Why would I want a cellular telephone?  I already have a telephone that works just fine, thankyouverymuch.  I don't need to charge it - it's always ready to go... even when the power goes out!  I can use the same wire to connect to my facsimile machine - so efficient.
4/3/2013 4:29 PM
Electronic mail?  Silly!  Keeping track of usernames and passwords is taxing and inefficient.  Why, there's a gentleman who brings my correspondence directly to my home!  The mailbox is right on my way from my door to my driveway, and vice versa.  I have to use my computer to actively seek out my electronic mail.  I value efficiency very highly.
4/3/2013 4:31 PM
Language?  Who needs it!   I just grunt and point, it works at the dinner table, it works at the office, very efficient.  
4/3/2013 7:46 PM
Why GPS? We have maps we can get at the service station from the man who pumps my gas, cleans my windshield, and checks my oil.

Oops. I am writing this from my Droid while watching the Reds game.
4/3/2013 8:46 PM
I will tell you what, I love this Droid after years of BlackBerrys.
4/3/2013 11:49 PM (edited)
There are enough users that have expressed an interest in an App or mobile site.  It is a business decision for WIS.  I think they also have an interest but it doesn't seem like a priority right now. But in this day in age, it will happen sooner or later. Some will find it useful, some won't. There is no right or wrong. But I think this discussion will reoccur until it is developed.
4/3/2013 11:48 PM
I've seen the commercial, but in real life when I'm around my kid and my neices and nephews they have three devices available to them. Kindles, Ipads, and smartphones (galaxy s3, iphone 4). Why do they all fight over the smartphones and eventually settle for the ipad or the kindle when all the devices do the same things?
The bigger question in my mind is why do these kids have all these devices in the first place?

I understand the idea of teaching them how technology works and its great uses for research, education, etc., but beyond that I think have all these electronics to entertain kids is bad, and the younger they are the worse it is. Kids need to learn how to entertain themselves without devices, and they also need to get physical exercise (which isn't provided by most uses of these devices).

Now if you're talking about older kids or even teenagers, the reason they want the phone is because their lives are all about socializing (as most kids between about 10 and 18 don't understand these friends they have now will almost all be meaningless later in life). So they want to stay in contact with one another, and cell phones (in particular smart phones which have other capabilites to entertain them as well) offer the best means with which to do this.

Kids also like texting because it allows them to keep other people (parents and adults in particular) from knowing what is going on in their conversations. You can hear their side of a phone call, but you can't hear a text. They can also stay up half the night texting friends in their bedroom while you don't have a clue why they are tired at school the next day because you can't hear the texting from the next room but you'd hear if they were talking.

If you parent a teenager, though, you probably know most of this (or you should).
And device manufacturers have addressed this by creating tablets and bigger smartphones but a tablet is more like a smartphone than it is a computer only lacking the ability to make a phone call (the galaxy note is basically a small tablet). you can still text from it and do everything else you can with a smartphone. 
Tablets are better because they are bigger, and device manufacturers have realized the advantage of bigger size - but there is a cap because people still want the mobility. So the smart thing to do is to have a tablet for the internet (complete with its own wireless access so you don't have to piggy back off of wifi locations that may not always be where you are) and to have a cell phone for phone calls.
If I had to choose between using my smartphone or my ipad, I'd use my smartphone because it just feels more comfortable in my hand... this is the reason I think my kids fight over the phones when tablets are available as well... Size = preference, not efficiency.
Sure, it could be that, but I think the bigger reason is what I already said - the kids want to socialize, and the ipad won't let them do that as easily and in as many ways. I prefer the tablet because I can actually see what I'm doing a lot better. Unless it's somehow causing me pain or discomfort, I don't care how it feels in my hand.
My cellphone is not always plugged in therefore it's not always using electricity unlike your computer which you said you always leave on.
The computer isn't always plugged in either.  Your phone and my computer both have batteries which are charged by electricity, and the advantages of a computer over a phone are so great they overcome any slight increase in electricity consumption and related costs.
just because you can't type fast on a phone doesn't mean others can't. It took me all of about 15-20 seconds to type that message.
I doubt that. Your message was long enough to take longer than that unless you hold the world record for smart phone typing. You only think it was fast in your own mind. In either case, it's faster to do on a real keyboard.
Also just because you have "never been so desperate" to know something doesn't mean that you won't ever be or that other people aren't.
I think a lot of people have too much time on their hands. I personally do not want to waste time looking up information on my phone when I'm living the rest of my life. If I want to know, unless it's an emergency it can wait until I get to the computer, and those kinds of emergencies are so rare they might as well be irrelevant.
I don't see what the big deal is about this "automobile" thingy.  It's so inefficient.  I mean, you have to keep track of your keys, handle all kinds of maintenance, and gasoline is so much more expensive than the grass and hay I already have laying around!  I'll never abandon my trusty steed.
No, no, no. Don't use the automobile - use my brand new invention, the golf cart automobile built for road travel!

I know it's smaller, goes slower, and has less features, but size doesn't matter and it'll feel better to sit in and you can still do all the things an automobile can do...I think...no wait you can't, but no way is it any less efficient than a regular automobile because I like using mine and I say so!

See this is the problem - everything you guys mention actually IS efficient, but internet on cell phones is like driving a golf cart mobile when you can use a regular automobile instead.
4/4/2013 8:54 AM
I'll never use a golf cart automobile.  It's far less efficient than my walking cart.
4/4/2013 9:08 AM
Don't worry I'll swing by to pick you up. Where can I safely land my jet pack?
4/4/2013 9:10 AM
Next to my teleportation device, which you'll find behind the cold fusion reactor on my hydroponic farm.
4/4/2013 9:14 AM
tl;dr
4/4/2013 9:50 AM
ryrun, thanks for the post on the last page.  For web pages I'm already accustomed to using, I usually prefer mobile pages to apps.  If an app is well-written (I never count on that) then that's just because I'm lazy about transitioning.

HUGE advantage for an app, though, is that (bistiza, skip to the next post) LOTS of the youngs, and some not-so-youngs, use phones and tablets constantly and use computers rarely.  There are a lot of games that run, essentially, mobile-only.  Who plays Angry Birds on the computer?  An app, done right, would open up a nice source of new players and for all WIS games - which means new revenue.

4/4/2013 10:09 AM
I've never played angry birds and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Like so many things young people do, it seems like such a time suck.

Which is part of the reason WIS works so well for me - it only takes my time when I'm in between other tasks at the computer and have the time to give. It's kind of perfect that way.

4/4/2013 10:32 AM
That's nice.  That wasn't for you.  That was specifically, and explicitly*, for people who are not you.

*Fully and clearly expressed; leaving nothing implied.  This should ring a bell.

4/4/2013 10:59 AM (edited)
Posted by bistiza on 4/4/2013 8:54:00 AM (view original):
I've seen the commercial, but in real life when I'm around my kid and my neices and nephews they have three devices available to them. Kindles, Ipads, and smartphones (galaxy s3, iphone 4). Why do they all fight over the smartphones and eventually settle for the ipad or the kindle when all the devices do the same things?
The bigger question in my mind is why do these kids have all these devices in the first place?

I understand the idea of teaching them how technology works and its great uses for research, education, etc., but beyond that I think have all these electronics to entertain kids is bad, and the younger they are the worse it is. Kids need to learn how to entertain themselves without devices, and they also need to get physical exercise (which isn't provided by most uses of these devices).

Now if you're talking about older kids or even teenagers, the reason they want the phone is because their lives are all about socializing (as most kids between about 10 and 18 don't understand these friends they have now will almost all be meaningless later in life). So they want to stay in contact with one another, and cell phones (in particular smart phones which have other capabilites to entertain them as well) offer the best means with which to do this.

Kids also like texting because it allows them to keep other people (parents and adults in particular) from knowing what is going on in their conversations. You can hear their side of a phone call, but you can't hear a text. They can also stay up half the night texting friends in their bedroom while you don't have a clue why they are tired at school the next day because you can't hear the texting from the next room but you'd hear if they were talking.

If you parent a teenager, though, you probably know most of this (or you should).
And device manufacturers have addressed this by creating tablets and bigger smartphones but a tablet is more like a smartphone than it is a computer only lacking the ability to make a phone call (the galaxy note is basically a small tablet). you can still text from it and do everything else you can with a smartphone. 
Tablets are better because they are bigger, and device manufacturers have realized the advantage of bigger size - but there is a cap because people still want the mobility. So the smart thing to do is to have a tablet for the internet (complete with its own wireless access so you don't have to piggy back off of wifi locations that may not always be where you are) and to have a cell phone for phone calls.
If I had to choose between using my smartphone or my ipad, I'd use my smartphone because it just feels more comfortable in my hand... this is the reason I think my kids fight over the phones when tablets are available as well... Size = preference, not efficiency.
Sure, it could be that, but I think the bigger reason is what I already said - the kids want to socialize, and the ipad won't let them do that as easily and in as many ways. I prefer the tablet because I can actually see what I'm doing a lot better. Unless it's somehow causing me pain or discomfort, I don't care how it feels in my hand.
My cellphone is not always plugged in therefore it's not always using electricity unlike your computer which you said you always leave on.
The computer isn't always plugged in either.  Your phone and my computer both have batteries which are charged by electricity, and the advantages of a computer over a phone are so great they overcome any slight increase in electricity consumption and related costs.
just because you can't type fast on a phone doesn't mean others can't. It took me all of about 15-20 seconds to type that message.
I doubt that. Your message was long enough to take longer than that unless you hold the world record for smart phone typing. You only think it was fast in your own mind. In either case, it's faster to do on a real keyboard.
Also just because you have "never been so desperate" to know something doesn't mean that you won't ever be or that other people aren't.
I think a lot of people have too much time on their hands. I personally do not want to waste time looking up information on my phone when I'm living the rest of my life. If I want to know, unless it's an emergency it can wait until I get to the computer, and those kinds of emergencies are so rare they might as well be irrelevant.
I don't see what the big deal is about this "automobile" thingy.  It's so inefficient.  I mean, you have to keep track of your keys, handle all kinds of maintenance, and gasoline is so much more expensive than the grass and hay I already have laying around!  I'll never abandon my trusty steed.
No, no, no. Don't use the automobile - use my brand new invention, the golf cart automobile built for road travel!

I know it's smaller, goes slower, and has less features, but size doesn't matter and it'll feel better to sit in and you can still do all the things an automobile can do...I think...no wait you can't, but no way is it any less efficient than a regular automobile because I like using mine and I say so!

See this is the problem - everything you guys mention actually IS efficient, but internet on cell phones is like driving a golf cart mobile when you can use a regular automobile instead.
Firstly, these are young kids- second these are my and my wife's devices. Maybe there are some people out there who have bought their 2 year olds an ipad or an iphone for entertainment reasons and if they have the resources there's also nothing wrong with that. And it is more than ok for kids to learn about tech as this is the world they will inherit. It would be foolish to keep them from it.  Further more my kids aren't socializing at 2, 3 , and 6 via mobile connections. They actually play games on these devices, some quite educational I might add and if they prefer a smartphone over a tablet maybe it's because one is just lighter, who really can say? Either way you know you can text from an ipad right? you can log on to facebook and do all your social networking just the same on both mobile devices so I'm not sure that's the reason a kid would prefer a cell over a tablet.  Question though: Do you own a tablet/ipad?

 Do you know that these devices are used in some schools today? Some more advanced minded institutions are even looking into replacing hard copy text books with these type of devices because it's more cost effective in the long run... This is today and this tech is all around them and what we use now and there is absolutely nothing wrong with kids having, using or playing with tech. Honestly too much of anything can be bad... that's when parents step in and be parents.

I'm not sure how this debate went from desktops vs. smartpones to smartphones vs. tablets, but I will say tablets and smartphones are essentially one and the same. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, but I won't argue what's better between a smartphone and a tablet because I have both and I use both and I love both. They each serve their own purposes. This was originally all about how desktops are so much more efficient than mobile devices which I believe and I would have to say a majority of others believe is not the case.  




4/4/2013 11:15 AM
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