Motorola officially resurrects the Razr phone

[s_kinton]

I like the form factor, but the open gaps on the sides at the fold make me worried. Would like to see this refined and bigger manufacturers develop some options.

I decided to buy the Galaxy Fold rather than wait for this - despite the reviews online its surpassed expectations all round.

[Ttaskmaster]

Given that I think £150 is too much for a phone, I have a hint of an idea that this just might not be aimed at me.

This one isn't... but subsequent models that are cheaper and greatly improved might be... Again, I'm looking at the S5 Neo I got for £20 brand new as part of my contract, which still serves me exceptionally well.

Given it's an Android device you could try to persuade someone to write an LCARS based launcher I thought about it a few years ago but it'd take too much effort for a vanity project...

Oh, there already are LCARS launchers, highly customisable albeit somewhat fiddly. Look like they're better on 10" tablets, though.
There is also a Tricorder app, but with minimal functionality and the dev is no longer able to continue with it.
A couple others were fantastic, but they got hit with C&Ds from Paramount.

[sinhaomar]

Maybe it's new flip era. Better flip the phone than his screen)

[scaryjim]

... A couple others were fantastic, but they got hit with C&Ds from Paramount.

hmmm, iirc there's some kind of permissive license on the LCARS interface that allows people to copy it for not-for-profit uses, but presumably the same doesn't apply to "tricorder" and its various interfaces.

[Ttaskmaster]

hmmm, iirc there's some kind of permissive license on the LCARS interface that allows people to copy it for not-for-profit uses, but presumably the same doesn't apply to "tricorder" and its various interfaces.

I understand Roddenberry had something whereby any company that could make a serious scientific instrument or similar functioning technology was allowed to use the term.
This is why we got the TR-107 from Vital Technologies, which was an actual device. I'm guessing apps and software don't count, since any sensors and the like are just part of the phone.

But yes, I believe LCARS itself is permitted, although CBS/Paramount may well fight you over it or otherwise just pester Google to take it down on the basis that you're small and cannot afford the lawyers to take them on.

[Saracen999]

This one isn't... but subsequent models that are cheaper and greatly improved might be... Again, I'm looking at the S5 Neo I got for £20 brand new as part of my contract, which still serves me exceptionally well.

Sounds like a good deal .... but I don't really want a contract. Unless I was to change my usage dramatically, and upward, any contract is almost certain to be way more expensive than my PAYG. Of the £10 I put on it a couple (maybe four, dunno) of months back, I think I still have £9.80.

My real use for a mobile is having it around in case I need it. I just rarely do.

So for that S5, the real question would be what it costs outright, not on contract. My current phone, BTW, is actually a smartphone but I only have it 'cos a good friend got a new phone and gave me the old one. As an outright purchase, I'd have to think very hard about spending even £150, about whether it was worth even that, never mind £1500 which, for me, would be a non-starter even if I won one of those £100m lotto roll-overs.

There's a lot I would splash out on, including a very nice watch (add another zero to that phone price), and I rather fancy a certain Aston. I might even push to a helicopter I could sit it while flying, rather than RC model. But a £1500 phone? Nah. £150? Ummm, maybe. I'm just not a phone person, in large part because for privacy (or distrust of companies not abusing privacy) reasons I won't use most of the things that most people seem to find makes them 'useful'. Short of draconian new laws curtailing such abuses, or even simply unauthorised uses, that attitude ain't about to change.

[Ttaskmaster]

Sounds like a good deal .... but I don't really want a contract. Unless I was to change my usage dramatically

See, that's exactly what I did, hence having this. I still barely use any minutes or texts, but the 100GB of data was too good to pass, especially at the price.
Besides, my devices have always been PDA/pocket computers first, with phonecalls and texts a secondary feature.

[Saracen999]

See, that's exactly what I did, hence having this. I still barely use any minutes or texts, but the 100GB of data was too good to pass, especially at the price.
Besides, my devices have always been PDA/pocket computers first, with phonecalls and texts a secondary feature.

By "what you did" do you mean increased your usage? If so .... gotcha. Understand and in that scenario, right choice.

My problem with the 'phone as a PDA' scenario is, first, what my main use would be, and second, exactly what my privacy concerns are aimed at.

I think it is impossible to justify, and naive to do that IF you (the general user, not you specifically, Ttask) are bothered about protecting data privacy, be it be phone contacts, appointments, stored photos, GPS data, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all.

So really, it comes down to either using the phone as a PDA and accepting the price is your privacy, or using the phone to a minimum and protecting privacy to the maximum possible by never, ever, not even once, putting such data on it.

For sure, a brief look at most Android app permissions, and a quick app EULA perusal makes it clear that for the vast, vast majority, you are (to mux metaphors) leaving the privacy stable door wide open, hanging out a flashing neon Welcome Privacy Vampires sign, and writing them a blank cheque for your data.

If I could still buy a decent new PDA, to replace my old HP iPaq that died, I would, in a heartbeat. Certainly at £150, or even more. That would need to be a device that cannot connect online, unless I physically plug it in, which I would not.

But while using a phone as a PDA would solve my 'usefulness' needs, the price is not the cost of the phone but kissing my data privacy goodbye.

From your comments, your content to do that ... or at least grudgingly concede that having the stable door open doesn't matter because all your privacy horseschave bolted. For me, one or two might have snuck out but mostly I have have them securely locked up.

And, among the odd privacy horse of mine that has got out there's a giraffe or two, some zebras, a load of chameleons, some donkeys, a jackass or six, and a whole ocean-load of red herring. I know I'm not alone in seeding such data with contaminants, false starts and utter misdirections.

But mostly, it's just a price I won't pay and because I won't, a smartphone is of minimal use to me, and therefore minimal value. If I used one a lot, then £500 for a good one? Sure. £1500 for 'the best' (whatever that is)? Yeah, maybe. But I don't.

[Ttaskmaster]

By "what you did" do you mean increased your usage? If so .... gotcha. Understand and in that scenario, right choice.

Well previously I'd been on PAYG and everything was SO expensive. I could burn through £10 in just a few trips around the internet finding out where I was or what time a film started. Given the price of SMS, I became an expert in shortening my text messages too, despite my refusal to use 'txtspk' and my insistence on punctuation!
So to go from what was probably early Soviet-level prices for the most basic internet, to a 100GB allowance for half the price I was paying previously? Absolute no-brainer!

Phone as PDA was more about having something I could use to type up training notes, run a training diary and a few other things. There's not much in terms of usable data and privacy violation, unless you know me well enough to understand my shorthand, and feel that you can somehow extort $50,000USD in blackmail over the number of pushups I didn't do last Tuesday...
Certain things don't ever go through the PDA-Phone, like bank data. But in general, it matters more that I have computer-ing capabilities, without needing to lug around a laptop or even a netbook...

[cruz666]

At that price, why in the hell would you not put the best SOC in it you can ? Not going to sell many of these IMO.