Poll: Should cellphones be called something else now?

[DustyDrB]

I just call it my phone. Though I can browse the web on it and use it as a modem, 90% of it's use is still to make and recieve calls.

 

[Sethzard]

No, they still receive calls and the reception still works in cells. Though that being said, over here we call them mobile phones.

 

[Frenger]

We should call them Tricoders.

/thread

 

[Soxafloppin]

I just call mine my "Mobile" at all time, thats "Mobile phone" sort of Mobile not "Auto-Mobile".

 

[The Last Nomad]

As a good few escapists have already mentioned, in some countries (Including Ireland, where I'm from), they are called mobile phones. But besides that maybe a change in the name is a good idea...

But I don't think its a easy as suddenly calling cellphones/mobilephones pipboys from now on, instead some company should release a pocket computer with phone capabilites and instead of calling it a phone, call it a qwerty, a pokecomp or whatever... Maybe it'll catch on...
If apple had of called there iPhone the iComm, then I imagine people would be calling it a Comm for short instead of Phone. Then maybe another company might come out with anout similar product with the Comm in the name. And then perhaps the public would call them comms...

But it doesnt really matter to me... A Rose by any other name is still a Rose.

My phone doesnt really work anymore... all it can do now is tell the time, date and take low resolution photos and videos (although it doesnt even do those last 2 very well anymore), Should I not call it a phone anymore?

 

[Pendy]

Here they're called Mobiles. It's very suitable, because they're mobile...

Mobile what though? Say phone, and if it takes pictures, texts and surfs the web, I'll e-smack you for not reading the OP.

Mobile multi-purpose devices. Mobiles for short.

Mobile just seems kind of redundant to me. I mean, what isn't mobile these days? But you may be onto something with the MPD (multi-purpose device). ^_^

Problem with that is that it's too generic. It doesn't tell me what it is. It tells me that it does a couple of things, but for all intensive purposes (they see me trolling...), it's just a widget. Phone, or mobile phone gives an idea of what it is. Just with tons of added features.

MPD would grow to have obvious connotations towards what we now know as mobile phones, but why bother when they already allude to what it is, despite the name?

Oh, I just think we should to change things up and to be more clear on the devices function.

But Com or Omni-tool is actually less clear than 'phone'.

Fancy that.

Unless I wanted to surf the web, and someone handed me their phone. I'd be all, does this have internet? Hence, confusion, as not all phones do.

I know. When I borrow someone's car I'm all, "Does this have GPS?" Hence, confusion, and I immediately crash into a nearby building. So what would you have us do? Give a completely different name for every cellphone that has different extra features?? It really seems unnecessary to change the name just because it has some extra bells and whistles as others have pointed out already.

There is also an easy fix to this: "Hey, does you phone have the internets? It does? Thanks!!" I know that can be hard to do sometimes

 

[trickyfingers]

No matter what it does or what new device they merged it with, it started as a phone and will always be a phone.
You will not, and cannot get the millions of people who have cellphones to call them 'coms' .
That is beyond ridiculous.

Call it a phone, or if its real fancy call it a smartphone.

Kids these days...

 

[Cain_Zeros]

In Australia they are called Mobile Phones. And that is what they are; mobile phones. Why should we change it?

Well, ok, Mobile/cell differences aside, the reason I'd like to see it changed is because they do so much more now, as I mentioned in the OP. It's like calling a modern car a horseless carriage. It's kinda silly, because while in the past, yes, that's what it was, it's now so much more, what with phones in them, GPS, HUDs, electrical outlets, etc, etc.

That's what I was getting at.

Car is still short for carriage. We're just lazy. As such, we should not come up with new names for things that people will need to remember. You don't want to rename your computer because it can be used for more than simple computations.

 

[JIst00]

Mobile phones are good for one thing, comunication.

/Thread


If I wanna play games on the move, I got a DS, and the games beat the shit out of the shoddy mobile efforts Ive seen.

I dont want to watch movies or videos on the move, I may walk into something =P.

If I want to listen to music, I've got an IPod Shuffle.

If I want to surf the net, the I'll use a computer, as internet interface on phones Ive seen is awful.

If I want to take picutres/record videos, I'd but a fuckin camera.

Its just shoe-horning gadgets into them to sell product, THAT WE DONT REALLY NEED, so people can think they look cool, are are well connected or whatever. Fucking Techno-Junkies.

 

[cheese_wizington]

No one really even says cell phones anymore, now they're pretty much just phones.