I recently purchased an old Mac 512K and a StyleWriter II printer and am trying to figure out how to use the two together. The boot disk says System 6.0.3 (handwritten) if that helps. But I can't even figure out how to plug the two together. Does anyone know the solution to my problem?

An idiot drive absolutely WILL attempt to watch TV on his cell phone while driving, and the proof is already here.

Here in Atlanta (and other locales, I suspect) the cool new accessory for Escalades (after Dubs, of course) is an LCD TV for the dashboard. No, not for the second (or third) row seats to keep the little rug rats occupied, but front and center on the dashboard, conveniently viewable by the driver as he plows over a Focus on his way to the club. The perfect companion to the Jiffy Pop Airbag while he waits for the ambulance.

Nothin' says "balla" like watching American Idle while bouncing on 24s, I guess.

edit: New! Jiffy Pop Airbag!

I beg to differ - I think drivers here in Italy are the worst. They are inattentive and drive too fast.

I listen to the radio on my mobile phone as I sit on the bus every morning. I also read a book. If I had a phone that could pick up TV, maybe I'd use it to watch the news - or during the olympics, or when a race or game is on in another country and is shown live and I can't be at home.

I would need it with me 24/7 as much as I need to have the radio on 24/7, or a book open 24/7 - i.e. not at all.

Sure, I could buy a seperate mini TV to carry around, but I'm as likely to do that as I was to buy a seperate radio before my phone incorporated one (still don't have one). If it was there, I'd use it. It wouldn't change my life, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to spend lots of money on it, and I certainly wouldn't try to use it driving. But for a few hours (one there, one back) each day, it would be nice to have the option, when my book gets boring or there's some news event worth watching, but not worth being late for work for.

It's not just you, Vern, it's all the "I can't see it myself"-ers out there who can't see it. They're the ones heading for the commercial Darwin award in my opinion.

A lot of the world travels on trains and buses. I think a TV incorporated into a cell phone, at twice the current screen size, would be ideal. Remember, this is a TV, not a video player. Content would be available anywhere. You can watch the 24 hour news channel while in a cafeteria or a waiting room. I think it would be great.

The world comprises all kind of dudes.

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Anonymous wrote:
It's not just you, Vern, it's all the "I can't see it myself"-ers out there who can't see it. They're the ones heading for the commercial Darwin award in my opinion.

But they already have radios that pick up TV stations, right? Why aren't they big sellers?

Really, for 75% of TV you could listen to just the audio and get a lot out of it. Yes, a phone with video added would sell MORE than a radio that just has the TV audio, but why does NOBODY sell these things except in, like, camping supply stores?

I don't know. I wonder if it's because companies just don't want to make this technology (doubtful that they'd pass up profit) or because people really don't want to watch TV on the way to work (possible) or maybe it's option #3, which is that they think they need the picture to watch TV (also possible). Even if they really don't need an image, if they THINK that they do then they won't buy them.

It seems to me that anyone who would want a TV on their cell phone would already have a radio that picks up TV stations...but they don't. I guess we'll soon find out which reason why...

I recently purchased an old Mac 512K and a StyleWriter II printer and am trying to figure out how to use the two together. The boot disk says System 6.0.3 (handwritten) if that helps. But I can't even figure out how to plug the two together. Does anyone know the solution to my problem?

Vern,

Imagine airplanes, trains and other forms of mass transit having LCD screens in the seat-backs facing the passengers. Imagine I can plug in my cell phone and watch last night's episode of CSI while I'm commuting to work.

Technology pardigm shifts have to start somewhere, and the first applications are rarely perfectly realized, but it's easy to imagine the potential. Come on...you write about technology. :^)

Cheers.

JC

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Guest wrote:
I listen to the radio on my mobile phone as I sit on the bus every morning. I also read a book. If I had a phone that could pick up TV, maybe I'd use it to watch the news - or during the olympics, or when a race or game is on in another country and is shown live and I can't be at home.

I would need it with me 24/7 as much as I need to have the radio on 24/7, or a book open 24/7 - i.e. not at all.

Sure, I could buy a seperate mini TV to carry around, but I'm as likely to do that as I was to buy a seperate radio before my phone incorporated one (still don't have one). If it was there, I'd use it. It wouldn't change my life, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to spend lots of money on it, and I certainly wouldn't try to use it driving. But for a few hours (one there, one back) each day, it would be nice to have the option, when my book gets boring or there's some news event worth watching, but not worth being late for work for.

It's not just you, Vern, it's all the "I can't see it myself"-ers out there who can't see it. They're the ones heading for the commercial Darwin award in my opinion.

While I believe that there are those such as yourself who may have the means and opportunity to use a TV/phone, I honestly don't understand why you would want to.

'Just because it would be cool to have' does not define a market. The thing here that you are forgetting is that TV requires far more of yur attention than either radio, stored music, or even books or videos

Look at those personal TVs you mentioned; why are they not more popular? Sure, you see the occasional person using one, but why haven't you bought one? Why do you see more headsets and books than those dinky TVs?

It is not because they are expensive, they've dropped drastically in price.

I believe it is because they require you to focus too much of your attention and you get little gain from the effort. Sure, there may be an occasion where it would be nice to have a TV like that, but those occasions are few and far between, and you can opften get all the info you need from less focus-intensive sources.

I'm sure they will make these things, and I'm sure someone will buy them; that still doesn't make it a good idea.

But, as I said, it could be just me.


Vern Seward

Dear Guest,

The solution to your problem may well lie in asking the question in the proper forum.

That said, my recollection of the two pieces of hardware you describe makes me think that they are incompatible. The Stylewriter II requires System 7 or higher, if my memory serves, and the 512k won't support it.

Sorry

The key is that the cell phone will have the TV for free (that is, subsidized by the cellular network). And since I carry my phone with me everywhere anyway, it doesn't cost me any extra in bulk.

If I can have a phone with TV or a phone without TV for the same price: FREE, which would I take? If I had to pay $30, forget it. If I had to have a separate luggable device, forget it.

A cell phone with a TV won't be free (even factoring in provider subsidies), at least not for a while. Consider camera phones today: they sell for a premium over non-camera phones. The premium may not be large, but you've already said that $30 is enough of a premium to exclude you as a purchaser.

It's a gimmick, but sometimes gimmicks do sell, often at a premium. Will this gimmick sell? Only time will tell.

SERIOUSLY, what good is thins thing WITHOUT CABLE??? The only people that would need to watch TV this much are people who have cable. Regular TV just doesn't carry good programming during the parts of the day that people are out and would really want access to it. Even during prime time many people don't watch regular TV. In Orange County, I'm constantly riduculed for my lack of cable... people here don't watch TV, they watch CABLE. This is a complete waste of time without good content deliver.

Your worries are overblown. There is nothing here more dangerous than other technologies that already exist. There are already TVs and DVDs in cars. Not to mention other distractions like navigation systems that you are actually supposed to use while driving. Then there is the traditional, try to put a CD in the player while driving disaster.

I have both Sprint TV and Mobi TV on my SprintPCS multimedia cell phone. It costs me about $10/month extra. Is it worth it? That is a question you have to answer yourself. For me being able to find out about the election in real time on my phone was very useful. I also listened to part of a Yankees/Red Sox playoff game on Mobi TV (radio only no video). I find this kind of functionality very exciting.

As for the screen size, my phone has a 176x220 screen. Does this make for HDTV viewing, of course not. But is useful to have 15 fps video pretty much anywhere I go. I use it mostly for things like current events, but I've also watched a comedy segment occasionally while waiting for a while.

Anyway, in a few years, your kids will say something like, "you didn't have video on your phone back when you were young did you daddy?" It will be taken for granted just like a lot of technology is today.

Samsung's TV phone, sold in Korea, the mass market has already started:

http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/TelecommunicationNews/TelecommunicationNews_20030609_0000006235.htm#

You want to know the real reason why you don't see hordes of pocket TVs on the tubes, buses, etc? Honest assertion? That pocket space is already taken - by the mobile phone.

This is the reason why, like most people, I don't own an iPod. Everybody already has phone, that coveted pocket space is long taken. Make an iPod phone, I'm there. Give it TV, I'm definitely interested. Well, as soon as the infrastructure is there.

I have space for one gadget, the GBA sits in the car or house, so would an iPod. The phone wins every time. 155 million mobile handsets sold in 2004's 2nd quarter alone, everything else is niche market by comparison.

TV reciever on your phone is a great idea. Not because we need a TV on our cell phone, but because right now, if you do happen to want to watch TV on your phone (and this just might be rare, but still possible) you have to pay your carrier MONEY to watch it via a digital stream (ie GPRS or 3G data stream). #@!$ THAT. Every one else gets TV (free to air anyway) by just tuning in, carriers want to charge you for this. All power to the handset maker that wants to stuff more functionality into the device.

Which brings me to the next point....iPod, phone, PDA etc etc....you would need a bloody Batman utility belt. How STUPID is THAT. One mobile device please and the more it does the better. I don't know if you have noticed, but the cell phone (mobile phone here in Australia) is becoming an increasingly important device to remaining connected to the world, continuously and permenantly. GPS functions, IM, email, SMS, web, java apps that talk to your home and your car, still pics, video feeds, TV, radio (my current phone has FM radio which is awesome....love it), MP3 player, remote control even.

Does an iPod become this, does a mobile phone become this? Who knows, who cares, as long as the convergence continues.

...one, to watch movies on a 10' projection screen; and two, to listen to news and other programs. I don't actually watch non-movies, I listen to them in the background, and look only occassionally when something interesting comes up. So, if I could record the morning news or the previous night's episode of ER, I could just listen to it while commuting, much like how I use my iPod now. I don't need to see the news, or see ER, I can easily visualize it without looking at the screen.

While I agree with Steve Jobs's assertion in general, I think he needs to consider that many people treat the tv much like how they used to treat the radio. It's background noise. They may not want to watch DVD movies, but they may be interested in listening to regular tv programming.

All three* will co-exist just like space ships, aeroplanes, trains, buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles and bicycles.

*There are more e.g. handheld game consoles like gameboy.

Here in Japan, TV mobile phones are extremely popular. iPods and TV Mobile Phones are what everyone wants here.

I'm sure most people who say NO to TV phones will actually find it very useful if they get one.

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Guest wrote:
Here in Japan, TV mobile phones are extremely popular. iPods and TV Mobile Phones are what everyone wants here.

I'm sure most people who say NO to TV phones will actually find it very useful if they get one.

What's useful about a TV/cell phone?

I seriously would like to know.

No disrespect to the Japanese, but we can hardly go by what is popular in Japan: they have phones and TVs built into toilets, and hotel rooms the size of coffins. (But I gotta give them the nod for being creative!)

Just because you can build a thing, and just because a few people want it does not make it a good idea. Example: One of the best selling vehicle classes in the US is large SUVs. I'm not talking about vehicles big enough to carry 7 adults, I mean vehicles so big that some won't fit in a standard garage.

These things are rolling hazards for everyone else on the road; a guy in a smaller car can't see around it, making for very dangerous driving situations.

These big gas guzzling SUVs are mostly bought by urbanites and suburbanites with more money than sense in some strange game of 'keep up with the Jones'.

I seldom see these SUVs with more than the driver in it, and they almost never go off-road (scared to mess up the paint job).

Are extra large SUVs a good idea? For the vast majority of folks, no. Do people buy them anyway? Yep.

I believe the same thing will happen with these TV/Cell phones: People will buy them, but that doesn't make them useful or a good idea.

Vern Seward

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VSeward wrote:
People will buy them, but that doesn't make them useful or a good idea.

Doesn't make them a bad idea either. If nobody wanted to look at a small portable screen, then I doubt there would be any handheld gaming consoles, SMS, PDAs or tiny Viao Laptops, Video/Photo phones, and probably no iPod Photo either.

Perhaps it's because TV is such an old, established technology, that the notion of using it outside of the big box at home is unpalatable to some.

www.three.co.uk has on-demand news, sport, comedy, and MTV on their network, it's streaming video, rather than broadcast TV though.

Personally, if I'm stuck at an airport, train station, or just waiting for the bus, I could think of worse things to do than watching a bit of telly

If you bear in mind the gradual erosion of broadcast TV, in favour of other technologies, you could argue that Television actually needs this to continue to be commercially successful over the following decades:

http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P968

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Nookster wrote:

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VSeward wrote:
People will buy them, but that doesn't make them useful or a good idea.

Doesn't make them a bad idea either. If nobody wanted to look at a small portable screen, then I doubt there would be any handheld gaming consoles, SMS, PDAs or tiny Viao Laptops, Video/Photo phones, and probably no iPod Photo either.

Perhaps it's because TV is such an old, established technology, that the notion of using it outside of the big box at home is unpalatable to some.

www.three.co.uk has on-demand news, sport, comedy, and MTV on their network, it's streaming video, rather than broadcast TV though.

Personally, if I'm stuck at an airport, train station, or just waiting for the bus, I could think of worse things to do than watching a bit of telly

If you bear in mind the gradual erosion of broadcast TV, in favour of other technologies, you could argue that Television actually needs this to continue to be commercially successful over the following decades:

http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P968

Let's not confuse things; handheld devices are very useful, that is not the issue. TV on cell phones is the issue, and I have yet to hear a good justification for it.

I'm all for games, news, even the Internet to a limited extent on cell phones. Some of it is useless; The Internet, for example, seems silly on my cell. I never use it and can't see how anyone could reasonably make use of it. I do play games on my cell though; the tiny screen and underpowered processor makes gaming poor, but it is a time passer.

But TV requires too much of your attention. Putting the picture on a tiny screen forces you to narrow your field of concentration to this 2 inch square box. My contention is that building and using this technology is largely a waste, it serves no good purpose, and sets up dangerous scenarios. We see it today with cellphones and drivers here in the US, and I believe the problem would only get worse by adding a TV.

And once again I ask, what does this technology provide that isn't already available in formats that require far less of your attention? Can you honestly say that watching a newscast on a screen so small that nearly all detail is lost is more informative that listening to a newscast? Or reading it? And what is so important on TV that you must have it with you all the time?

No, I can't see any benefit in having a TV/cell phone, and I see nothing but problems created by their use. I'm sure people can invent reasons to own one, and will. But it is still not a good idea.

It is just my opinion, of course.

Vern Seward

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VSeward wrote:
No, I can't see any benefit in having a TV/cell phone, and I see nothing but problems created by their use. I'm sure people can invent reasons to own one, and will. But it is still not a good idea.

It is just my opinion, of course.

My opinion matches yours. OTOH, I'm a bit of a Luddite since I don't have a cell phone either, and even if I had one I'd probably leave it turned off. There are lots of times I don't want to be available, and at the moment the supposed convenience factor doesn't justify the cost. When the cost comes down and cell phones become truly mobile, i.e. none of these ridiculous "service areas," I'll probably get one. Until then, nix. And since television is nearly unwatchable even on a big-screen, HDTV-capable system, I sure as hell don't want it on a cell phone, and I'd rather not deal with boneheads gawking at a screen when they should be paying attention to where they're walking, or worse, driving.

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VSeward wrote:
I do play games on my cell though

You play the games on your phone, yet no buildings collapsed!

Surely an interactive game (or even just sending a text message) requires more concentration than just passively looking at the screen, I reckon so anyway. My point being that it isn't any worse than what we already have and use on a daily basis. Ultimately it's just another thing(â„¢) that you can use or not use, all of which are secondary to the phones best function - being a phone. No biggy. Does it require any more justification than Java games, or a built in video recorder?

Phones in cars are certainly a major issue. Mobile phone-related accidents in the UK precipitated new legislation earlier this year, which prohibits phone use by drivers unless they have a dedicated hands-free system, Bluetooth earpieces don't cut it. Personally I don't think anyone should use the phone at all whilst driving. That said, there's already plenty of stuff to do in a car if you really want to crash it.

I should point out, that despite all I've said in favour of new features in phones, I'm still using my almost four year old, black and white, non-Java, non-WAP Nokia 3310, it just won't break!

That's what happens when you hope for an iPod phone, nothing.

to the bone idea. Games, PDA's, IM, internet. All these and cell phones have a place. I can use internet on a cell phone to find a movie showtime or the weather, then call a friend and ask them to join me. These are actions that take near full attention. The TV idea is rather boring. BUT, I hate cell phones. Cause people LIVE on these dam things. Who are you talking to ALL freakin day long and what the hell is so dam interesting!? It's not you! Ever think a stranger at the street corner was talking to you....ohh, they have a headset on! You freakin CYBORG! But I can ignore that. The BAD BAD BAD part is the DWSD:Driving While Stupidly Distracted. Just the phone is bad enough, studys have been done and found cell phone to effect proper driving AS MUCH AS DRUNK DRIVING! Ever have one of those terrible SUV's nearly run you off the road and when you look up to curse them you see some soccor mom yaking away on a CELL! Sure its illegal in a few places, I'm sure its not very enforced. Adding TV to this mess is inevitable, but none the less...BAD.