Are phones too complicated?

[Amateur]

I defy anybody no matter what age to tell my they know how to do everything on a mobile phone or a tablet.
My recent frustration was having to download a samsung app thats for canon printers.
Could I get the app to connect to the printer? No way.
So Im onto google and blow me down the number of people having the same problem was huge.
Try and print an email sent from a kindle thats been screen shot and forwarded.....The list goes on.
Do you think weve come to an interpass in this sort of technology?

 

[ian33a]

It's impossible for anybody to know everything about a mobile phone and the platform upon which it's firmware and applications sit.

The craving for ever more applications, features and integration means they will never sit still. For as long as people have the money to fund the contracts and buy the apps, the suppliers will recruit the talent to make ever better and faster phones with features that they think people will want.

If the manufacturers are not offering the apps, the massive eco system which builds stuff to sit on the phone platforms will do it and the companies behind these apps will continue to strive to be the next Microsoft or nVidia or Google and hope that their investors will get richer and richer.

I spent most of my working life in the technology which drives electronic devices. Sadly, I wasn't one of the rich investors though.

Most of us only go so far before we reach a point where the phone does most of what we want. We settle with this and only replace our handsets if they are no longer supported or they break down.

 

[D_W]

of course they are, but the phone makers are not making you tons of functionality to try to please everyone as a matter of principle, they're putting whatever they can on the phone to get you to use it so they can sell your data patterns and capture more of those and get more efficient at turning them into money.

 

[powertools]

To be honest I have a Google Pixel 5 phone and a Chromebook and I have to say that it is amazing the things I can do without problems. I think that problems arise when you are trying to merge things from 2 different manufactures.

 

[JimB]

One of the biggest oxymorons in the electronics market is 'user friendly'

 

[BenB]

Could I get the app to connect to the printer? No way.

I have had this problem, this is how I fixed it. It’s nothing to do with your phone: your router provides 2 WiFi networks, 2.4ghz and 5ghz. The printer only uses 2.4ghz. The phone uses both, but needs to be connected to the same network as the printer.

Log into your router settings and turn off the 5ghz network.

Not perfect, but if worked for me

 

[jcassidy]

As an information security guy, I never download apps unless I absolutely have to. Apps have too much permissions on your phone and who looks at them all? Well, I do and it's scary.
I use Firefox Web browser to access all the sites I use.
I usually use an android phone running LineageOS operating system, which is simply Android de-Googled. Nowhere near as convenient as a Android phone with Google play etc. But privacy has a value.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Complexity of current IT is an industry failure, not a triumph of technical and IT skills.

Ask Alexa the capital of Mozambique and I am sure she knows. My grand-daughter at the age of 6 asked her whether spiders poo - she got a detailed answer about their defecatory habits!

But if I ask Alexa to connect my phone to the printer, import bookmarks to my laptop, find out why the router needs rebooting etc - no joy. Just incomprehensible text on screen - eg: do something to the cache (whatever that is), see fault code YMV104 etc.

Sometimes I am told to call my internet service provider - useful advice if I want to spend 30 minutes in a queue to a call centre on the other side of the globe.

Real IT success will be evidenced by development which allows users to simply request verbally and intuitively what they want without needing to know how to do it.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

I've just bought an £11.99 SOS TTfone and now aged 73 this is complicated enough for me to use but then for many years I have lots of trouble with TV remote controls. It's not just phones though; the way things are heading we'll be throwing cars away in a few years just as we do now with white goods. I never had trouble with slate and chalk at school though?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Garden Shed Projects]

I have come to the conclusion that the onslaught of technology isn't about making life easier it's about being able to do more work. My daughters at 1 could pick up my iphone and swipe apps and turn the camera on. Who ever invented the interface is a genius to make it so intuitive.
The simplicity is not being utilised to make life easier though. If you ever have a problem you are encouraged to go online, that way a computer ends up doing the work. Or you call a number and have to go through a number of menus so that they are sure that a computer cannot solve your issue and eventually you may get to speak to some one in a call centre anywhere in the world who is looking at a screen which is ultimately telling them how to solve your issue.

It's the rise of the machines people, beware. Asta la vista baby!!!

 

[selectortone]

I'm 70. I remember sitting in the cinema in 1969 watching the scene in '2001 Space Odyssey' with the guy speaking to his daughter from a video phonebox and wondering if that would ever be possible in my lifetime. Now I can do it on a handheld device from the comfort of my armchair - or just about anywhere else I might find myself. Amazing. It's been a godsend during the pandemic, not just for video calls, but online banking and shopping, mobile internetting, keeping in touch with mates (and sending them some of the excellent pics from the joke thread!).and all the other things I use it for. It was brilliant during a power cut (not just for updates from the power company but as a torch!)

I'm a widower, living on my own, and you can't beat a video call from your 3-year old granddaughter wanting to speak to her Pops to cheer you up. Science fiction has come true for me. Love my phone.

(Edit: It's a very modest Motorola Moto G7 if anyone's interested)