Blog Post 101

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This is blog post 101, almost 10 years after post 1. I started with a post about smart phones, suggesting that many of the "features" were less than useful. Some these features failed in the marketplace - curved screens, squeeze control. Most of my complaints were ignored.

Glossy screens - nine years after my complaint, Samsung introduced a non glare screen, only on their top of the line, huge phone. I haven't checked it out. Thankfully, matte screen covers are much improved with a fine texture that doesn't ruin the screen resolution.

OLED screens have largely replaced backlit LCD screens, but this hasn't produced optimal always on displays (AODs). With Samsung, the AOD app widgets have limited brightness that make them very hard to read in some situations. Apple thinks that AODs belong only on their Pro models - I don't know what they can display. Motorola thinks there is no reason to have an AOD. Google has an AOD with next alarm but not time zone.

None of the main screen clocks have time zone. Software designers - THE DISPLAYED TIME IS NOT COMPLETE UNLESS IT INCLUDES THE TIME ZONE THAT IT IS REPORTING IN.

Screen bezels have been minimized. I cannot use any current phone effectively without a phone cover. The cover supplies a raised "bezel" than prevents me from constantly touching the bottom of the screen and the resulting unwanted action. It also makes the phone significantly bigger - not good.

Samsung has a "game booster" that puts an icon in the lower left corner of the screen. Accidentally touch it and you get a menu. Maybe useful for action games - I don't know. But worse than useless for word games. The game booster app cannot be removed. But you can kill its function - see Samsung Galaxy S25 in my blog.

Phones keep getting bigger. You might think that a next generation small phone would be smaller or the same as the current generation. NO. Small phones keep getting bigger.

I still have never used a voice assistant or any AI feature on a phone.

Google has decided that it's okay to display Android navigation buttons on top of application information. This maximizes the app size while still giving access to the navigation buttons. They think that the buttons and the underlying app don't interfere with each other. WRONG. Shrink the app - the navigation buttons don't take that much space.

Screen brightness has gotten so severe on my Samsung phone that I have to turn the brightness down to absolute bottom. Which leaves no room for optimization - just "PLEASE DON'T BURN OUT MY EYES" mode.

I don't care about the headphone jack any more. I use first generation Apple Airpods. They fit me perfectly and connect quickly.

Android split screen and insets - still useless and annoying.

Emojis are out of control. I occasionally use thumbs up, heart, smile, frown. That's all. When selecting one, I am presented with hundreds of them to choose from. Wouldn't it be easier to use a word enclosed in brackets - for example, [smile] would cause the reader to picture a smile emoji.

Minimum volume is still too loud at times. And volume steps are often too large. There has been absolutely no improvement in this in ten years. Resources MUST be directed toward new icons and emojis [satire].

And gestures have become pests. I accidentally touch the screen and something changes. I don't know what I did and I don't know what happened, other than I've lost what I was looking at.

And - WHY TO YOU KEEP CHANGING THINGS THAT WORK? How does that help the user? How about changing things that don't work?