the world in your hands?
Posted by: Debbie Christiansen | 03/17/2011 at 03:53 PM
How about the world in your hands?
Posted by: Debbie. Christiansen | 03/17/2011 at 10:31 PM
Brilliant, Debbie! the image is terrific... in the palm of one's hand sits... THE WHOLE WORLD!
THank you for your provocative comment!
Elliot
Posted by: Elliot Soloway | 03/18/2011 at 07:34 AM
Are they not really still essentially "smart"phones -- after all this time -- because of the challenges still of actually creating and organizing one's own work/docs on the iPhone, the Blackberry (what is happening now with Palm Pilots...?) More about search than anything (and some light contact/data management if you like working in Notes or Memos, if you don't have it synced to your Outlook.....)
In any case, the name smart phone -- monosyllabic, simple, emphasis on communication not info mgmt -- probably appeals to the broadest demographic.
Posted by: J | 03/19/2011 at 11:09 AM
I welcome smart-phones as the critical innovation of computers that has the functionality of the standard telephone. Indeed, smart phones are becoming sophisticated.
Posted by: call recording | 11/02/2011 at 10:16 PM