Phones Suck
May. 10th, 2010 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaDear manufacturers of cell phones:
Die in a fire.
Let me be more detailed. I understand why old handset-and-body rotary-dial phones had such poor sound reproduction; there isn't enough room in the end of the handset you hold to your ear for a better speaker under the technological limitations of the time. What I don't understand is why all phone manufacturers seem to have decided that all phones since then, despite improvements in speaker miniaturization, have focused on making the phone - whether land-line or cell - smaller, rather than improving the speaker.
If I am forced to speak to someone over a piece of technology, rather than face-to-face, I would at least like to be able to understand them. A phone speaker almost never allows me to do so without incredible ear-strain. Some phonemes are indistinguishable over a phone, and some very difficult to hear at all. And cell phones seem to be worse than land-line phones, although I am not entirely sure if this due to the tiny, low-fidelity speaker on the receiving end, or the tiny, low-fi microphone on the sending end.
I suspect that, if I could hear my interlocutor at something close to CD quality instead of as if I were listening to them through a tin can covered in bees, I would not be so invariably flustered when trying to address someone over the phone. Instead, I spend half my time trying to figure out what the hell they just said, and the other half of the time worrying that I sound stupid because I misunderstood them.
And this isn't even addressing the issues of transmission quality. Drop-outs make me want to cry.
No love,
Omorka
Die in a fire.
Let me be more detailed. I understand why old handset-and-body rotary-dial phones had such poor sound reproduction; there isn't enough room in the end of the handset you hold to your ear for a better speaker under the technological limitations of the time. What I don't understand is why all phone manufacturers seem to have decided that all phones since then, despite improvements in speaker miniaturization, have focused on making the phone - whether land-line or cell - smaller, rather than improving the speaker.
If I am forced to speak to someone over a piece of technology, rather than face-to-face, I would at least like to be able to understand them. A phone speaker almost never allows me to do so without incredible ear-strain. Some phonemes are indistinguishable over a phone, and some very difficult to hear at all. And cell phones seem to be worse than land-line phones, although I am not entirely sure if this due to the tiny, low-fidelity speaker on the receiving end, or the tiny, low-fi microphone on the sending end.
I suspect that, if I could hear my interlocutor at something close to CD quality instead of as if I were listening to them through a tin can covered in bees, I would not be so invariably flustered when trying to address someone over the phone. Instead, I spend half my time trying to figure out what the hell they just said, and the other half of the time worrying that I sound stupid because I misunderstood them.
And this isn't even addressing the issues of transmission quality. Drop-outs make me want to cry.
No love,
Omorka
