In part 3 of a series on TV out functionality, Krisse looks at the practicalities of editing Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on the Nokia N95, aided by a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and a connected TV screen. What are the limitations and can you really leave the laptop at home?
Read on in the full article.
Too bad that Nokia has switched from the 352x416px resolution to this QVGA shite.
I think that's a little harsh. 😉 There are some good reasons for using QVGA such as the screens being easier to manufacture and easier conversion of software from other QVGA devices.
But whatever you think about QVGA, the next step up ought to be VGA resolution phones, which would make TV Out smartphones even more of a rival to PCs.
It's what computers have become, isn't it? 😃
"It's what computers have become, isn't it? 😃"
That's what inspired me to do this series of articles in the first place... 😊
On the Powerpoint front, for most presentation purposes you don't want a lot of text; a few bullets to reinforce what you're saying rather than your entire script (for them as use scripts) on the screen is a much better idea. This may be a way of forcing people into better practice! The downside, of course, is the limitation on images you can use.
This is simply amazing.. Think of the situation in a couple of years. A more powerful processor, maybe 1024*768 resolution TV-out..
People will begin ditching traditional computers, it's inevitable. Most users only ask for basic functions from their computers: e-mail, web, word/excel/powerpoint-editing etc.. For gaming, the majority would buy a console anyhow. Maybe it's only video editors and graphic designers who will be asking for powerful traditional PCs for many years to come.
Nokia will be doing fine for a whole many years to come. This seems exactly the right strategy, "It's what computers have become".
Too bad my E90 doesnt have a TV-out...
"On the Powerpoint front, for most presentation purposes you don't want a lot of text; a few bullets to reinforce what you're saying rather than your entire script (for them as use scripts) on the screen is a much better idea. This may be a way of forcing people into better practice! The downside, of course, is the limitation on images you can use."
That's a very very good point. Looking at it again, I probably used a bad example file for the photos, as it's from the documentation of a game rather than something intended for a meeting.
On the other hand, some Powerpoint presentations do legitimately involve small writing, for example if they display a detailed diagram, which they might well do at a conference on technology or science. High res TV Out would be very useful for such presentations.
"This is simply amazing.. Think of the situation in a couple of years. A more powerful processor, maybe 1024*768 resolution TV-out.."
Exactly, this is what excites me about TV Out. Far more people have a phone and TV than a PC, so if TV Out becomes a standard feature of phones, and if all phones become smartphones, then it's possible that the PC will be wiped out of the mainstream by phones connected to televisions.
The cheapest phone now has more features than the most expensive phone from ten years ago. If that progress continues, in another ten years we can expect the cheapest phones to have more features than the N95 does now, and everyone who owns a phone will have access to a TV-enabled browser/computer/email/console device.
"For gaming, the majority would buy a console anyhow."
Even consoles might be squeezed out, if they make phones compatible with wireless game-oriented controllers. The graphics of consoles don't actually matter that much to most people, in every console generation it's been the console with the worst or second-worst graphics that has sold the best.
"Maybe it's only video editors and graphic designers who will be asking for powerful traditional PCs for many years to come."
Yeah, that's what I think could well happen. It might even be not just because of phones but also perhaps web-enabled set top boxes. It's going to get incredibly cheap to include web compatibility in everyday electronics, and it's already very cheap: look at the Nintendo Wii, which is web-capable but costs about 100 pounds in its native Japan (and that's sold at a profit, so the manufacturing costs must be even less).
It could even be that web browsers will be fitted in every single television set, just like teletext is now. Imagine a high definition set with a position-sensing remote control that worked like the Wii controller: such a device would be far easier to sell to the average person than a separate PC.
If televisions have web browsers built-in as standard, that will become by far the most common way of surfing the internet. It won't matter if PCs can display more advanced pages, if TV browsing is the most common method then websites will be forced to adapt their pages to it.
Whether people start to use web-enabled TVs or phones with TV Out, it does look like the PC's days as the main web viewing device are numbered.
Krisse, what size is your TV?
"The cheapest phone now has more features than the most expensive phone from ten years ago. If that progress continues, in another ten years we can expect the cheapest phones to have more features than the N95 does now, and everyone who owns a phone will have access to a TV-enabled browser/computer/email/console device."
Krisse - I don't think it follows that the development will be 'linear' in the way your comment implies. Surely it's more likely that the cheapest phones in ten years time will be fairly similar to today's cheapest phones.
I also don't think we'll be using 'TV out' all the time. I'm afraid people actually like using the TV for, guess what, watching TV. In our house, I don't think the other family members would be all that pleased to find that I fancied plugging my phone in to browse the net when there was a cracking episode of Dalziel & Pascoe on. 😊
"Krisse - I don't think it follows that the development will be 'linear' in the way your comment implies. Surely it's more likely that the cheapest phones in ten years time will be fairly similar to today's cheapest phones."
IMHO, it's more likely that development will speed up rather than slow down. I'd be willing to bet a substantial amount of money that the cheapest phone in 10 years time will be more advanced than the N95 is now, probably MUCH more advanced.
Just to remind ourselves, the cheapest phones from 10 years ago couldn't do text messaging, couldn't display words longer than eight characters, and were often single band GSM so you couldn't roam across a continent. Their battery life was often one day of standby. Nowadays, the cheap end models have most or all of the following: dualband continent-wide GSM, colour displays, a mobile web browser, MP3 ringtones, speakerphones, FM radios, predictive text, java support, batteries with ten days of standby etc. Even at the high end, you can buy a new Nokia E50 smartphone for about 150 pounds sim free. The prices are virtually nothing compared to what they used to be.
Phone sales have gone up tremendously over the past few years, and phone sales now are several times what they were 10 years ago. Mobile phones sell over one billion units every year, and that total number gets bigger every year, so development money for phones has never been more plentiful.
"I also don't think we'll be using 'TV out' all the time. I'm afraid people actually like using the TV for, guess what, watching TV."
"In our house, I don't think the other family members would be all that pleased to find that I fancied plugging my phone in to browse the net when there was a cracking episode of Dalziel & Pascoe on."
...so you don't think things like games consoles and DVD players which also plug into television sets have much of a future then? 😉
I do get what you mean though, people can't replace their PCs if it means hogging the family TV. But if phones get good enough to replace PCs, then people could buy a separate TV for their phone just like they do for their PC (TVs and monitors are pretty much the same thing nowadays). TV prices are dropping just as fast as phone prices, and they usually halve every 18 months.
"Krisse, what size is your TV?"
It's fairly small, a 20 inch screen.
"Nowadays, the cheap end models have most or all of the following: dualband continent-wide GSM, colour displays, a mobile web browser, MP3 ringtones, speakerphones, FM radios, predictive text, java support, batteries with ten days of standby etc."
Krisse - my mother-in-law bought the cheapest Nokia available in Tesco's a couple of days ago for about twenty quid and it had hardly any of the features you list above. And I suspect that in ten years time that may still be the case since some people will only want to use the phone for phone calls. Anyway, if you want to make a bet then fine, let's go for it. I bet you ten euros that in ten years time the cheapest phone will have far less features than the N95. I don't want to take your money so we'll keep the wager nice and low! 😉
Your point about consoles plugging in to the TV is a good one. Your example of DVD players isn't a good one since this is the same use of the TV, really, which is watching films.
You make a good point about the potential for separate TVs for mobile phone use.
Williamoni, nice to see a sceptical tone on articles like this, it livens things up no end. 😊
"Krisse - my mother-in-law bought the cheapest Nokia available in Tesco's a couple of days ago for about twenty quid and it had hardly any of the features you list above."
I don't know which model you bought, but most of those features are on the Nokia 1600, and that's about twenty pounds on Amazon UK.
The reason I'm so adamant about this is because I recently played around with a phone from 1997 and it was worlds away from the cheapest models now. If you used them side by side, you'd see what I mean, there's just no going back to the really basic models of ten years ago even if you think they'd do.
The simplest things like scrolling through the address book were a real pain, you could barely see most people's names because of the low res display. Ten years ago though, people thought it was absolutely fine for their needs because they couldn't afford the expensive high res models.
"And I suspect that in ten years time that may still be the case since some people will only want to use the phone for phone calls."
I totally 100% agree a lot of people, maybe even most people, just want mobiles for phone calls.
I'm not saying people need all these extras. They almost certainly don't need most of them (although different people will appreciate different extras so it's tricky to pick the ones to leave out).
But why then do the cheapest phones have all these extras? Why do they all do text messages using predictive software? Why do they all have alarm clocks and calendars and calculators and currency converters and built-in games? The answer is that it costs virtually nothing to include these features, in fact it might actually be more expensive to manufacture separate batches of phone-calls-only models.
As time goes on, the cost of adding features drops and drops and drops, so there's less and less point in leaving them out. For example, something like a GPS chip will probably cost peanuts in 5 to 10 years time, so we'll start to see that in virtually every phone. The same thing will probably also happen to tilt switches, multitasking processors, mobile television receivers, memory card slots etc, not because people particularly demand them now but because the components available to phone manufacturers will include them as standard.
Going back to the example of TVs and teletext: even if you never ever use teletext, you will find it impossible to avoid buying a teletext TV because the hardware is included in every set. It's just so incredibly cheap for the manufacturers to include a teletext chip that there's no advantage to them in leaving it out.
"Your example of DVD players isn't a good one since this is the same use of the TV, really, which is watching films."
Your family can't watch Dalziel and Pascoe if you want to put a DVD of Poirot on though, can they? 😉
"I don't know which model you bought, but most of those features are on the Nokia 1600, and that's about twenty pounds on Amazon UK."
Nokia 1112 is the somewhat undeveloped phone in question.
"Your family can't watch Dalziel and Pascoe if you want to put a DVD of Poirot on though, can they?"
Krisse - you've defeated me here good and proper. How did you know my wife likes Dalziel and Pascoe and Poirot? Awesome.