BTW: @Bluetooth-Headphones

I just LOVE my Phillips SHB9000, owned them some years now (but sadly last month plastic started to break, so currently i consider buying SHB9100 or the likes)
My Wife and her Brother both bought the SHB6110 and are pretty impressed too, so i think those aren’t that uncool. :-)

@ Matt`:

We need to train hard and never let them know it bothers us!

@ Dr. Azrael Tod:

The win8 touch keyboard seems to have a number row that makes this ordeal a little less horrible. But then again, to get it you need to use Win8 device which in itself is a torture, so there you go.

@ astine:

If Apple makes glasses you can bet people are going to buy them, and they are going to be a status symbol.

@ Andrew Zimmerman:

One day I was driving to the gym and realized I forgot my phone. I didn’t really need it at the gym, so I didn’t bother going back to get it. It’s just that on my way there I had this weird fear: what if I get into an accident? what if my car breaks? How am I going to call for help? I don’t even know anyones number anymore.

Granted, I could easily just walk home from the gym but you know – irrational cell phone withdrawal symptoms.

@ astine:

Most Bluetooth sets are not designer brands, and are generally considered tacky when worn while not being actively used. But just look at all these people walking around with a blinking LED sticking out of their ear. I suppose glasses will be like that. Yes, people will look like tools in them, but they won’t care. Then someone (not necessarily Google) will come up with a designer brand and kids are going to be wearing them as a status symbol.

@ Dr. Azrael Tod:
I said “tool” not “fool.” I’m not quite “hip,” but even I understand that there’s a difference between carrying something in your bag and wearing it on your face. In order for something to catch on in the way we’re talking, it will need to seem “cool” to most users. What makes something socially acceptable in this sense will be a combination of looks, function, signalling status. As geeks (I assume) you and I are less susceptible to looks and signalling than we are to function, most people aren’t. Young people, including people I know, routinely sacrifice function for fashion. Older people will often handily sacrifice function for signalling status.

You’re talking about those old brick phones, but those A) were very useful to people with high status jobs, so combined with their expense, they B) developed a signalling status which made them more popular.

Those glasses have some real advantages but Google is going to have to higher some expensive designers and highly qualified ad-men to convince people that wearing VR gear in public is anything but anti-social.

I remember when I lived without internet- nothing but a 3G iPhone, and I made it work.
Tethered and everything, that phone was my life.
Another example is when you’re driving through a foreign country, and you need a GPS device.

If you lose your phone you’re fucked. (well not totally, but for our examples here it works). You can find your way, but you’ve lost all temporary contact to any individuals you were speaking to, as well as your medium of communication with the outside world…

@ astine:
riiiight… like users looking like a fools, prevented those huge brick-phones back in the days or current half-tablets, from catching on.

I have trouble seeing Google Glasses catch on the way smart phones have. You’d look like such a tool wearing them around. Then again, that doesn’t stop folks with the bluetooth headsets.

—

I dropped my phone into the toilet once. I had it in my shirt pocket and while I leaned over to see what I’d done it fell out of my pocket and into the can. Quick action and a bowel of rice saved the phone I’m happy to say but I no longer keep it in my shirt pocket if I can help it.

@ Luke Maciak:
there are people who actually even try to enter complex passwords/URLs/whatever via touch-keyboard? I just found it unbearable.
Currently i just know 2 ways of entering such:

selecting from a submenu (like -> selecting numbers, selecting shift, selecting one sign, going back to non-shifted characters -> next symbol, back to numbers …)
holding some button (where special-chars aren’t even displayed on) down for 1-3sec, then selecting from 1-10 special-symbols

I find both horrible and can’t believe that noone came up with one solution that doesn’t suck that much.

This is going to be the thing that makes me seem old to my future kids one day isn’t it…

@ Rob:

Ah, see – never take my phone into the bathroom. I’m deathly afraid of dropping it into the can… Or the sink… Or dropping it on the hard tiled floor and cracking the screen. :P

@ Morghan:

Very true. Some of my passwords contain non-alphanumerics that I memorized as Shift+5 for example. When I’m on the iPhone trying to log into my stuff I always have the problem of not remembering what symbol is Shift+5.

My laptop has actually become my backup for times when mobile software just doesn’t cut it. I do, however, admit that scrolling while making a copy selection is still barely usable. I definitely prefer hardware keyboards, especially with my extremely complicated passwords, but I have no problem with using touch interfaces for all but the most complicated editing.