Samsung Galaxy S3 - Fausta's Blog

Last year my old cellphone’s charger broke and – since the phone was so old – could not be replaced, no matter where I looked, so I bought a Galaxy S3.

The S3 has more functions than I know how to use or need, and it’s been very reliable. It even gets good signals inside my house, which is a big deal since there aren’t enough cell towers in Princeton.

It’s been a year and now my service provider is sending me emails with tempting “free” phone upgrades, while the Samsung people simultaneously updated the phone.

From the moment I bought it, the phone has been whistling every time I receive a text, sometimes necessitating an explanation on my part, like the time I was in the middle of a doctor’s appointment and the nurse blushed when she heard the whistle.

But now my phone has a voice. A dry, professional, all-business, female voice. A voice that pops up at inconvenient times telling me that I have “25 new emails”. A clear, bossy voice.

I named her Gladys.

Nothing much gets past Gladys.

Not only does she pop up to announce how many new emails are there, she sometimes pipes in to make other announcements.

And heaven farfend if you don’t pay attention to her when she wakes you up. Her assertive “Alarm: It is seven o’clock AM” can not be ignored, much less if you let five minutes go by. She’ll nag you every five minutes until you do something.

I wouldn’t mind it so much if they had used a male voice. It would be much nicer to wake up to, say, the voice of Patrick Stewart or Colin Firth, even if they popped up at inconvenient times.

My Garmin (also old) gives you a choice of voices, and I changed the bossy woman voice it came with to a polite, English-accented male voice that reminded me of C-3PO.

I named him Anthony.

Blogging on more serious matters will resume shortly.

UPDATE:
Linked to by Liberty’s Torch and Dustbury. Thank you!

Cell phone de Fausta

Instapundit links to The ever-expanding smartphone screen: how supersized became everyday.

I recently had to replace my old cell phone, and bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 at a really good price at my neighborhood Radio Shack. I also own an iPod Touch, and you can find most of the apps, send email and text with the iPod as long as you have an internet connection.

I had looked at the Samsung Galaxy S3 last summer while visiting the Samsung booth at BlogHer. Once you get over the shock of the size (my old cell phone was tiny), you love the large display. Why so big?

… the primary purposes of smartphones have clearly changed. Early on, they were phones first, and data devices second. The various advents of modern apps, browsing and media shifted the focus enough that voice is almost incidental today. Our smartphones are now pocket computers, and they’re often our cameras and GPS units, too. Until and unless wearable computing replaces the smartphone, a bigger screen helps us process the glut of information we face in a day, and frequently provides a source of entertainment when it’s time to relax. There’s undeniably a threshold at which smartphone builders will have to relent: no one’s about to stuff a Galaxy Tab into their pocket. Likewise, there’s a good chance we’ll still see smaller devices for those who can’t (or won’t) switch to a phone that’s too big for their hands or pockets. Still, the past few years have taught us not to make too many assumptions — through technology and shifting tastes, what’s an extraordinary screen one year often becomes run-of-the-mill fare the next.

The size itself, even with the Otter protective case, is no problem for me since I have long fingers, it fits in coat pockets, and when I go out I carry it in a handbag. I prefer the iPod’s camera, but the Samsung’s cell phone reception indoors is superior to my son’s iPhone’s. The large screen’s great for videos and GPS, too.

Oh, yes, I got the heavy-duty Otter. While I got the Samsung S3 at a really good price, it’s best to not have to replace it.

Gladys the android

My cell phone is bigger than yours