Novel Cell Phones

[katiemac]

What does everybody think about this (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6448213/did/7232995/)?

[Mistook]

What do I think?


In the early 1990's, for a period of months, I didn't have my own car and so, I got around in my Dad's car. It was a fairly new model Chrysler, and it talked. Isn't that great? Every time I took a curve too fast, it said, in is euphemistic way, "Beep! Your washer fluid is low!". That car told me about all kinds of things I didn't care to hear, and... I hated it.

Oddly, they don't make talking cars anymore.

At that same time in history, the Jewel-Food-Marts all had talking cash registers installed. Every item the checker scanned was shouted aloud, by an annoying robot-voice, along with it's price. I could see the horrible fatigue in the eyes of the poor checkers, who had to listen to it hour after hour, and I felt a little embarassed as the register yelled out to the public that I was buying both a frozen pizza, and a bottle of fiber-con. There was the history of my colon on display.

Oddly, they don't make talking cash-registers anymore.

Technology is a sea of possiblilities, most of which are awful. I highly doubt that the coming trend for the millenium is people reading novels on their cell phones.

Right now, cell-phones are the new toaster.

I remember the last days before the micro-wave, when the market was flooded with toaster-foods.

I remember the last days before the internet, when the phone book had a whole section up fron with informational numbers to call with pre-recorded menu's and so forth.

Technology does whatever it can in the short-run, but common sense more or less prevails in the long. I still own a broom, despite the invention of the vacuum cleaner. They will have brooms in 3947. They will also have bound paper books. Some things become entrenched because they can't be replaced.

[CACTUSWENDY]

:crazy: Bet it's heck turning pages all the time....lol...you must have to hit the enter button all the time...and i would think the print would be small. Guess I will let the next generation do that........:snoopy:

[Jamesaritchie]

What does everybody think about this (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6448213/did/7232995/)?

I think what I've always thought. The Japanese are a breed apart when it comes to new technology. They try anything new in huge numbers, and try it avidly. Most new things get dropped after a year or two, but some few stick around.

I hate reading novels on a seventeen inch monitor, let along on a cellphone screen, but if I lived a life so fast paced that I couldn't read any other way, then I'd do what I had to do.

[James D. Macdonald]

If someone wants to buy the talking-cell-phone rights to one of my books, I'm sure we can reach some kind of arrangement.

[KTC]

I'm sorry, but I think it's dumb! I had a cell phone for about 3 months. I see them as just another way to make money part from the consumer. Any gimmick they cook up to make the dollars ring up is just a gimmick. Some poor schmuck will suddenly get a $300.00 phone bill and realize that reading Moby Dick on a 1 inch screen was not such a good idea after all. They're out to get our money! Don't let them do it!

Oh, and I remember the toaster oven frenzy too! They were everywhere. They were the things that made the other new fad, the fire alarm, go off every time that tiny little door opened!

[E.G. Gammon]

I don't have a cell phone and I don't ever intend to get one. I leave the house to "get away." I want to get out and enjoy myself, not have a cell phone jammed to my face the whole time. I can't stand people talking on them while driving or in the store. If someone needs to call me then they can leave me a message.

Some world we live in, where everything has to be multi-functional. You can't just buy a phone anymore. Now they have 2,000 different ring tones and photo/video storage and different color cases and now this. What's next? We'll be able to point our phones towards the tv and have it double as a remote control?

Sorry for the rant, I just don't see someone having such a complicated life that they have to have a phone with them 24/7. I can understand if you work with the president or something, but average people really don't NEED them. That's what my brother is wanting - a cell phone. My mother and I said no. No 14 year old needs a cell phone. I just can't stand shopping and seeing little kids with them. If I was their parents I'd rip it from their hands and shove a book in them. OH WAIT, I guess now we don't have to, since they now COME with them. Jeez.

[katiemac]

If I was their parents I'd rip it from their hands and shove a book in them. OH WAIT, I guess now we don't have to, since they now COME with them. Jeez.

Haha. I bet all the optomitrists are thrilled.

[Christine N.]

I don't see this becoming popular, but I LOVE my cell phone. Break down one time in a neighborhood you don't want to wander around looking for a phone in, and you'd never let go of that thing again! (I was in school at the time and had to drive through some pretty dicey places to get where I was going). Or blow up your car on a highway with NO phone and you'll be singing the praises of that little thing.

Having it when driving with the little one is handy too. Especially when it's raining.
Love, love, love the cell phone! But I don't want to read a book on one.

[Richard]

I dislike cellphones with a fiery passion that burns with the heat of many suns - but for reading? Hell no. It's an unpleasant enough experience on my PDA, no matter what the likes of Cory Doctorow like to say.

Maybe audio books, with a suitable Bluetooth earpiece though...

[Mistook]

Oh, and I remember the toaster oven frenzy too! They were everywhere. They were the things that made the other new fad, the fire alarm, go off every time that tiny little door opened!


:roll:



Wait a minute... Cell phone?... Toaster?.... I'm seeing dollar signs!

[rushes off to patent office.]

[Jamesaritchie]

I'm another cell phone hater. I'm the only person in my family who doesn't own one. I had one for a time, got rid of it, and haven't missed it a bit. I can't for the life of me understand people who walk around with cell phones glued to their ears, or who fear getting caught without one. Take a break, relax, learn to enjoy life without the constant need to be talking.

And I swear the next time some moron nearly causes an accident because they were talking on a cell phone while driving, I'm going to show them another place to carry their cell phone.

Anyone wants to talk to me, they can just wait until I get home. If it's an emergency, tough. Just how often do real emergencies happen, anyway?

[Torin]

I used my cell phone to call for help when my car broke down on the highway. I actually DO have it for emergencies or for the kids to reach me when I'm out and about, although I do turn it off while I'm driving unless there's someone else in the car with me to answer it. It costs me around $30 or less a month and it's worth it, to me. Mind you, my cell phone does NOT take pictures, read novels, access the Internet, make coffee or walk the dog.

Stupid phone.

Torin

[Kida Adelyne]

*ow* my eyes hurt just thinking about it.

Guess what? Unless your reading a hard cover Lord of the rings (all three books in one) it doesn't take all that much more energy to carry a book around with you.

(I have a coat that can fit books up to the size of a paperback Dickens novel just for that purpose. what? yes, of coarse I'm strange!)

I think cellphones can be handy, but unless your in a buisness where your out of the house alot and you need to take calls, one can really take personal calls at home. I don't get it when peoples cell phones ring during class. Or really, people my age needing a cell phone in the first place. The only time teens go out is a)at school b)at work c)at a friends house d)miscellanious sports or extracurricual activities. a,b, and d you're not allowed to answer the cell phone anyway, and for C, most people have a phone in thier house, do they not?
:Soapbox:

[JohnLynch]

I'll stick with my PDA to read my e-books :)

I actually do love the PDA. Several things that are found online (such as book samples, short stories, online serials, free magazines) wouldn't be possible for me to read without a PDA, because I absolutely HATE reading long things on the computer screen. Wouldn't want to try it on an even smaller screen though.

I could of course read book samples from the library, hell, I could read the entire book. But if I borrow the book from the library, I'm going to finish reading it. And once I do that, I'm not going to want to buy it any time soon, after all, I just finished reading it. Book samples give me a way to decide whether or not I want to buy it without reading the whole thing (and sometimes I'll decide the book isn't good enough to buy, and borrow it from the library).

Oh, and when going on holiday it's handy to be able to take a dozen books with me, in a form that's less then one book ;) (And yes, depending on where I go, I do go through them).

[Ace]

I hope no one (or the article) mentioned this: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s849868.htm

It's better than reading from a cellphone.

[Christine N.]

I just can't stand shopping and seeing little kids with them. If I was their parents I'd rip it from their hands and shove a book in them. OH WAIT, I guess now we don't have to, since they now COME with them. Jeez.

I hate seeing kids with them too, young kids anyway. I think the youngest a kid should have one is when they start driving. Although I might give mine to my kid if I was dropping them off at the mall, so they could call for a ride or something. But not to keep all the time.

[Mistook]

To watch the commercials, you'd think any ten-year-old who doesn't own two cell phones and a blackberry is living in the third world.

[sgtsdaughter]

Sorry for the rant, I just don't see someone having such a complicated life that they have to have a phone with them 24/7. I can understand if you work with the president or something, but average people really don't NEED them. That's what my brother is wanting - a cell phone. My mother and I said no. No 14 year old needs a cell phone. I just can't stand shopping and seeing little kids with them. If I was their parents I'd rip it from their hands and shove a book in them. OH WAIT, I guess now we don't have to, since they now COME with them. Jeez.

no rant. . . truth my dear. saw an 8 year old with a phone yesterday. far beyond bizarre in my book.

and novels on the phone . . . oh please. it's another conspiracy to weaken the eye, making you go the eye doctor and get better specs. all around money flow. well, that's just my cynical take.

[pdr]

There's a British/European company been paying writers to write nifty little pieces - facts, fiction, poetry, porn etc. - for mobile phones for a couple of years. As I understand it their business is booming, people love reading little snippets as they commute or hang about at traffic lights!

I think the word limit is 50 - 200 or 300 hundred words though and there was a rumour they were looking for mobile 'phone novels. Sorry, I can't be more specific and find the ads. Alas my reference stuff is in storage on the other side of the world.

According to my Security company pal mobile phones are the safety and security protectors of children and people in general. And haven't they been around for for over fifteen years? Didn't Nokia, the Scandinavian company invent the technology? I read a consumer report about using mobile phones and the increased risk of brain tumours some time ago and it mentioned the stats were based on 15 years of use in Sweden.

[Anatole Ghio]

I think the most interesting part of the article, at least for me, was the comment by the author of the horror novel that was serialized (successfully, at least commercially) in installments on the cell phone.

He made the comment that because he could track his readership by monitoring the hits his site got, he knew when he was making a wrong turn in his story and he could adjust it midway so as to gain back his readership.

I think there are positive and negative aspects to this. The negative, at least in artistic terms, is the prospect of writers turning into mini-political spin doctors sitting in front of their computer screens anxiously awaiting their latest polls to determine what the next spin should be. While no doubt some works of art could be produced this way, I'm sure many more works will be produced that pander to the whims of the audience.

The positive is it can act like an instant workshop, letting the author know if their approach at any particular moment is working with their intended audience. If it isn't, it gives the author time to reformulate their approach before losing their audience.

I just had some experience with this. I post short short stories on my blog and I can track how long a visitor stays and how many pages they visit. When I post a weaker piece, those numbers go down. When the piece is stronger, those numbers go up. In general, the longer the piece is, the more those numbers tend to dip. Attention spans are much quicker for the casual browser on the web.

The last piece I wrote became too long and I had to serialize it... which I hated doing because while it's a good way to keep your active readers coming back for more, it makes it hard to bring new readers into the middle of the story (look at the problems "24" has getting new viewers, and the strong fan base it has developed... it's because of this problem with serialized pieces).

The first two parts were very short, so my readership stayed the same.

The third part was twice as long, and I originally posted it on the top of the page to make it easy for my active readers to find. However, the first day it was up, my page hits stayed level, but the time spent on the page went down... so I moved it to the bottom of the page, below parts one and two... making it harder to find for my active readers, but easier for new readers to just start reading at part one (instead of starting at the begining of part 3).

As soon as I did this, the time readers were spending on my page went back up again.

I could easily see an author begining to change his style in order to keep his readers... like avoiding the more dramatic, socially conscious pieces that challenge the reader, in favor of a breezier style that people are more willing to read.

So in that the new mediums of communication have changed the way an author interacts with his audience, they may very well change the way authors interact with their own work.

I hope this will be more positive than negative.

[Richard]

More importantly, look at the astounding difficulty 24 has keeping a story running. You can always hear them running out of steam with an almost perceptible hiss, just before yet another totally new character turns up and says "Actually, I'M the big bad guy. Any rumours of another one turning up in six hours time are just silly." By the time it starts arcing around to the final hour, you can hear the creaking and swearing in the writers' room as the Plot-O-Meter desperately throws in car chases and snipers and moles and WHATEVER ELSE! WE'VE ANOTHER FIVE HOURS OF STORY TO FILL AND WE'VE DONE EVERYTHING ALREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADY!

CTU: If You're A Mole, We're A Hole

[allion]

Mind you, I was so excited and yelped out, "Tony's back!" when he made his reappearance. Last guy I thought would show up at that point.

(If this is a spoiler to anyone, I apologize)

But yes, you can hear the gears grinding at points...I imagine the writing sessions with the frazzled people, their room littered with fast food containers and half-full cold cups of coffee asking "What do we do now???"

And CTU has to have the lamest security EVER. You would think they learned their lesson after Nina in season one.

Karen

[Richard]

Never mind CTU, you'd think the WRITERS would have. I swear, they can't read their scripts more than once. There was just no conceivable way that the Nina thing was plausible, turning her into one of the most embarassing retcons I've seen on TV.

Of course, Series 3 really hit the insanity button.

PALMER: "Jack, you realise that if you break Salazar out of prison, I can't protect you and I can't defend you. You'll be a fugitive forever, and we'll have to burn down your house and sow salt on the ground so that nothing can ever grow there again, because what you're about to do totally violates every law, is about to get lots of innocent people mashed in a prison riot, almost set off a biological holocaust that will destroy the US, oh, and is all part of a conspiracy that's so beyond your jurisdiction that you should be doing time in Sing-Sing just for thinking of it. This is disregarding all the times you've gone rogue, actively put bullets through your bosses, withheld evidence, orchestrated conspiracies, assisted criminals to blow things up, misused our property..."

FIVE HOURS LATER

JACK: "Wow, lucky for me the writers have the memory span of a goldfish! La la la. Hero of the Empire coming through..."

TONY: "And I'M the traitor? For one minor slip-up THAT DIDN'T MATTER IN THE GREAT SCHEME OF THINGS ANYWAY while recovering from A PISTOL SHOT TO THE FACE? Joel Surnow, you SUCK!"

[katiemac]

Never mind CTU, you'd think the WRITERS would have.

And that's the reason I stopped watching. The tiresome dialogue is what finally put the nail in the coffin.

But - back to PDAs and phones and such -- Ace, that's an interesting little contraption you posted. I'm thinking Brave New World just reading about it. Soon we'll have Feelies and everything!

[Anatole Ghio]

Mind you, I was so excited and yelped out, "Tony's back!" when he made his reappearance. Last guy I thought would show up at that point.

Karen

I've only seen the first two seasons. I rented them on DVD.

I'd hate to think this spoiled something from one of the later seasons, since that could've easily been avoided by writing SPOILER in advance.