Comics I Don’t Understand

Archive for the 'cell phones' Category

Cellchronicity

Cidu Bill on Apr 8th 2013

Bunch ‘o people sent me these on Friday:

Filed in Bill Bickel, Dave Coverly, John Deering, Speed Bump, Strange Brew, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor, synchronicity | One response so far

I don’t think cell phones work that way

Cidu Bill on Jan 14th 2013

Am I reading this wrong, or did his cell

phone go dead when the power went out?

Filed in Bill Bickel, Edge City, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 25 responses so far

Hurricane-Related Tip

Cidu Bill on Oct 28th 2012

If the power goes out, switch off the wi-fi on your cell phone so it doesn’t run down the battery searching for a signal that isn’t there.

Filed in Bill Bickel, Hurricane Sandy, cell phones | 19 responses so far

App

Cidu Bill on Jul 23rd 2012

Filed in Baldo, Bill Bickel, CIDU, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 13 responses so far

Because people at ballgames talk on cellphones??

Cidu Bill on Apr 2nd 2012

Filed in New Yorker, baseball, cell phones, comics, humor | 7 responses so far

When Smart Phones Become Too Smart

Cidu Bill on Dec 8th 2011

I really don’t know what the big deal is about “butt dialing.” My phone has evolved far beyond that, essentially to Skynet level, making phone calls and opening random apps when it’s sitting on a counter twenty feet away. Last month it sent my friend a text message saying “I can’t speak right now. I’ll call you back later.”

Now granted, that’s a message that came pre-programmed in the phone, but still…

For a while, this self-activation of programs — I called it “air dialing” — seemed completely random; but in the past week or so… I was reaching for my phone intending to listen to some music while I did some chores, and Pandora suddenly opened up. And earlier this week, shortly after thinking that I needed to call my sister-in-law, all of a sudden I heard her voice coming from the phone. I thought she’d called me and my phone had taken it upon itself to accept the call, but in fact “I” had called her.

Last night, at the health club, when I took the phone out of my bag and the Audible app suddenly opened up and the book I’d been listening to the last time I was at health club began to play, my only thought was “Sure, why not?” I’ve learned to just go with it.

So I’m wondering: does this sort of thing happen to anybody else, or did Stephen King somehow get hold of my phone?

Filed in Bill Bickel, cell phones | 20 responses so far

Smart Phones, Stupid Criminals

Cidu Bill on Oct 4th 2011

Link

Filed in Bill Bickel, CJA, Weird World of Crime, cell phones, humor | Comments Off

GPS

Cidu Bill on Sep 30th 2011

I don’t know… is this about the technology gap, or the fact that Janis is going insane? And I say this as somebody who recently used his phone’s GPS to track down his mother in downtown Boston

Filed in Arlo and Janis, Bill Bickel, GPS, Jimmy Johnson, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 13 responses so far

Skype Question

Cidu Bill on Sep 1st 2011

Just wondering… why would anybody install Skype on a cell phone? I could understand it a few years back before virtually every cell phone plan included unlimited calling, but why now?

(though I do understand that international calls, not generally included in cell phone plans, are cheaper via Skype)

This being said, by the way, I do have Skype on my cell phone: because I had to install it on my computer for work reasons, and at 2am the only person I could call to test it was myself.

Filed in Bill Bickel, Skype, cell phones | 17 responses so far

Phoney

Cidu Bill on Aug 14th 2011

Oh, come on… a 16-year-old puts down his cell phone and walks away?? That takes “suspension of disbelief” a bit too far.

Filed in Bill Bickel, Zits, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 12 responses so far

QR. Huh. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Cidu Bill on Jun 30th 2011

Okay, so now I can convert my website’s address into a QR symbol, which people can scan with their smart phones and have the site instantly appear on their phones. But really, after you get past the initial novelty, so what?

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, QR, cell phones, smart phones | 45 responses so far

Keeping Track of Your Kids, 2011-Style

Cidu Bill on Jun 19th 2011

My son’s on an out-of-town trip with friends this weekend. God forbid he should give us any first-hand information about where they are — but he and four of his friends have cell phone cameras and Facebook accounts, so by combining the various photos, I’ve been able to follow their progress online.

I guess this is the “new normal,” like “What time is it?”/”Hold on, I’ll check my phone.”

Filed in Bill Bickel, Facebook, cell phones, parenting | 38 responses so far

Newton’s Second School

Cidu Bill on Jun 14th 2011

Filed in Bill Bickel, Brevity, CIDU, Guy & Rodd, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 16 responses so far

Phoney Logic

Cidu Bill on Jun 13th 2011

Arlo has a flip phone, so he can’t butt dial; but not all non-smart phones are flip phones (and therefore some can butt dial), and some smart phones are flip phones and therefore can’t butt dial. Trust me on this one, Arlo, I was butt dialing before there was even a word for it.

Filed in Arlo and Janis, Bill Bickel, Jimmy Johnson, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 31 responses so far

Now Playing

Cidu Bill on Apr 24th 2011

I just installed a program that lets me watch tv shows and movies on my cell phone screen. Would I actually ever watch a tv show or movie on my cell phone screen? Get real: I’m 55 years old — I’d be seeing cross-eyed for a week. But how cool is it that I could?

Filed in Bill Bickel, cell phones | 23 responses so far

Self-Destruct

Cidu Bill on Apr 13th 2011

If my cell phone is ever lost or stolen, I can text a certain password to my phone number and all information on the phone will be deleted. The only thing geeker than wishing I remembered Captain Kirk’s command code to initiate the Enterprise’s self-destruct sequence, so I could use that as my password, would be remembering Captain Kirk’s command code to initiate the Enterprise’s self-destruct sequence.

Filed in Bill Bickel, Star Trek, cell phones | 43 responses so far

Fingers

Cidu Bill on Feb 7th 2011

Because cell phone keyboards are supposedly getting smaller??

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Joe Martin, Mister Boffo, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 12 responses so far

Update on Woman Who Fell Into Mall Fountain While Texting

Cidu Bill on Jan 20th 2011

And yes, her lawyer is “looking into” the incident

Our original discussion

Filed in Bill Bickel, cell phones, texting | 47 responses so far

Music, Music, Music

Cidu Bill on Oct 30th 2010

Now that I have Pandora installed on my cell phone, I have a device that I can carry in my pocket that delivers random music, transmitted over the airwaves, which I can listen to coming out of tiny speakers. Who’d have guessed, 50 years ago, that technology would have come so far?

Filed in Bill Bickel, Pandora, cell phones, music, technology | 41 responses so far

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

Ring

Cidu Bill on Aug 27th 2010

Leaving the cell phone inside a loaf of bread after making a sandwich… is this actually something somebody’s ever done? What’s the joke here?

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Zits, cell phones, comic strips, comics, humor | 52 responses so far

Ringtones

Cidu Bill on Jul 7th 2010

Choosing my new phone’s ringtones for family and friends — and admittedly I put a lot more thought into these choices than I probably should — it occurred to me that this can be a remarkably passive-aggressive operation: after all, the person calling you is the one person who will probably never know what ringtone you chose for him.

Not that I would ever assign an insulting ringtone to anybody, but how easy would it be to have your brother-in-law’s phone calls accompanied by Beck’s “Loser”? And come on, who doesn’t know somebody they’d like to associate with Pink’s “Stupid Girls”?

And then there’s Lily Allen’s ever-popular “F*** you, f*** you very, very much.”

Filed in Bill Bickel, cell phones | 26 responses so far