Scott Adams: Phone

[amirmc]

Side note:

> "When my so-called phone rings, my first reaction is "Shit. What's wrong now?" ..."

This is so true. Partly because we've trained our contacts this way. I only ring people when it's 'important' (read: shit+fan) and tend to expect the same in return.

It's odd since a 30 second phone call can usually replace 10 minutes of back and forth over email (albeit without the paper-trail).

[glhaynes]

I saw somebody not too long ago say something like "I wonder if 30 years from now, ringing someone on the phone will be considered as rude as we now consider showing up on their doorstep unannounced to be".

[Terry_B]

I have the same negative reaction to going to the mail box these days. With the exception of the odd expected delivery from amazon, nothing good comes from checking the mail.

[powrtoch]

Not that I don't like Scott Adams' blog, but every time I see (dilbert.com), I get my hopes up that just this once it'll be an actual comic.

[lincolnq]

Really? I'm quickly learning to expect it'll be an interesting blog post instead of a boring recycled-joke office comic.

[msg]

Whenever someone wonders in conversation who won the Battle of Trafalgar or how to get to Safeco Field by bus, I always say the same thing:

"That's the kind of question I ask the magic box."

For me this thing means knowledge. It's the oracle, the multitool, the utility belt, the mystic key.

I suggest we all call it "the box".

[auxbuss]

The box is already colloquial English for the TV, as in, "What's on the box tonight?".

[v21]

My friend calls it the "Everything Device".

[bruceboughton]

I like Charlie Brooker's name for them... Jabscreen [1]

Well, at least for a certain class of 'smartphone'

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/05/iphone-4...

[joelmichael]

Calling it a phone is fine. I don't see why the word can't evolve. These sort of things happen organically.

However, I liked his observation about the recipient of every phone call being a "victim."

[jobu]

I think we should call it a global communicator link, or "Global" for short.

Points to anyone who knows the reference.

[pkulak]

I was down until he got to what he wanted to call it. Really? Can we just choose something that isn't already tangled up in 50 pounds of sexual innuendo?

[daychilde]

Fifty pounds? You must have huge feet.

But on the topic at hand (as it were): I was hoping for some German-inspired mashup name, like "Device that allows one person to sometimes hear part of what another person is saying, no matter where they are, at least 80% of the time".

Well, now that I type that, I suppose it's not very funny. But arguably more funny than calling it "head".

[thailandstartup]

>We need a new name for that thing

I've always hated Apple like the pox, but I give them this - they made it fashionable to carry around a pocket computer.

[spatulon]

Pocket Computer is the term that sprang to mind as well. Eventually we can drop the 'pocket' part when it becomes redundant. Alternatively, shorten it to PC.

[sprout]

I've actually referred to my Droid as a computer a few times without context. (As in "I'll just check on my computer.")

[ugh]

The widely used colloquial term for mobile phone is „Handy“ (a fake anglicism) in German. We don’t have that problem.

[Zak]

"Handy" simply denotes a mobile telephone. While virtually all mobile telephones have technological features that wired telephones did not, it does not capture the difference between a basic mobile phone and a modern smartphone; the former is a phone that may do computer-like things while the latter is a pocket computer that also makes phone calls.

"Smartphone" may not be the best possible name, but it seems to communicate to most people "Android, iPhone or similar".

[parbo]

In Sweden we usually call it "mobil", so we don't have the problem either.

[roc]

until consumer heads-up displays crop up and the devices spend most of their time in pockets.

[bprater]

My dad always told me: 'the phone is there for your convenience, not for for anyone else'. If I don't feel like fielding a call at a given moment, I simply won't pick up. But I'll take texts or emails anytime!

What about emergencies? A certain protocol exists for friends and family in double-ringing the phone which always gets me to pick up immediately.

[jedberg]

Because my grandmother was insanely cheap, we had this thing where she would call and hang up after one ring, and then we would call her back. Then the phone company got priority ringing, so we just wouldn't pick up when she called.

Anyway, your thing about double-ringing reminded me.

[varikin]

What about calling them a mobile?

[maqr]

This seemed glaringly obvious to me, but I guess he wouldn't have had anything to write about then.

[chadmalik]

Doesn't that just beg the question?

[lukifer]

I've come to start using the term "exobrain", coined by Adams himself: http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/exobrain/

[wanderr]

Me too, I think he should stick with that one.

[jiganti]

I vote for phone. It just has a different definition now, in a generation or so nobody will even remember that it was originally something used solely for voice conversations.

[BerislavLopac]

If you're a startup working on a mobile-related software or device, the comments there are a whole wealth of the ideas for your brand name... Damn, jeejah.com is taken... ;)

[amanuel]

> "Granted, there could be some confusion if a head is contemplated as a gift item, but that's a risk I'm willing to take."

That's why it fun to read Scott's stuff. Right there in the middle of a 'serious' discussion on finding a new name for a phone he drops this little LOLbomb.

I think calling it a memex would be interesting as well...going way old school. ;-)

[bitwize]

"Oooooh, a head-bag, those are chock full of... heady goodness!"

[derefr]

I like the term "node"—short for "communications node"—as a general term for things you have in your pocket that give you WAN access. An iPhone is a node and a computer (nodeputer? interactive node? smartnode?) An iPod Touch is just a portable computer, and it connects to a MiFi node in my other pocket.

[staunch]

More people will have "phone" computers than laptop computers so eventually we can just refer to "phones" as computers. Laptops can still be laptops or PCs.

[chadmalik]

In that light, how about "eartop" or "fingertop"? or maybe "palmtop"? (that one might have some tm issues).

[geuis]

Call them jeejaws. That phrase in Anathem just so elegantly wrapped up what cellphones really are like.

[DotSauce]

I was going to suggest this. That novel is so epic. It's actually Jeejah(s).

[bitwize]

I've heard "joymaker", from an even older SF novel, suggested.

[theschwa]

Why not just use one of the terms that already in our daily vocabulary like: Cell or Mobile.

[j-g-faustus]

"Phone" is Greek for "voice", so perhaps a different name would be in order.

But neither "mobile" nor "cell" says anything about voice in particular, so I would think they are suitable terms for "portable communication device connected to a cellular network" even when the device primarily deals with non-voice services.

[eru]

In formal German you can call phones in general Fernsprecher. A literal translation would be remote talking device.

[bdonlan]

However "cell" refers to a portion of the infrastructure running the cellular network, so that's not a good option.