Comics I Don’t Understand

Personal Synchronicity

Cidu Bill on Aug 31st 2010

Today was the first time I read Arlo and Janis on my new touch-screen cell phone

Filed in Arlo and Janis, Bill Bickel, Jimmy Johnson, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor, synchronicity | 32 responses so far

32 Responses to “Personal Synchronicity”

Elyrest Aug 31st 2010 at 01:56 pm 1

My phone doesn’t even take pictures - I feel like a dinosaur. I’m with Arlo on this one. Not that I don’t appreciate all the things that touch-screen phones can do, but they wouldn’t be much use to me right now.

Have fun with it Bill.
retropink Aug 31st 2010 at 02:31 pm 2

I got a touch screen phone last year and I *just* figured out that I should lock the keyboard after placing a call. (I’m a dork, I know.) I was driving my husband crazy with the beeping during every call b/c my cheeks would try to dial while I was talking. Poor man.

Enjoy your new phone!
furrykef Aug 31st 2010 at 02:43 pm 3

I recently got one for free as part of my job, since I’m a game developer and I’m going to be developing games on it. It’s a nice phone. I’d probably never buy one except to develop and sell stuff for it, but it’s nice.

The funny thing is, since my phone is AT&T, and my service is Sprint, I can’t even use it as a phone. (No, there’s no way to unlock it for Sprint. I already checked.)
James Schend Aug 31st 2010 at 04:04 pm 4

You only need a camera phone to scan barcodes. People were doing that long before touchscreen phones were around.
Kit Aug 31st 2010 at 04:26 pm 5

Bill, if you now have two phones, I’d like to see a picture of this A&J on your touch-screen phone
CIDU Bill Aug 31st 2010 at 04:32 pm 6

Or, Kit, I could be really retro and take the photo with… a camera.
Elyrest Aug 31st 2010 at 04:34 pm 7

James Schend (4) - I am unclear by what you mean by your comment. Do you mean people were taking pictures of barcodes? Or was there some other kind of mechanism involved. If it was just a picture what use was it?
Kevin Madden Aug 31st 2010 at 05:07 pm 8

Elyrest, there were (and probably still are) non-touchscreen camera phones that have barcode scanning capability.
Mark in Boston Aug 31st 2010 at 05:36 pm 9

You go to the store, take a picture of the bar code and the app tells you where you can buy the same thing cheaper.

When I was out of work for a while I registered as an Apple developer and learned to write iPhone apps. Then I got a job doing something completely different. But anyway, when I have time I am going to write the following apps for iPhone:

Swiss Army Knife: Makes the edge of the phone really sharp so you can cut stuff.
ATM: Connects over the Web to your bank account, withdraws money and the bills come out the slot at the end of the phone.
Pitching Practice: Throw the phone as hard as you can. The accelerometer records the speed of the pitch.
Think Fast! Multi-player game. Enter player names. Voice synthesizer tells you who to throw the phone to next. Whoever drops the phone loses.
Teleporter: Like the iPhone thing that lets you do video over the phone. Both ends need an iPhone for this one. It teleports you and your phone to wherever the other one is.
Tricorder: An obvious one for Star Trek users. Have the subject cough on the phone and it tells you what disease they have. Be sure to carry antiseptic wipes.
Swimming Pool Analyzer: Toss it in the pool. It reads out whether you need more chlorine or not.
Proximity Fuze: Special Bluetooth-enabled bomb available separately. You plant the bomb somewhere and give your phone to your target. When the target comes in range, the bomb goes off.
Credit Card Swiper: Put your credit card details into the phone. Then, hold the phone up to the card swiper at the store and it transmits the info to the machine.
Pete Aug 31st 2010 at 06:50 pm 10

I don’t get it. Is there an actual joke in the strip?
James Pollock Aug 31st 2010 at 07:20 pm 11

Pete, it’s funny because you don’t need a bar-code scanner to make phone calls. You just need a functional antenna (insert iPhone joke here.)
turquoise cow Aug 31st 2010 at 07:31 pm 12

Mark in Boston: Your ATM app really appeals to me. I never quite understood online banking, since I still have to go to the bank (or the ATM, or a store where I can get cash back) in order to get actual money. When they make it come out of the computer (or phone), then I’ll be really impressed.
The Bad Seed Aug 31st 2010 at 08:00 pm 13

furrykef - You can’t jailbreak it, or work won’t allow? By the way, if you’re on wifi you can still make calls via Skype ($2.95/month unlimited to US/CA, for now) or another VOIP. I wasn’t going to get the LCD repaired on my old iPhone 3G until I figured out it’s now basically a small wifi iPad.
Proginoskes Sep 1st 2010 at 04:42 am 14

Wow, it looks like there are phones that can be carried around!
jjmcgaffey Sep 1st 2010 at 04:54 am 15

The Bad Seed 13 - Sprint and AT&T use different systems (CDMA and GSM, I think are the two). AT&T and T-Mobile can share phones (more or less), Sprint, Verizon and…whatever the other one is, I’m drawing a blank can share phones. But you can’t use one system’s phones on the other. The GSM phones (AT&T and T-Mobile) are the same system used in Europe, India, Africa…; as far as I know, nobody but the US and possibly Canada uses CDMA.
Ian Osmond Sep 1st 2010 at 06:49 am 16

Pete: it’s funny for those of us who absolutely don’t understand why a telephone should scan bar codes.

I’m one of those people. I know, this makes me a Luddite.
Dan W Sep 1st 2010 at 10:18 am 17

turquoise cow 12 - how often do you actually need cash these days? I go to the ATM to get cash MAYBE once a month.
Keera Sep 1st 2010 at 01:13 pm 18

Mark in Boston @9, LOL! Especially the pool app. There was some statistic recently about the sex lives of people with iPhones. Which made me wonder what about us who don’t like iPhones?

And just to join in the other geekery here, I figured out how to make my SonyEricsson W995 work as a modem for my MacBook Pro. Thing is, Nokia is more standard. Windows is more standard, so that’s what the how-to’s are based on. So I have reason to be proud of figuring it out with no menus matching any set-up from my cell phone provider.

And for us geezers who own cell phones primarily to make calls with: TV-ad seen recently in Norway blared, “The cell phone you can phone with! ” We’ve gone full circle. Gave me a good laugh.
Orbert Sep 1st 2010 at 01:24 pm 19

The third panel should’ve ended the strip, as it’s basically the punchline. “Your phone can’t even scan a bar code!” is a ridiculous thing to say, so Arlo’s remark was redundant, to me at least.

That would’ve made the strip too short, so there would need to be something else leading to Janis’ punchline and give it more “punch”, but I’m pretty sure the joke is that people who have smart phones look down on us folks who only use their phones to actually call people.
James Pollock Sep 1st 2010 at 04:05 pm 20

In the past, Arlo has made it clear that he doesn’t think he needs a cell phone at all.
Gilgamesh Sep 1st 2010 at 05:41 pm 21

I had a cell phone early on. I found it handy for my work. When I had to retire, I quit using a cell phone. My wife and daughter would ask me what I would do if I had an emergency, I said I would just ask the person next to me to call for help since almost everybody has a cell phone now.

I think the above comic is ironic. Barcode technology is over 40 years old, commercial use started in 1966, so to use it for technical oneupmanship is laughable.
paperboy Sep 1st 2010 at 06:12 pm 22

A cool App would be one where you could use “beeps” of different lengths to designate the letters of the alphabet to spell out words!
Mark in Boston Sep 1st 2010 at 07:29 pm 23

Keera: There is one fundamental difference between iPhones and Blackberries. Blackberries were designed for businesses. An administrator can provision thousands of company phones to run in-house applications in one step. The iPhone was designed for consumers. They must be provisioned one by one. But all the things you as a consumer might want to do with your iPhone are easy.

Back in the very early days of the IBM PC and the Apple II someone writing in a computer magazine divided the world into sixes and eights. The eights were the 8080, Z-80 and 8086 processors — CP/M, IBM PC, no graphics, word processing, databases, all business, suits and ties, clean-shaven. The sixes were the 6502, 6800 and 68000 processors — Apple II, Commodore 64, Macintosh, graphics, music, creativity, blue jeans, beards, bare feet.

You could do the same with Blackberry vs. iPhone now.
Mark in Boston Sep 1st 2010 at 07:32 pm 24

@Paperboy: Morse code! There’s an app for that:

http://gizmodo.com/5229550/morse+it-iphone-app-makes-samuel-morse-proud-on-his-birthday
Keera Sep 2nd 2010 at 02:25 pm 25

Mark in Boston @23, I have stated before in this group that iPhone/iPod Touch (I have the latter) have failed in my eyes by not having a built-in to-do app with reminders (it doesn’t even sync to Mail’s to-dos). What that has to do with being for the consumer, I don’t know. And that fancy-schmancy scrolling? Meh. This Mac fan is not a fan of Apple’s handhelds.
Mark in Boston Sep 2nd 2010 at 09:24 pm 26

Keera,

A To-Do app with reminders is for business! Take off the suit and tie and get a life!
Lola Sep 3rd 2010 at 08:56 pm 27

Without to do lists and reminders I would never remember my kids’ and grandkids’ birthdays. Today was one of them and I remembered …. because I was reminded. Of course a sibling also made it her business to remind me this morning too, but for once, I already knew. All to do and reminders aren’t for business.
Keera Sep 4th 2010 at 03:14 am 28

What Lola @27 said.

Mark @26, I use a PDA to help organize my spare time, because there I have a far wider range of (unrelated) activities to handle than I do at work. Since I have a mind that mimics ADHD, I will easily forget things unless they are in front of me. So having a to-do list that will remind me when the next thing to do needs doing, is very helpful.

Every PDA and cell phone has to-do lists with reminders - except Apple’s.
FeelinOld Sep 4th 2010 at 03:43 am 29

But there IS an app for that.
I succumbed to the iPhone craze, looking at all my options it came down to an iPhone or one of the Android phones but wasn’t sold on the longevity of app availability for the Android especially with how badly the OS has forked lately.
There are a number of free ToDo apps in the app store as well as some paid ones I haven’t tried. There is also google, I use google calendar, and know tasks are available as well, but haven’t tried it yet.
FeelinOld Sep 4th 2010 at 03:50 am 30

Oh and even though your locked in to the app store, the phone hasn’t been neutered by the carrier, it may be locked to a carrier, but they haven’t been able to for instance disable downloading pictures off the phone to your PC because they have a package to send the pictures over their network at $X/MB, disabling uploading ringtones because they want you to pay them for ringtones etc. etc. I’m not sure how bad it is elsewhere, but Canadian carriers are good at this.
Keera Sep 4th 2010 at 04:52 am 31

FeelinOld @29, see, that’s the thing: Why do I have to install a third-party app when my Mac already has a to-do list and its calendar syncs to the iPod/iPhone? (Not that Mail’s to-do list is a big hurrah.)

I was badly spoiled by my old Palm PDA, with its combination of DateBk and HandyShopper (both 3rd party, one freeware, but Palm OS did have built-in to-do with alarm). HandyShopper was a database that had alarms. Fantastic for repeating tasks! (SplashShopper is similar but because of some annoyances with iOS, I hate using it.)

When looking for to-do apps for my iPodTouch, I am stopped by one thing: Most demand or expect me to synchronize with or log into a web equivalent (like “Remember the Milk”) to use, and there isn’t any free wi-fi where I am.

I may end up with Google for everything, in the end. It’ll sync with my SonyEricsson cell phone.
Todd Sep 12th 2010 at 05:00 pm 32

Android isn’t forked, it’s just legacy. If you’re likely to use apps, you want to stick with the most recent phones. The older version phones are more like enhanced feature phones.

I’ve got a Google Nexus One. I’ll probably go back to a regular cell phone when my contract is up in 2012. The screen is just too small for surfing the net. I need a pad for that, but I refuse to buy an iPad.

I have a great idea for a pad/phone shopping app. It’s a database that already has most everything you’ll need in it, sorted into categories. Stuff like milk, butter, eggs, bread will be in the main category. You enter the data into your pad at home, then it syncs to your phone.

I’m trying to get somebody to build it, since the last thing I programmed on was an Apple ][ in high school.

Mark, I love your pitching practice and pool analyzer apps. To bad they’re one use only apps. Didn’t they have a toy like that Think Fast app, but it didn’t say names?