 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> Besides, who wants a system that can delete the books you've paid for at
>> any time, for no defined reason?
>
> That's what backups are for.
Can the Kindle actually do that? I know Amazon automatically lets you
download items again if they have a record of you purchasing them, but
that's still no help if they delete it from the catalogue.
> (Yes, I typically do strip the
> DRM from my purchases; they're my purchases, after all).
1. How is that possible?
2. Isn't that illegal?
>> It also thinks its am MP3 player. I have no idea why. The sound quality
>> of a 2mm speaker is, obviously, abysmal.
>
> That's what headphones or speakers are for.
Riiight. So I can pay £40 or more for the headphones with the special
phone-specific plug and listen to low-quality MP3 playback.
Or I could, I don't know, use my MP3 player...
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
On 14/01/2011 9:04 AM, scott wrote:
>
> A lot of people like to listen to music whilst travelling (using
> headphones), having such functionality in a phone saves having to carry
> an additional device.
And Audio books, great in the car.
--
Regards
Stephen
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>>> It also thinks its am MP3 player. I have no idea why. The sound quality
>>> of a 2mm speaker is, obviously, abysmal.
>>
>> That's what headphones or speakers are for.
>
> Riiight. So I can pay £40 or more for the headphones with the special
> phone-specific plug and listen to low-quality MP3 playback.
Most phones aimed at mp3 playback have either a standard 3.5mm jack or a
cheap converter is available to 3.5mm (or even included in the box).
The sound quality from a phone is in general no different from an mp3
player, they are probably using identical circuits inside. After all, a
DAC that works up to 20 kHz is a walk in the park compared to all the
rest of the electronics in the phone.
> Or I could, I don't know, use my MP3 player...
If you don't mind carrying around, charging and syncing an additional
device, sure.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> Riiight. So I can pay £40 or more for the headphones with the special
>> phone-specific plug and listen to low-quality MP3 playback.
>
> Most phones aimed at mp3 playback have either a standard 3.5mm jack or a
> cheap converter is available to 3.5mm (or even included in the box).
Well, my particular phone appears to have only a DC connector and a wide
multi-pin array. No standard audio socket. (And why would they? If they
put in a non-standard connector, they can charge you £40 for an adaptor.
Note that £40 is more money than the actual phone itself, BTW.)
> The
> sound quality from a phone is in general no different from an mp3
> player, they are probably using identical circuits inside. After all, a
> DAC that works up to 20 kHz is a walk in the park compared to all the
> rest of the electronics in the phone.
Making a DAC what "works" is probably quite trivial. Making one that can
isolate all the signal noise from the rest of the phone, handle sudden
transients while being powered only by a feeble half-flat battery, and
so on and so forth is probably much harder.
Then again, it's MP3, so it probably won't sound fantastic anyway.
Certainly most people are going to plug in those horrid £2 things from
the market, so the quality of the electronic signal is quite irrelevant.
>> Or I could, I don't know, use my MP3 player...
>
> If you don't mind carrying around, charging and syncing an additional
> device, sure.
In truth, my entire music collection is encoded as Ogg Vorbis, which my
phone won't support anyway. ;-)
Far more problematic than carrying the player is carrying the large £30
headphones I usually use it with.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> A lot of people like to listen to music whilst travelling (using
>> headphones), having such functionality in a phone saves having to carry
>> an additional device.
>
> And Audio books, great in the car.
Finally, a genuine use for a low-quality playback system.
Of course, you can't actually fit an audio book onto a phone with 10MB
of flash RAM, but nice idea.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
On 14/01/2011 9:43 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> A lot of people like to listen to music whilst travelling (using
>>> headphones), having such functionality in a phone saves having to carry
>>> an additional device.
>>
>> And Audio books, great in the car.
>
> Finally, a genuine use for a low-quality playback system.
>
> Of course, you can't actually fit an audio book onto a phone with 10MB
> of flash RAM, but nice idea.
If you will buy a cheap phone, what do you expect?
--
Regards
Stephen
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
On 13/01/2011 05:11 PM, nemesis wrote:
> Trees are consumed much faster than grown. 20 years to grow one, 1
> minute to bring it down to create some, what, 1000 books? How many books
> are consumed over 20 years, let alone paper for office printing, toilet
> paper, comic book paper, newspaper paper etc?...
1000 books? Damn, that's some small tree...
> eInk doesn't consume much energy. OTOH, I'm unsure about its
> durability... not that it matters if it's cheap.
Manufacturing any type of electronic device consumes pretty large
amounts of energy, and almost always involves a number of rare metals
and metaloids. (Arsenic, indium, etc.)
>>>> Besides, who wants a system that can delete the books you've paid for
>>>> at any time, for no defined reason?
>>>
>>> that's plain FUD last time I heard, both from tree killers and
>>> traditional book publishers.
>>
>> Erm, no, it's a documented fact. People actually have had their books
>> deleted. Twice.
>
> once.
That's still not FUD, it's a real event.
> http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
So... they carry ancient books that have expired copyright?
> that's one good reason for the web browser, BTW. Another is wikipedia
> always at hand... :)
Wikipedia might be useful. (Assuming you can change the text size of
that too.) Presumably most of the diagrams won't come out, of course.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> Of course, you can't actually fit an audio book onto a phone with 10MB
>> of flash RAM, but nice idea.
>
> If you will buy a cheap phone, what do you expect?
A device that can make and receive phone calls?
Still, presumably all the unnecessary gadgetry is there merely to make
the product summary sound better. I can't imagine that anybody purposely
chooses the cheapest phone they can find and actually /wants/ to use it
as an MP3 player or a video camera.
(Come to think of it, I find it hard to believe that anybody actually
wants a phone with a camera in it at all, but anyway...)
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
> Making a DAC what "works" is probably quite trivial. Making one that can
> isolate all the signal noise from the rest of the phone, handle sudden
> transients while being powered only by a feeble half-flat battery, and
> so on and so forth is probably much harder.
But you're still only talking about 20 kHz signals, the rest of the
phones deals with exactly those same issues for frequencies many orders
of magnitudes higher. The audio DAC is probably one of the simplest
parts in the phone for the designers to do.
> Then again, it's MP3, so it probably won't sound fantastic anyway.
> Certainly most people are going to plug in those horrid £2 things from
> the market, so the quality of the electronic signal is quite irrelevant.
Exactly, they're not really expecting Mr Hi-Fi to connect up his 30 quid
Nokia to a 20k hi-fi with a gold-plated half-inch-thick 2xphono to 3.5mm
cable. At best they are expecting you to connect a 100 quid pair of
headphones to it and listen on the train, and in that case I doubt most
people would be able to tell the difference between having a phone or an
mp3 player connected up.
> Far more problematic than carrying the player is carrying the large £30
> headphones I usually use it with.
Invest in a smaller pair for when it's not practical to carry the large
pair? I rarely take my large pair out of the house (long-haul flights
is one example where I do make the effort to carry the big pair).
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
> Of course, you can't actually fit an audio book onto a phone with 10MB
> of flash RAM, but nice idea.
Can you even buy phones without memory card slots nowadays?
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
