I’m sitting at the airport with some time to kill, so I read all 90 pages of the iphone/android reviews that Mistermix linked to earlier. How do you review a phone for page after page after page and never once mention the sound quality?
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MTiffany71
Only old people use their phones to talk.
Roger Moore
Because nobody really cares about it as a phone. It’s a mobile computing device that happens to include a telephone. And if you care about sound quality, you’re going to use proper headphones, which are outside the scope of this kind of review.
Alexandra
Because the least important thing many people do with their phones these days, is make phone calls to each other. Actually communicate meaningfully with someone in real time, engage emotionally… and not be able to mask yourself behind 140 characters of irony, dry wit or snark?
Ewww.
Gin & Tonic
People who listen to “music” through $2 earbuds don’t give a shit about sound quality.
jl
@MTiffany71: Dmn u got thr frst! ROFLMAO, JC r n olds!
Just Some Fuckhead
I only use my smartphone to play Scramble. Too hard to make a phone call on it.
John Cole
@Gin & Tonic: i’m not talking about music, i’m talking about holding the phone to your ear and talking to someone. Can they hear me clearly? Can i hear them?
TooManyJens
@John Cole: But these days, isn’t that limited more by the cellular network than the device itself?
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole:
John, John..
Those bars indicate signal reception, not proximity to alcohol. Sigh.
different-church-lady
John, people gave up on the idea of using cell phones to make phone calls years ago. They just can’t be used for that because they’re not designed for it.
A hundred years worth of research on voice communication thrown in the outhouse because it’s more important that we be able to watch YouTube vids of cats playing piano while on the bus. Fuck your air cars, that’s the 21st century we deserve.
jl
Who uses a cell phone to talk these days? With your parents, maybe. Man, I’m a semi olds myself. And I mainly talk, but at least I realize I am out of it and senile wrt to cell phone use these days.
As soon as circumstances force me to learn how to write a text with one of those stupid systems, I will mainly text too, unless I need to talk with my folks.
Anyway, as I think commenter notes, if the carrier is crappy, your cell phone makes no difference, and if most people don’t care that much about talking, the quality will only get worse, for a number of reasons, not all of them having to do with the handset.
Karl
You still use your phone as a phone? What an old man.
Ramalama
@Gin & Tonic: I really like vinyl and tube amps (helloo McIntosh), myself, but am guilty of the cheap earbuds…in transit.
different-church-lady
@TooManyJens: Not if I go by the stark contrast between my most recent phone-that’s-just-a-phone and the one before it. Clearly a step backwards, and it’s the same network. Never had a problem hearing anybody with the old one, can barely have a conversation with the new one.
Todd
My android sucks ass for the ability to hear a conversation. Give me an old fashioned flip phone any day for that.
Just Some Fuckhead
@different-church-lady:
It would be quite dangerous to pilot a flying car with a smartphone in hand.
different-church-lady
@Ramalama: McIntosh. McINTOSH!
Gin & Tonic
@John Cole: I know you’re not talking about music. But if they spend their day listening to that shit, then they have unlearned how to tell the difference when they’re listening to their phone.
sophronia
Sound quality is totally an afterthought in smartphones, as anyone with hearing issues quickly discovers. Inconvenient until businesses start accepting that they can contact people by text message.
MTiffany71
Take it from Eric Cartman:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155857/guitar-hero
different-church-lady
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Which is precisely why everyone would be allowed to do it. Just like it is now with land cars. Because it is far more important that we be able to talk to our sister in Des Moines while driving a car than it is to not crash the car. American productivity would come to a standstill if it were any other way!
Gin & Tonic
@Ramalama: It doesn’t cost that much more to get a quality in-ear headphone.
Violet
@John Cole: Talking on the phone is for old people. Even sitcoms are making jokes about it.
Mnemosyne
I can think of at least two people I know (both olds like me) who always use their cell phone on handsfree. Drives me crazy, but they claim they can hear it better.
Also, since this is a semi-tech thread, can anyone recommend any good podcasts that are 30 minutes or shorter? I’m trying to take short walks during the day and I’m already getting a little tired of music. Most of the podcasts I know are an hour or more, but I want one I can finish in one day.
Ramalama
@different-church-lady: Yeah as soon as I posted I realized the error of my ways. So embarrassing for an audio snob. I guess that makes me an audio snoob.
TooManyJens
@different-church-lady: Huh. That’s pretty annoying. But with a smartphone that can play music (albeit tinnily), I can’t believe it can’t reproduce a simple voice call with adequate fidelity. Assuming that it’s getting a decent quality signal coming in, of course.
My daughter’s voice always sounds really weird when I talk to her on the phone, but I’ve been assuming that was due to the connection. My husband sounds normal, come to think of it. Might be a difference between high and low voices.
janeform
I still have a flip phone, which is a real phone. Fancy multi-purpose doohickies suck at being phones, so it’s annoying when they’re referred to as such. Plus, looking down at them constantly in public spaces such as elevators is rude, as is failing to hold a door open for the person behind you because you’re occupied with your “phone.” What ever happened to being where you are? I’m really old.
Just Some Fuckhead
@different-church-lady: You must obey the proper speed limits, a car is not a toy, Lane.
different-church-lady
@sophronia:
My hearing can safely be described as exquisite, and it is still patently obvious not a scrap of thought gets put into modern cellphones.
Violet
@Mnemosyne: Check out the BBC. Friday night comedy block on radio four is a good place to start.
catclub
@Ramalama: ” cheap earbuds…in transit.”
I don’t even bother. Classical music ( which has quiet parts)
is impossible to listen to on an airplane. (Have not tried noise cancelling headphones.) Or worse, an airport. Atlanta is a horror for noise.
TooManyJens
@Mnemosyne: Planet Money or the RadioLab shorts. Or you could try this. I think most of the episodes were less than 30 minutes, but I don’t have a good way to check right now.
catclub
@janeform: “What ever happened to being where you are?”
Clearly, not enough Buddhists. Isn’t that the point that Zen masters emphasize. Living now.
David in NY
People talk on phones?
ETA: I knew that many of the preceding 33 comments would have said this, but counted later. First six in a row (with essential equivalent), 9 of first 12, then I got tired.
Ramalama
Hey you commie sympathizers looking to goof off at work and have read all the B-J front pagers …
I need some peeps who have kids or like kids to answer my very short and easy questionnaire on spending habits for kids. I need some info from outside sources (outside of myself, that is) and, well, thought of you all. Please give a look here — http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HXKLLMZ
Hope this doesn’t get me banned or anything.
Comrade Jake
Picked up an iPhone5 recently, and it’s great.
The only thing that’s surprised me so far is the work involved to add a custom ringtone.
Ash Can
OT, but remember Juan Carlos Vera, the ACORN employee James O’Keefe secretly taped? O’Keefe owes him a hundred grand. (H/t commenter Gus at LGF.)
Culture of Truth
Also Mr. Cole, it’s no longer common to answer your smartphone “Ahoy!”
Quaker in a Basement
Sound quality? Bah! Ever since the Obama regime gave me this nifty brain implant, the signals come in loud and clear! Don’t even need a phone!
Get down! The bats are back!
Gin & Tonic
@catclub: I travel a fair amount and have several pairs of good headphones depending on the circumstances. A good in-ear headphone or circumaural (over-the-ear) headphone can provide at least 20dB of isolation, maybe more. I have no difficulty listening to classical music on airplanes.
ericblair
@Mnemosyne:
BBC Documentaries, available for free on iTunes. 23 minutes, and a lot of offbeat but interesting topics.
Oh yeah, sound quality. Helps if you don’t use that nasty off-brand tinfoil for your cranial Faraday cage needs; causes interference. Nice thick Reynolds Wrap all the way.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Comrade Jake: Did you purchase and install GarageBand before finding out you didn’t have to purchase and install GarageBand?
Sandia Blanca
Bon voyage to you, Mr. Cole. Wave at us as you fly back home, and come back to Austin soon!
David Koch
I find it odd how people want giant wall screens to watch tee vee but at the same time want tiny hand held screens to watch youtube and surf the net.
srv
@John Cole: Who the fuck do you talk to on the phone?
Put your mom on the speakerphone if she can’t skype yet.
The Moar You Know
@Gin & Tonic: True. They care about their tribal affiliation.
I have Shure 535s, which are $500 earbuds, and I wouldn’t likely have bought an iPhone in the first place save that it beats the shit out of every other mobile device out there in terms of sound quality – for music.
I don’t like saying nice things about Apple, but I’ll give them that. Great sounding mp3 player. We can discuss lossless issues another time as I know of no phone that will play uncompressed files out of the box.
Comrade Jake
@Just Some Fuckhead:
No. I relied on The Google.
Just Some Fuckhead
@srv:
I bet it’s kdaug.
Libby's person
I’m clearly an over-the-hill old fogey. I really want a phone that works well as a, y’know, phone. Last time I went phone shopping, I asked the sales people which phone had the highest sound quality; the only answer I ever got was “this one is really loud”. (I was looking for a ‘dumb’ phone, which didn’t help.) Bah, Humbug!
Yutsano
@Ash Can: Good thing he’s still on that sweet sweet wingnut welfare so he can just write a check. I still wanna know why that little fucker is walking around free. He’s violated his parole several times already.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Libby’s person:
You mean Hello Jitterbug!
Eric U.
I keep thinking about getting a WQHD 2600×1440 27″ monitor, so Amazon thinks I want a 27″ monitor. But most of them are 1920×1080, which is just ridiculous. Amazon sends me emails with suggested monitors and nowhere on the page does it list the resolution. Huh.
Michele C
@Mnemosyne: Do you like history? There’s a great series on Byzantine emperors. I think it’s called 12 Byzantine emperors.
Soonergrunt
Get a bluetooth earpiece. You’ll look like a jerk-ass, but you’ll be able to hear the phone exceptionally well. You’ll also be able to use it while talking on it. Some models of bt earpiece support stereo headphones, which I use for watching movies or listening to music while working out, and it sounds a LOT better than just about anything that ships with a current phone.
Roger Moore
@Eric U.:
If you’re OK with a bare-bones models, I’d recommend one of the inexpensive Korean models. The picture quality is excellent, and the price is a steal compared to the big names. Yes, I am a satisfied customer.
Merfy
@Ramalama:
I just took your survey, Ramalama. I have two kiddos, ages 6 and 8, who love to read, so I thought I’d be a good respondent for you. I look forward to helping you out in the future if need be.
Ramalama
@Gin & Tonic: No….cannot bear over-the-ear anything…but for some reason crap earbuds, while crap, don’t bother me nearly as much.
scav
@Mnemosyne: Some of the In Our Time podcasts clock in at 27 minutes although most seem to be 45, if you like professorial types going on about all sorts of subjects.
beergoggles
I don’t think I’ve ever used my current phone without my Bluetooth headset for voice calling. Once ur phone has a signal, sound quality is all about the accessories.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Comrade Jake:
Me either then.
Ramalama
@Merfy: @Merfy: Many, many, many tacos of thanks for your input! We expect to have a kindle book up (for kids) for free soon. Any chance you’re a francophone?
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne:
Scifri used to have nice complete show podcasts that were two hours long. I liked it better that way. Sadly, they’ve broken their podcast up into segments. While I understand the logic, now I have to take my eyes off the road while driving and futz with the stupid ipod because Apple doesn’t think anyone would ever want to listen to a whole list of podcasts and stops playing after each short segment.
Pococurante
Android phones are like Linux laptops. As long as one is a geek you can handle the constant stream of changes and patches that keep a product any manufacturer decides to tweak to their own satisfaction. And anyone that trusts Google, Facebook, and any anonymous company with a free app to protect their privacy.
iPhones are like Apple laptops. As long as one is the lowest common denominator that wants to treat a phone like a food processor one is ok. And trusts Apple, Google, and Facebook with their privacy.
WinPhones are like Windows laptops. As long as one works for a major company and uses a Windows desktop at home one is ok. And one trusts Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook with their privacy.
I’m a mobile enterprise applications architect for a major home security company. My household went with WinPhones/Tablets. It’s what I know and I have maximum control over my kids’ experience and identify/privacy. Something I don’t have in the Android and Apple world.
YMMV. And almost certainly will.
gbear
@janeform:
This. Nobody is where they are anymore. Coffee shops are almost completely devoid of human contact now. It’s like walking into a vacuum.
Jenny
When do the new drone-phones come out?
? Martin
@The Moar You Know: Apple has quite a few audiophiles on their engineering teams – and at least one engineering team has an audiophile for lead. For a while the iPod Shuffle had the highest quality DAC in the iPod lineup because the design team that stacked up on that model was mostly audio guys, and they found a way to trim the budget just enough to upgrade the DAC. Apple products are designed to price point – you cram as much in there as you can to hit your number. The extent to which these guys go to make everything work is pretty extraordinary.
? Martin
@Pococurante:
There’s two very big categories in that list:
+ Apple: makes money by selling stuff to you
+ Google, Facebook: makes money by selling your info to other people
The trust equation is completely the opposite in those two cases. Apple has every incentive there is to protect your privacy. Google/Facebook have many incentives not to.
Microsoft is in the middle, actually, but their years-long refusal to deal with privacy and security makes it hard for me to trust them, even though I admit they’re doing a rather good job of it today. Apple refused to deal with it as well, but then it also wasn’t a problem with their platform.
LM
@John Cole My son has an android, I have an iPhone. Imo iPhone has much better sound quality. And if you spend $99 on an apple TV (tiny gadget), you can watch any youtube video or whatever you access on your phone on your TV. (Great for political debates and music videos.)
@Mnemosyne If you like science fiction short stories, StarShipSofa.com has podcasts that are short stories from just about any/every great sf writer you can name. (The site even won a Hugo award for the podcasts.) If you like mysteries, CrimeCityCentral.com has mystery stories. And if you like horror, TalesToTerrify.com has those. They’re all free, usually 2 stories per 1-hour podcast, very well read, and also available via iTunes.
different-church-lady
@srv:
Ah yes, skype: a more sophisticated way of not being able to hear the person you’re trying to talk to.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
This isn’t really true. First of all, Apple is in the mobile advertising business. They’re not as good at it as Google, and they don’t make as much money on it, but they’re in the business.
More importantly, though, mobile advertising isn’t about selling your information; it’s about selling your attention. Companies like Google promise their clients the eyeballs of people who are likely to be interested in their products, but they keep their stores of information secret. The last thing they want to do is to let other companies have access to their expensively gathered information, since that’s where their competitive advantage in serving ads comes from.
lojasmo
@Ramalama:
Done.
danielx
Hey, text messaging is great and I’m all for it for certain purposes. However, I talk to people on a cell phone periodically because verbal communication is superior for certain purposes…
Sometimes I want more immediate response than you get from texting – when you’re talking to someone on the phone you’re more likely to have their (more or less) undivided attention on the conversation.
Sometimes it’s just nice – warmer – to hear someone’s voice, as opposed to viewing characters on a screen, just like (in my humble opinion) real live human companionship is superior to blowup dolls, dildos or jerking off to internet porn. Call me crazy…but if that makes me obsolete, well, I’ll just have to somehow bear up under that burden.
You get a lot more insight into someone’s feelings from verbal cues than you do from texting – texting makes it easier to conceal yourself. Some may regard that as desirable…by the way, anyone who breaks up with someone by texting or email is a chickenshit and a waste of valuable resources like air and water.
No text message will ever deliver the satisfaction of telling someone to go fuck themselves verbally or in person. Unless doing it verbally or in person isn’t possible, in which case knock yourself out.
Oh yes, most important of all – it’s not safe to talk on a cell or text while you’re driving but if you must communicate while behind the wheel, talking is much safer. If you’re one of those people who texts while driving, I hope you drive through a red light and get hit by a dump truck; at least you’ll die instead of killing somebody else. I know personally three people whose kids have caused accidents by texting while driving, and one of those kids killed a 25 year old mother of two…because she just had to send that text right now, y’know, it couldn’t wait ten minutes.
If all those things make me a Neanderthal, again, I’ll just have to somehow bear up under that burden. Like I give a fiddler’s fuck about somebody’s opinion on my communications methods…
There. I feel much better.
Snark Based Reality
Because whats going over the cell towers is so bandwidth constrained that all of your phone calls are guaranteed to sound like shit no matter what hardware you are rocking.
Voice quality won’t matter again until Voice over LTE gets off the ground.
The only audio quality that matters is making sure the amplifiers are not so bad they have an audible hiss when you plug in a headset to listen to music. Always try your favorite headphones with an in-store model first and listen closely for background hisses in my opinion.
? Martin
@Roger Moore:
They’re in the business because they were going to be shut out of the business. They don’t make money on it because they refuse to feed information back to the advertisers:
Only Apple is doing this. And they do it across the board. Apple’s Safari has blocked the kind of data advertisers use to target you since the browser was released. IE and Firebox have since signed on to do the same thing. Why hasn’t Chrome gone along as well? Hmm. I wonder…
But advertising is definitely about selling your information. One of the largest direct mail operations in the nation is run by someone I know, and it runs entirely on your information – everything they can get their hands on goes in a database – grocery store loyalty cards sell what you buy, every time you view a Google ad they know what site you visited, and so on. The reason publishers wanted that subscriber data is that they all run in-house ad agencies.
You say that Google doesn’t share my information with Honda, but so fucking what? Google still has my information, and they feel empowered to rummage through it and find useful bits to tell advertisers “Sure, we know who owns Toyotas…” Why the double standard? Why is it okay that my info isn’t going to Honda, by assuring me that only Google has it? Google is no better than Honda.
srv
@different-church-lady: I’m sure she Skype’s with Sean.
Greg
@Ramalama: I took your survey. I hope my demographic didn’t screw your results up. My kids are grown but I have two grandkids and we are all big readers who buy (and still read!) kids books so I thought our input might be of interest. I can also forward your survey on to my daughter and all my friends with kids. I gave you my email for further research, and I speak French with near fluency as do many of my friends (plus some French native speakers). So, I hope this helps.
Redshirt
@Michele C: OT, but I’m on a crusade to get people to stop using the phrase “Byzantine Empire”. It was not the Byzantine Empire, but the Roman Empire, proper. If you need to distinguish it separate from Rome, newly proper use is “Eastern Roman Empire”.
They were Romans. Not Byzantines. Use of the word “Byzantine” is a Catholic/Western bias meant to diminish the East (and specifically the Orthodox Church).
This might seem like semantics, but it’s more than that – it’s a new way of looking at a grand sweep of history. Consider just to start that the Roman Empire did not fall until 1453. Changes the interpretation of a thousand years of European history.
different-church-lady
@Snark Based Reality:
And yet somehow there’s enough bandwidth to put music and video over the same technology. So what gives?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Redshirt: I knew there must be some Byzantine reason..
Trollhattan
Has somebody mentioned Carl Levin’s retirement in ’14?
If not: Carl Levin will retire at the end of this term. How can the Dems hold his seat?
Also, too, all digital cell phones sound shitty compared to their analogue predecessors. Don’t know why, but there it is.
Redshirt
@Just Some Fuckhead: Consider the common use of the word “Byzantine” – elaborate, confusing, intentionally misleading, etc. Sums up the use of the word effectively.
Remember that the Crusades (Roman Catholic Church organized) directly attacked Constantinople. Thus trying to “otherize” them with the word “Byzantine”.
pseudonymous in nc
@Snark Based Reality:
This. I actually get decent voice quality on my decade-old dumbphone, because it was built specifically to do that — but the bandwidth for standard voice calls has definitely been squeezed over the past decade.
@different-church-lady:
One of these things is not like the other. Different tolerances, different ranges, different legacy requirements. (In particular, speech codecs are designed to work within the standard frequency range of the human voice.) Eventually, some kind of VOIP will become the norm, but not yet.
kindness
John. SXSW starts tomorrow and you are leaving Austin TODAY?!?
Deadheads around Texas are mighty dissappointed.
geg6
@Ramalama:
Did the survey with my niece in mind. She’s a big reader and goes through books like water and has since she first learned. She’s 12 now and reading stuff I didn’t pick up until about 15 or 16. Of course, her mom teaches English and literature at Robert Morris University, so she has genetic AND environmental advantages.
Citizen_X
@Redshirt:
Everyone’s gotta have a hobby.
slag
@Snark Based Reality:
This is true. Every time I try to talk on my cell phone, the sound quality and delay are such that I keep looking over my shoulder for Radar O’Reilly.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Redshirt: You seem so earnest, like there is something important you are trying to convey.
Redshirt
@Just Some Fuckhead: I AM! It’s the re-writing of all the history you were taught concerning the years 450 – 1450 in Europe. It also shapes the history of Islam in ways we’ve never really acknowledged, and the Renaissance. It’s a hugely important matter in historical circles, and I’m gettin’ the word out!
Herbal Infusion Bagger
@Mnemosyne:
BBC World News clocks in at 25-28 minutes. The BBC also has many other 1/2 hour documentaries as podcast downloads. Also, use Downcast and listen to the podcasts at 2-3x speed.
Ramalama
@Greg: No, this is great! We just wanted to tap into the minds of people who buy books for kids. We don’t care if you’ve got ’em or if you’re just (able to be) generous to the ones you know.
Also most of our outreach has been in English because I speak great French around dogs (“à la maison, Jacques, allez!”) and food, but my written francais is crap. Partner who is francophone is stepping up to the french outreach…so please do pass along the questionnaire link to any and all friends (anglophones, francophones and so on) you think might want to give us some opinions.
Also this (more time-kill central):
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?video_id=FIf90QjrRsA&ns=1
Ramalama
@geg6: Oh merde. If only we could have such a pedigree! My first inclination is to shout out, “Sacre Bleue”, but I’ve leaned that it’s not an actual statement made by anyone other than Warner Bros cartoons.
Thanks much for the input, I mean.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
As I have a long commute, I dropped $99 on a set of Etymotics HF2 earbuds. Are so awesome I can’t bear listening on other phones.
Have tried Sony, Panasonic and Aiwa noise-canceling headphones, but the best noise-canceling I’ve found was from PlaneQuiet, who’s headphones were as good as Bose’s for a third of the price. But now I just use the Etymotics: their noise exclusion is amazing.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@janeform: Being an introvert, I love that I can get lost in the sudoku game on my phone during elevator rides.* Not that I’m a misanthrope, I just suck at small talk.
*Mrs. Pantload and I actually cancelled our 4G plan because paying $50 a month to spend a few extra minutes on our short bus trips to/from work going through Facebook was just silly; but we like the hand-held connectivity with our home wifi to let us surf idly in bed before going to sleep.
Hill Dweller
@Trollhattan:
Jennifer Granholm
? Martin
So, two Fox News hosts are willing to pay for a week of White House tours out of pocket, but won’t pay 1/10th that much in added taxes to pay for White House tours.
Fucking retards, they are.
Culture of Truth
Filibuster!!!
MomSense
@Ramalama:
Took the survey! Hope it helps. I have three sons and they are all readers. My youngest brings his allowance to our local book store where he always has something on order to pick up.
Hill Dweller
@? Martin: They care more about the cancellation of WH tours than the people who are losing jobs.
Sandia Blanca
@kindness: He WAS at SXSW–the first one, SXSW-EDU. The next one is Interactive (starts tomorrow), then Film, then Music. SXSW–no longer just one event, it’s a permanent state of mind here in Austin.
raven
@Sandia Blanca: Here are the Athens bands that will be there.
? Martin
Brace yourselves!
Ramalama
@MomSense: So your youngest buys books at an actual bookstore? Is this a small, no-chain place? Perhaps I should have put that in the questionnaire….hm.
Thanks and merci!
Another Halocene Human
@Redshirt: I hear ya, although academia has been working that way for a while, what with the rehabilitation of the reputation of the Muslim world and its importance in the Western Renaissance. It wasn’t all decadent, failing Ottoman empire all the time.
If you look carefully at the schism between East and West, it’s clear that the West is the one that fell into darkness. The trumped up doctrinal dispute is clearly idiocy from Rome (tacking some nonsense into the Nicene Creed then demanding everyone else go along with them). The West later turned around and rebooted but economic collapse, rule by illiterate Germans, and incessant fighting and killing over land titles took a terrible toll.
I was reading about St. George and it seems like the WHOLE medieval romance of St. George was based on some Western knights misunderstanding what they were told about George and making up a just-so story based on his typical iconography. I mean, wow. Of course, the RCC also canonized a Boddhisattva by mistake, due to stupid folded into a batter of ignorance, so there is that.
mai naem
I’m late to the party but CNET does very good reviews if they’ve reviewed the phone you are considering.
And the podcast question – the BBC does have a bunch of stuff. Also too, Ted Talks, Saltcast, The Moth, Harry Shearer’s Le Show is not less than 30 mins he goes from one topic to the other so you can stop at under 30 mins. NPR/PRI has some other short podcasts.
Redshirt
@Another Halocene Human: I long for the days of the Muslim Enlightenment. So cultured! Seriously, just a wonderful pre-scientific (but close enough) culture. This is, of course, because of their interchange with the Roman Empire.
Also too: Who was the Bodhisattva?
gelfling545
Just my opinion of the iPhone sound quality but the other mobile phones I’ve had sounded like someone who didn’t really speak the language was shouting down a well. The iPhone is the clearest I’ve heard. I don’t have to keep saying “sorry, I didn’t catch that” all the time.
Snark Based Reality
@different-church-lady:
From my understanding voice calls don’t share the same bandwidth as data. Voice is a legacy protocol that is run side by side with newer cellular data services. And if you’ll note cellular data in the US is quite expensive.
Voice over LTE let’s us toss much of the legacy BS out the window.
Sandia Blanca
@raven: Looks like a good contingent!
Origuy
There is a very good series on iTunes U from Yale called “Early Medieval History”. Starts around Constantine and covers the Eastern Roman Empire, the kingdoms of Western Europe, and Islam. The professor, Paul Freedman, is pretty entertaining.
This one is video, but there are a lot of audio classes that could be used like podcasts.