Google's New Android Operating System, Phones Most Intrusive Ever

[onehandle]

The Nexus 5 and Kit Kat software underscore Google's ambition to ingrain its search engine and virtual assistant, Google Now, even deeper into people's lives. In the process, Google Inc. hopes to gather more insights that will enable it to sell more advertising, which generates most of its revenue.

It'll be easier for Google to learn about a person's habits and needs so it can display helpful advertising. Google Inc.’s virtual assistant, Google Now, also engages in richer dialogue with Nexus 5 users, to assist marketers.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-releases-1st-phone-powered-kit-kat-20743830

[2naSalit]

1. What I don't understand is

why are people buying this shit? Honestly. I have a four year old flip phone and it still works, cost very little to keep minutes replenished. I don't think anyone who "has to have" the newest "things" really gets the reality of what is truly happening in this world.

Stay distracted, folks, it'll be over soon enough.

[frylock]

2. wait, you have a mobile phone?

why do you need that? what's wrong with using a rotary phone land line?

[trumad]

3. LOL

Im on the toilet right now responding to this Op. Eith a smartphone.

[2naSalit]

4. Unfortunately, yes

as a matter of economic necessity. I have an OLD mobile phone because the cost of a landline is way out of my miniscule budget and if I want to find a job, I have to have one. I didn't have a phone at all for four years but had to get one when I was hired for the Census in 2009. I burned through three of them during my ten month stint there as I had so many employees to deal with. And I thank all the taxpayers of Murrika for buying them for me. Since it's a pre-pay unit, I only buy minutes when I get low on them... which is about once ever eight to ten weeks. The Internet I use is my nearest neighbor's and we share the cost of connection to a T1 line up here on the mountainside.

SO, yes, I have a funky and not all that much used phone... a MOBILE one that is left over from the Census work I did and purchased by YOU the taxpayer. The computer is old and a leftover from work I did for an NGO who "retired" it and gave it to me since there was no resale value in it after several years.

What my post was about was the people, many out there apparently, who have to buy the latest fashionable thing at an unbelievable cost every few weeks so they can have the latest distraction from reality. If you are so wrapped up in your toys that you can't pay attention enough to notice that the natural world around you is being destroyed and that your rights are disappearing by the hour and you just can't be bothered because "oh look, I got 20,000 points for shooting the cop on the roof...!" in some violent game...

That is my point and I stand by it.

Now excuse me, I want to go watch the grizzly bear digging around in my back yard that is being watched by a pine marten in the fresh snow from last night. the bears are going to den in a week or so and I'm hoping the climate won't keep them up all winter since they like to hang out near my firewood stash between the trees sometimes and I don't like the occasional scary surprise.

[snooper2]

5. You don't have to thank ALL the taxpayers of "Murrika"

Just me, that was my old flip phone I donated you are using FYI


Do you pronounce it "Murrika"? What type of accent do you have?

[2naSalit]

6. Actually

it was brand spanking new when I acquired it. Got it near the end of the program so it has lasted all this time, doesn't get much use.

I use Murrika as my way of mocking the redneck-like accent of Wbush... just b'cuz I have such an immense amount of (dis)"respekt" for the guy after all he did "for" us. (Which includes the screwed up manner in which the implementation protocols for the Census were designed by his administration which ended up costing we taxpayers a lot when we could have conducted the study for far less.)

As far as my accent, I am a true code-switcher so which accent would you prefer?

[snooper2]

7. I took good care of it, so it just looked new, defaulted it as well

If you pull the battery out you'll see a small pot leaf I drew on the backside of battery

I prefer a blue accent

[2naSalit]

8. Let me see...

The bear left so I have time to check on that.

Indeed! There is a pot leaf scratched into the battery shell... whaddyaknow!

Thanks, I'll enjoy it much more now!

[tabbycat31]

9. There are people who's jobs require a smartphone

I have one of those such jobs. When my phone died last month, I used a cheap Tracfone as a holdover and my boss was happier than I was to see that I had a smartphone again (my dad's old phone).

He needs to reach me by email at all times. I also get a stipend to pay for a smartphone.

[2naSalit]

10. Yes

and I am guessing that you are not part of the majority of iphone buyers/users.

As I said above, I had to get one for my work with the Census a few years ago and still have it because my personal network of friends and relatives asked me to keep it and for seeking other work which often requires me to have a phone of some sort...doesn't mean I have to go out and spend a few hundred bucks every few weeks to get an upgrade with all the bells and whistles included. I'd wager that even for folks like you, there aren't that many who are straight up "required" to have one for their job. Most of the people I know who have one do only because it's a status thing among peers.

[tabbycat31]

14. It's an unwritten requirement for my job

I mean you could do it without a smartphone (I'm a political strategist now working for an environmental nonprofit). I was not like that when I first got a smartphone, I got one not because it was a status symbol (anyone who knows me knows that I am not in the least bit concerned about status symbols-- I drive a 14 year old car).

I also spend months on end on the road (I have lived in 5 states in 3 years) and do not have a landline (I have not had that since moving out of my parents house).

FTR most smartphone users do not upgrade every few weeks. If you have a contract cell phone, the companies expect you to use your phone for 2 years before a subsidized upgrade. I'm only using a new (to me--- it's my dad's old phone) phone because my other one died.

Another FYI is that I am not an Apple person and would only use an iphone if my employer provided it.

[GreenStormCloud]

11. I like having a smart phone.

Obviously that isn't OK with you that I like it, but I don't have to answer to you.

I don't play video games on it. There happen to be applications that are available that I like.

I have no objection to seeing advertising for stuff that I might actually like and use. I am the one who makes the decision on what I buy and I am the one I have to account to, not you.

I recently finally bought an e-reader, specifically a Kindle, and I like it. I like the lower price, the convenience, of buying books that way. I like that I get the book instantly after I buy it. I like that I can carry over a thousand books with me all the time. If that upsets you, that is your problem.

Do I absolutely need them to keep breathing? No. But they add to my quality of life, as I define such addition.

[MadrasT]

13. Because I do not have internet or cable TV in my home.

My smartphone is how I get my news (DU, apps for 2 local papers, weather) and is also how I do email.

95% of my activity on DU is from a smartphone.

It makes phone calls too, LOL. (No phone in my home either.)

I do have electricity and running water... phone can't replace those.

[Posteritatis]

15. Because the only reason to have a recent phone is technophilia, right? Oy. (nt)

[GreenStormCloud]

12. So what? I don't mind getting targeted ads.

That way I stand a greater chance of getting an ad for somethin that I might actually be able to use. Advertising is NOT evil. It is simply letting my know that a product is available. The decision to purchase or not is still mine.