Comments on: One Ringy Dingy

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:08:17 +0000

I’ve been working with computers since the days of Fortran and batch processng. Damned if I can master the cellphone or the vcr - too many bells and whistles that get in the way of the stuff I’m apt to use. The phones they advertise in the Sunday newspaper magazines are tempting. Large keys and screens but a bit too bare bones. Want camera - to carry around family photos. External speaker. Addressbook and voice mail. I don’t textmessage, play games,or need music.
I have web access at home and work. I don’t need it anywhere else. If I did, I’d bring a macbook. Mumble grumble piss and moan. ;-(

By: DPWally

DPWally — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:40:12 +0000

That phone is huge. It undermines the apparent joke, phones getting smaller and manuals getting larger.

Unless this is a 15-year-old strip, then it’s about right.

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:06:44 +0000

The Apple IPhone user guide is a pdf file, 124 pages long.

By: Lola

Lola — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:36:03 +0000

It’s only 4×6 but is a full inch thick. Yes, I dug it out. English, Spanish, Portugese, something Slavic (Russian?), French, something middle eastern (can’t even guess on that one), Korean, and looks like both Chinese and Japanese. Actually, when you think about it, it’s amazing it’s only an inch thick. No German or Italian. They must be feeling left out.

By: Powers

Powers — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:05:41 +0000

Apparently phones are getting smaller while the manuals are getting bigger.

By: heather

heather — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:42:13 +0000

Our new phones are quite basic, relative to most of the market — no camera, no video, etc. The manual is around 4×6, true, but is definitely almost an inch thick. And the french manual was separate from the english one.

It’s true you don’t NEED all that for just basic use — it also has a “quickstart guide” that’s just a booklet with the basics — but for all the detailed instructions, yeah, they’re that big.

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:41:15 +0000

well, there’s the “Quick start” guide, the more elaborate manual, the “welcome” CD-ROM, the “how-to SUPER quick start” card . . .

so I “sort of” get it.

By: Lola

Lola — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:08:08 +0000

Mine came in at least 3 or four languages. So that makes them bigger by about…..hmmmmm….lets see ….about 3 or 4 times.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:31:23 +0000

When I read this strip in the paper today I laughed and said, “How true!” My last couple of phones have come with large manuals — or at least, far larger that you would expect for something that *should* be intuitive… Of course, the phones never are intuitive, which is why the manufacturers have to provide the big manual.

By: Bah humbug

Bah humbug — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:21:14 +0000

Has anyone recently bought a cell phone with a manual bigger than 4″ by 6″ and thicker than a quarter-inch? That seems about the max for even the most complicated mobile phones these days. I think Jim would only be happy with a manual that fit into a 2″ by 6″ comic strip…