I won't argue with your desired phone-call-only phone. Me, I just think of a phone that only makes phone calls as something like a car without a radio in it, or a newspaper without a weather section. A lost opportunity, in other words, to consolidate features without compromising the functionality of the original device. Some, like you, might argue that having to choose 'phone' from a menu of other options does in fact compromise the functionality of the device; fair enough.

But this:

That is exactly what you get with most modern phones/smart phones. Check this out-

http://svenghoulie.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/old-motorola-and-iphone.jpg

One of those phones is small enough to put in your pocket; one of those phones weighs half the weight of the other; one of those phones has at least 10 hours of talk-time; one of those phones will stream Pandora (internet radio) uninterrupted along the highway for hundreds of miles.

I picked that picture in particular because that particular model of brick phone occupied a special place on our kitchen counter where it remained plugged in at all times. My old nokia 3310 (or similar, can't recall) had terrible reception in town, had pocket-dialing issues, and had to be charged every day. Heck- my RAZR, which was hyped up 6 ways from sunday, was the worst phone I've ever owned on all fronts.

So I guess what I'm saying is that while an iphone might not be what you want, any modern smart phone will provide service and features that are light-years ahead of a 4-year-old phone, and can easily be lighter and smaller. ...and the reason I bothered to type this is because I just had this conversation with a family member who, like you, was attached to their older phone despite its looming and obvious obsolescence. That's all well and good until someone needs to get a hold of them and they forgot the charger at work or are working on the side of the house that gets zero bars.

-b

I cannot reproduce the signal-loss issue. I am plagued by the proximity sensor issue. And just an FYI- after the phone hangs up, it takes you back to your contacts; if the call is dropped, it tells you "call failed" and gives you a redial button.

I hear "It's not the sensor it's ATT, lolz!!1" all the time from people who don't use iphones but feel the need to comment on them.

So let's be clear about this: I can tell the difference between a dropped call and a call that has been ended inadvertently.

Don't take this as a personal attack, since I'm addressing all of /.

-b

I've been using my iphone 4 since it showed up on the 23rd. Everything about it kicks ass except for making calls.*

I haven't been able to reproduce the issues with reception dropping to zero. I tried it with my hands, with wire, by holding all the metal surfaces at the same time, but nothing happened.

What HAS been an issue is the proximity sensor. Long story short, the phone does a poor job of knowing when it's pressed to your ear, the screen turns on, and you end up either dialing numbers or hanging up. I had an iphone 3g and this was never an issue. For a sense of how bad the problem is: out of the 2-2.5 hours I've talked on the phone, it has hung up over 10 times. These aren't dropped calls, they are actually my phone hanging up.

Very frustrating, but I imagine it's something that can be solved in software.

-b

*which, fortunately, I hardly ever need to do.

Your example of tweeting an earthquake immediately brought to mind this xkcd:

http://www.xkcd.com/723/

You sound very bitter.

Maybe you misunderstand why most people use facebook. It is not to glorify themselves to a global internet audience; if that were the case, facebook wouldn't have 'friends' or privacy settings. Facebook for global consumption would basically just be myspace or geocities. Which it clearly is not.

My conversations on facebook are private among my friends. My pictures that- according to people like you- I apparently take only to make myself more interesting to the world at large are in fact quite private, with access limited to only my friends.

Here's an analogy to your complaint: You are walking down the street and see a party happening in a fenced-off yard. You angrily walk up to the gate and yell, "No one gives a damn about your party! No one cares about what you have to say! You'll die alone!"

The party guests, puzzled, returned to their friendly conversations while you stomp off, alone and angry.

I think that when you discuss 'insignificance', you might be projecting a little bit. That, or you don't have any friends on FB or twitter that are interesting or entertaining. Which is really just kind of sad for you.

What's especially ironic is that your post- which focused on the infinitesimal fraction of the world that cares what you think- was posted on a public forum, _modded up_, and then someone who you've probably never met (me) took the time to write a response.

-b

I feel like interjecting here-

While I use firefox (w/ add-ons) virtually 100% of the time, it's nice to know that if I use safari for something, I can get most of the same ad-blocking functionality by having an up-to-date hosts file.

It doesn't block flash or many of the annoying pop-up ads, but any black-listed domains (ie, malicious code) are stopped.

The same protection applies to all the browsers on my machine.

For those unfamiliar w/ the hosts file:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file

-b

The frequency hopping used by the military is far different in terms of detection and triangulation than the single-frequency pirate radio stations the FCC tracks down.

An enemy would have sophisticated IR detection before they would have the ELINT that would make it possible to track US radios. However, in both cases, they would also need dominant airpower. *That* is the battle that the air force, despite the best efforts of congress, is planning for.

-b

That is pretty cool, but I'm having trouble figuring out the advantages of this process over a simple cnc mill. You'll get less wasted material, but with an order of magnitude of extra complexity. I guess I'd just have to see it in person.

-b

The environmental control system on the F-16 contains a bowling-ball-sized turbo (including hot and cold side + housing) with both the turbine and the compressor milled from solid stock. These have been in use since the 70's.

This is a very rough, very imprecise, and much less complex version of what I'm talking about:
http://www.flat4online.co.uk/catalog/images/64c0_1.JPG

I took special note of that particular assembly because as far as I have seen, it is the most complex machined part on the entire aircraft (minus the engine itself, which is in a league of its own). I recently had the pleasure of stripping an entire aircraft, so I've seen what there is to see.

The technology that I find fascinating is water-jet cutting. Here's a great video of a 5-axis machine cutting an impeller of some sort:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jm4_HikMqk&feature=related
Start watching at around 2:30

-b

War has fewer gray zones than the movies would have you believe. Trust me, you don't need a magnetic helmet to shoot, or shoot back, when you feel your life is in danger.

The only 'morally dubious' situations I ran across in Iraq look like child's play compared to what I have to deal with here in the real world. Over there, it's nature, red in tooth and claw- here, it's "I keep waiting for you to ask me how my day went"-type b.s., or deciding how to deal with a friend who screwed up at work (should I say something? If I don't, I'm implicitly condoning his behavior! If I say something to the boss, I'll be his enemy... If I just say something to him personally, he'll think I'm being condescending...)

When your life is not on the line, stuff gets complicated. War... war is not very complicated. Dulce bellum inexpertis.

-b

If you are looking to meet random people from around the world, try http://www.flork.com/

I've had some fun conversations with people from england, kyrgyzstan, brazil, new york city, etc. I don't recall ever seeing spam or anything like that.

-b

You can start here. This may not be the exact model you're looking for, so check out the other phones.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.31876

-b

Law enforcement (and DA's) have kids, too.

Heaven help whoever spied on Officer So-and-so's innocent son or daughter.

-b

Garfield plus markov chains= garkov

http://www.joshmillard.com/garkov/

Funny every now and then (keep hitting refresh)- however, %funny of garkov exceeds the human jim davis.

-b

They do orbit, it's just that their perigee is beneath the earth's surface.

-b