Have smartphones lost their luster?

Show us what you're made of. Let us know how creative you are. You can go to www dot how stuff works dot com, slash upgrade your tech and upload those photos. Now we want to see what you got. Get in touch with technology with tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, and welcome to tex Stuff. My name is Chris Polette and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting crush me as usual mostly because I I prefer to keep an

eye on and is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So, yeah, this week as of the week we're recording this. Uh, there was a highly hyped event that UM was sort of met with UM shrug, a big shrug by the the community of people who pay attention to these things. That was all in caps attention to these things. UM.

And that would be the the release of Apple's iPhone five. Um. And of course Apple has done Regardless of whether you like the company and what it does or not, I think it's safe to admit that Apple has done a a good job of marketing it's stuff to the point where I know, but there are going to be people who, you know, Apple is terrible and Steve Jobs was awful,

blah blah blah. Now I'm when I'm trying to get at is They've been a good a good enough job at marketing new products to the point where people tune in in large numbers, including the tech media, to press releases for brand new products. Yeah, the tech world stops when Apple makes an announcement, and it's it's every every tech uh news site that I follow. Everyone had either a live blog or some sort of live commentary about what was going on over at Apple, including our buddies

over at Revision three. You know they did it. They were covering it up all that as well and giving reaction and giving analysis to the point where you're really you know, these are events, these press events, are are events with a capital E, because I mean, there are some people who kind of where does a badge of honor that they are invited to go to these Apple events.

Some people have law lost that privilege. Uh, and it almost feels like it's a kind of punishment in a way, like you've been banished from the land of tech, turn away,

never to return. Um. It's it's a big deal. But the reason why we're even talking about now is because a lot of the reaction, not all of it, but a lot of the reaction, particularly from the media to the iPhone announcement was sort of this, well, okay, you know, not that not that the iPhone five is a bad product or is in any way deficient, but just that it did not blow everyone's socks off, Which is kind of an interesting thing to talk about, because before the

Apple announcement, there were other press events from other companies about upcoming phones, like Nakia having some Windows eight phones coming out, and again, the reaction from a lot of the tech media was sort of like, all right, that's interesting. You know, no one was falling over themselves, and and that would not be a big deal at all, except for the fact that Apple when it first launched the iPhone,

really brought the house down. Same thing with the iPad, that that when when these new products came out, they dramatically energized the tech industry, both from the journalist point of view and from the consumer point of view. Because like it or not, even if you hate Apple products, you cannot deny that Apple is the company that created the markets for consumer smartphones and for tablets. Because before the iPhone came out, smartphones were pretty much just in

the world of enterprise. You had uh professionals mostly executives, carrying around smartphones, and you had a few uh cutting edge, like bleeding edge early adopters who loved them, but everyone else just carried around, you know, feature phones what we call feature phones now or just dumb phones if you want. But then the iPhone call I often would call mine a dumb phone. But then Apple comes out with the iPhone,

shows off this amazing design, beautiful touch screen interface. They just they nailed everything they needed to to hit in order to appeal to consumers, and that's what started this tide of change where suddenly average people were going out and buying smartphones, not just executives or super geeky tech lovers. The same thing with the iPad. Before the iPad came out, nobody bought a tablet unless they were in a very specific field or again they were an early adopter, you know,

just tablets. Just that was one of those form factors that no one had gotten right and and a lot of people, including myself famously at least in the history of tech stuff, wrote off to Apple. It's Apple comes in again. Shows a very consumer friendly way of creating a tablet with a beautiful design and a great interface. So bringing the house down. You know, they had set that that standard. The iPod Touch was also a big hit.

I mean, they had done so many things that were really attractive that we kind of got used to Apple bringing down the house with their announcements, and it's become sort something of an expectation, and it's getting increasingly difficult for Apple to live up to that expectation by adding

improvements to a previous generation of technology. Yeah, well, it's funny because, um, those were the comments that greeted the the iPhone three G three gs uh, the iPhone four s UM, and the iPhone four was enough of a dramatic change that I think kind of kind of excited people. But the forest I remember distinctly when the forest came out,

and people were very dismissive of it. Yeah, they were expecting the iPhone five, and it was more about the changes were more about the insides of the phone than the outside, which you know, are important but are not as sexy as a new form factor that really captures

the the eye and imagination of the public. Well. And I think I think it's it's pretty clear to me that the people who argue that UM design is just superficial UM, I think they're that that doesn't necessarily prove them wrong, but it it it proves them mostly wrong that you know, design does matter to people UM and UH. But I don't think they're completely wrong either, because I think if you had a very beautiful phone that didn't do as much, it's not going to sell as well either.

So it was, you know, the iPhone, the original iPhone was that combination of hey, this looks nice and uh, it does you know, smartphone stuff UM for the public. So Jonathan and I were talking about beforehand, and UH said, you know, when when we were picking topics this week. We didn't want to do an iPhone five recap, but so many other people have have done this, including our

colleagues over at Revision three. UM. They did such a great job of covering the release and that the features and all the the the good stuff about the phone, that we didn't really want to do an episode specifically devoted to the iPhone five. UM, but we you know this,

this was sort of what what triggered it. And actually what I noticed beforehand, before it was even launched, was Stephen Chanklin's piece over at c net where he said, you know, look, this is this is the time and smartphones when you're kind of gonna expect that there there's not gonna be a lot of groundbreaking new stuff, even

from Apple, And he was right, Shaklin. Shanklin's article is titled the whole hum era of smartphones has begun and yeah, and I think by and large he's he's got a point that that we're sort of in the evolutionary era rather than the revolutionary era, because the iPhone five is is thinner. Um, it looks a lot like the iPhone

for its taller. It's taller. It does give you more screen space, and that's one of those things that people seem to like about I would say semi revolutionary phones like the Samsung uh Galaxy Um, well, the Galaxy Note, which is a huge one fabulet yeah, one of those yeah, and the the three, the Galaxy three, which is one of those two a pretty darn large size screen. The iPhone five has a smaller screen than it does um more pixels, nine aspect ratio, yeah, and so great for

watching movies, but not necessarily for surfing the web. So the stuff that you're seeing is you know, larger or smaller screen size, as you're seeing more pixels in that screen, more screen elements, if you will, um, more network capability, because now the iPhone five has LTE, but then, as many people have pointed out, other phones have had an LTE for a while. Apple has famously been slow to adopt new wireless technologies, uh in order to make sure

they don't sacrifice the customer experience. That's the story. That's their story, and I pretty much buy it. Pretty much buy that the idea that, well, we could, but if we incorporate that without first making sure we have the best battery available, then your experience is going to be. This phone was really fast for about an hour and

then I had to plug it in. Well. Yeah, and battery life is another thing that they that that provides an incremental change, but it you know, it could look exactly like last year's phone and have two more hours of battery life. And that's the big news for this year, really battery And again, this is something that applies to all smartphones. We're using the iPhone five as the example because this was it was the hot news the week

when we're recording this. Of course, by the time you guys listen to this, you'll probably sick of iPhone five news anyway. But the idea being that that all phones are having this problem where the the incremental improvements aren't quite enough to capture the imagination the way the introduction of the iPhone or the introduction of the first Android phone uh could, or or even the introduction of the

first Windows eight phone. Um, these were our events that sort of, uh make a big splash, and then afterward, you know, you can't you can't just keep on radically redesigning your products and expect to build a level of brand recognition and brand loyalty. I mean, every time you redesign something radically, you're losing people. Now you might be able to gain more people than you lose with that redesign, but it's a it's a risk. Um, it's an interesting problem.

I mean, when you think about it, I respect Shanklin's point, and and he's not the only one who wrote about. Roger Ching also have seen it. Wrote an article called ho hum, the iPhone five isn't going to wow anyone, so it became who hum week over at seen that. Uh, I love you guys over there and seen it anyway, the very nice people who work there and very smart as well. Anyway, he was writing about the general reaction

to the iPhone five. But I would caution people against writing off the smartphone form factor and and feature set as being pretty much all we're going to get from here on out right, Like I mean, with incremental improvements at end stuff that you know, screen resolution, processor speed, battery life, networking capability, that kind of stuff. You know, maybe NFC capability. Apple's Apple has not jumped on that train, and and it may very well be the NFC doesn't

go anywhere. Near field communication or NFC is uh basically like it has a little uh communication device inside the phone or or tablet. Actually the next to seven s NFC and um, yeah, and it can be used for most famously, it's used for financial transactions. So if you're close enough to a reader at the cash register, you pay with your phone by your your credit card. Information is in your phone or I guess it could be a bank. Information is in the phone. You wiggle it

within ten inches of a reader and even closer. I think it's a couple of centimeters. But yes, but I'm I'm yeah, I was sorry, You're right, it is. It is shorter than that, so it's really near field communication. But that that's people were speculating before the iPhone five launched will be to speak the time that Apple does this, and actually they did on on iOS six. They have a a manager for things like tickets and other information for events, you know, plane tickets or or event tickets

and things like that. And it's and it doesn't loyalty cards for certain things. But yeah, it does not have NFC build into it. And and NFC can also be used to send communication between devices for things like you're running an app, your friends running the same app. You want to share some experience across that, whether it's a game or music app or whatever. Tapping the two diss business card information a great example. Um. But yeah, the iPhone five does not include that, but other phones do

include it. And again these are things that partially I would say the NFC is not as big a deal because you don't see widespread adoption in retail establishments yet, so and we may never see it. But in other words, the utility of NFC is limited because it does not have wide adoption. Yeah, and I think the biggest thing I've seen as far as news this week, and again this is less than a week after the announcement, is uh, the brewjaha over Apple's new connector because they abandoned the

thirty pin connector. But the connector they have now, you know one thing that is nice about it. You can plug it in any way you want. Yeah, Like, there's not a there's not a right way and a wrong way to plug it in other than you know, make sure the plug goes into the board. Yeah. Yeah, it can be plugged in either right side up or upside down, because there is no right side up or upside down. But the thing is, um, people are saying that it's

not a it's a proprietary connector. It's not um, you know, a form of USB and it's not like many or micro USB. Right, So people are saying that Apple is arrogant because they're using their own proprietary connector. Of course micro and many USB has to be plugged in a

certain way. And also Apple is nowhere near alone in that. Yeah, well the thing is um this argument and the recent patent arguments, the Samsung Apple stuff where they were talking about whether or not a Samsung device was easily confused with an Apple device because it did or did not have rounded corners or sharp corners or you know, these are that I think these are the kinds of emblematic things that really have to do with this. They're really

the kinds of things that we're talking about. We're talking about whether or not there's innovation going on in the smartphones, because in a way, Apple's new connector is innovative because it can be plugged in UM. You know, you don't have to look at it. You basically look at it and see if it goes in the slaught or not. UM, it's kind of innovative. It also makes a lot of older peripherals obsolete, although there's an adapter for that, but

it still doesn't help with like docs. Yeah, like if you have a an alarm clock dock that's designed for the uh, you can't use the new iPhone with it, right because because by the time you plug the adapter in, it won't fit in the dock anymore. So so this and I'm saying I have one of those or that I h that's the reason why I was late today. Okay, all right, you know you just had to get here on time. It's on that um. But yeah, I mean you're talking about rounded corner versus square corner, or is

does it have a bigger or smaller screen size? Or you know what, what kinds of things would it take at this point to make a smartphone really revolutionary? And go wow, that is unlike anything else. And I don't care what carrier it is or who makes it or what operating system is, I've got to have this. See that that's and that was Shanklin's point was that we have reached this era where there isn't anything like that now.

I would caution people to that line of thinking because every time we think that we've got to handle on how stuff is going to be from here on out, Someone some brilliant, brilliant personnel there comes up with a new way of doing something, and next thing we know, we're all like, wow, I never would have imagined it, and now I can't imagine myself without that, you know. So there there's still the chance that someone is going to innovate in the smartphone space in such a way

that it really is truly innovative. It's not just an iterative iterative approach to improvement. UM. It just I don't know what that is. I'm not I'm not in that that mind space, right, I can't really think like that. So, but I'm not willing to completely write it off. However, I do agree that those opportunities are gonna come fewer and far far further between, um than the iterative approach.

And and it makes sense. I mean. Another point that Shanklin made was like, look at the computer industry and how once the computer form factor was settled. I would argue that was settled in when we got to the point of the graphics user interface in the mouse. That was essentially where we agreed on the basic form factor of the computer. Um, there wasn't a lot of change until you got to like an all in one device where you had the computer and the monitor was all

one piece. That's kind of similar to some of the old old old computers too, but in a much in a much nicer form factor, like the iMac version of of that, where it's beautiful and sleek and everything apart from aesthetics, the basic design hasn't changed that much until you get to things like the new focus on touchscreen interfaces, and that remains to be seen whether or not that actually makes any impact in the computer industry apart from the mobile I mean, and mobile of course it's it's

all the difference, but in desktop computing it remains to be seen if that actually becomes uh an effective feature. Um. But that's that's part of the issue, I think with any kind of technology once you have kind of settled on the form factor once, once the early battles have have died down, and people are like, Okay, when you say the words smartphone, this is the picture I think of, because this is how we've all agreed to define what

a smartphone is. I think by definition, most of your improvements from that point forward are just refining that design as opposed to really really creating something spectacularly different. I mean not that that can't happen, it's just really rare.

And I think that's why the patent battles have been such a big deal anyway, is because people are saying, hey, this is uh, you know, this particular feature is something that we did in the smartphone market, and people like our phones because of it, and we are going to fight to protect it because that's that's what we have. That this thing is our thing that sets us apart from everyone else, and we're gonna defend it until we

can defended any longer. And you know it's um yeah, I mean there are there are a lot of things like that in tech. You have a desktop computer, it changes, you know, it used to be beige, well now it's black. It used to be uh, you know, ten inches wide, now it's six inches wide, or you know so and so tall, and then you start getting into weighs ten pounds. Yeah. I picked up my Amiga three thousand one day a long time ago, and the case on that thing, I'm

pretty sure is well, put it this way. It's metal anyway, and I think it's steel, and it's much much heavier than a lot of other desktops. Um, but yeah, I mean that that was a computer that was the fiscal case on. It was beige. The monitor that we bought to use with it was beige. Black is a more popular color now, but you know, basically it's a yeah or or yeah um aluminium brushed aluminum and uh, you know, I I have a desktop can Peter now that is

my primary computer. I bought it because I wanted a larger screen. There are days when I think, you know what, I'd rather have a laptop just because I could carry it around with me. And then I go use a laptop like, for example, the one the ones we use here for work at how Stuff Works dot Com, and I go, you know what, I hate this tiny screen. I want a bigger screen, and I think it's gonna be You know, there are there are things like the

chips too. You get into the U the Intel chips and you know the Core I seven and like I want that the faster processor. Well, you know, maybe I'm playing games and then I get to a point where I'm doing other stuff and I just don't have time

for games anymore. And you know, I don't really need to upgrade my computer, And I think that that really is It gets down to whether the computer or or or electronics manufacturers can get us to buy their new thing because it's got that feature, that innovative new feature

that no one else has. Um you know, there there there was that time when people really wanted to upgrade to the Xbox three, Stick to You or the PlayStation three because hey, it's supported high deaf screens and oh my gosh, you know, it's got a faster processor, more power. I can. I can look at the games they're putting out for this thing, and they really haven't refreshed those in quite some time, because well, there's not a new TV.

Um you know that that it has to support. There's not a new they're just not that many new improvements to the chips and to the things. And you go, you know, and I don't need to spend six dollars on a new console, or I don't need to spend on a new um Dusktop machine because the one I'm using now, you know, I've taken care of it. I've backed up the hard drive, I've upgraded their memory, I've upgraded the the graphics card or the sound card. You know, I just don't need to have that next big thing.

If this one works, fine, That's that's kind of the argument. I think that supports the reasoning behind companies like Sony and Microsoft when they say, you know, there's no need for us necessarily to come out with a new console, you know, earlier than ten years down the line from introducing the last one, because, uh, the space for innovation

is somewhat limited. I mean, there's there's you can create better graphics, you can have a faster process, or you can have more memory, you know, all the all the physical specs. You could definitely up those from the previous generation. But uh, you know, beyond that, like, what what's the wow factor? Because we've all become so used to uh that just being a natural thing, right, just the oh well, yeah it's got better specs, But what else does it have?

I need something else beyond it being faster and having more memory. Um. You know, that's the same problem that that that Apple and all the other smartphone manufacturers are running up against, is that we've made improvements. This is demonstrably better than the earlier models, at least from a specification point of view, and yet people aren't getting excited about it um mostly for for consoles. I would argue the thing that gets people excited aren't isn't necessarily the hardware,

but the games. So if the games can be more compelling, if people can actually take advantage of whatever that hardware is and create content for it, then people get excited about the consoles. Uh So, in a way, you could argue that perhaps the next generation of smartphones will be able to handle apps in a way that's different from what they do now, and maybe that becomes the big driver.

It's not necessarily the hardware, but the fact that the software design for that hardware can do stuff that the previous generations couldn't, Which brings me to the next piece of hardware. That one of the things that that people have been mentioning is that, well maybe maybe the smartphone like getting excited about smartphones, maybe that era really is over. Maybe now we're like, oh, well that's interesting. Maybe now

Apple events won't stop the entire tech world. I don't think that's gonna happen, but at least not I think it will at least be one more year before that does happen. But I think really it turns it turns into well, what technology will be the next thing that

gets us all to stop and say wow. And right now the I hesitate to use the word consensus, but the tone that I'm hearing out in the world right now is that Project Glass is like the next the next thing people know about that could be a big splash, which is of course Google's project to have the glasses with the augmented reality functionality built in. Yeah. As a matter of fact, Um, you know, I was gonna say that. It sort of goes along with with the tech um

analyst Gartner. Um, you know, they have this this uh forgotten what they call it, but it's basically a table where it shows you know what, what it takes before, you know, when it's still very cutting edge, when people are starting to really get into it. It's sort of a hype index. I think that's actually what they call it. But and then it gets into this period where people go, yeah, whatever, but I'm not ready to go out and buy one yet. And then it gets to the point where it's a

mature product and people buy it as a matter of course. Um, you know, And it takes some time, and every tech thing is on its own, um, its own path to that and some some never actually get to the point of maturity. I would say that the smartphones are are really kind of the point where they're, you know, a mature product, and there's you know, tablets are are sort of behind that, somewhat in the point where not everyone

has one yet. There's so there's still some excitement because they're saying, Okay, well, who's gonna win the ten inch The people with the ten inch screens like the iPads to this point, you know, people expect that there will be a smaller iPad, which which will find out next spring up. I guess it didn't happen at the September event,

which surprised a few people. Didn't surprise me, especially once I saw the pricing for the iPod Touch and the you know, you figure out the pricing for the iPod Touch versus the pricing for the iPad, and you wonder, where would they price a seven inch version of the iPad Because the iPod Touch is that has three models, right, it's got the the was it sixteen gigabyte, thirty two gigabyte, and sixty four gigabyte, and those are the base model

the iPad is for. So you've got the entire price range from one to four nine nine covered from iPod Touch to iPad. If you were to introduce a seven inch iPad, presumably it would be less expensive than the ten inch version, But would it be more or less

expensive than an iPod Touch. And if it were less expensive than an iPod Touch, let's say it's at the two ninety nine range, which would put it a hundred dollars more than Amazon and Google's tablets, then, uh, would that cannibalize sales of that level of iPod Touch with people going for Well, it could get an iPod Touch sixty four gigabyte for three nine, or I can get this new seven inch iPad for to So it just

doesn't make sense from a market perspective to me. From a pricing perspective, like, I don't That doesn't mean that they won't do it. I just find it very confusing. Well, I think there's still there's still that sort of excitement

around tablets too. I mean with Google's next to seven um, with the new series of Amazon tablets that were just released, the Reader tablet, to the Kindle Fire whatever it is, which it is that's the right, the the devices that are the Kindle Fire and uh, and Barnes and Nobles tablet which became which started out as a reader, and then there was a Nook tablet and interesting, um and those are you know, in that seven inch range and there's innovation there and that size range, and then you

know there's still some well what, what's what's going to happen? Are they gonna have a um, a port so that you can plug in a USB stick and all those things. That's sort of in the middle of that. And then I would take Project Glass back to that point where, um, where the iPad was at its release, because at that point netbooks were still very popular and people are saying, well,

can it really stop netbooks in their tracks? Well, people stop buying netbooks or notebook computers in favor of a tablet. You know, Microsoft has done tablets, so you know, maybe not. I think Project Glass was that same kind of thing for Google. Um, well, I'm not sure people are gonna buy a pair of technology enabled glasses to really look at stuff and get ideas of maps and uh, find out where a coffee shop is. But I don't know.

Now other people are starting to consider it. They say, my wife is so thankful I didn't go to the Io event because it meant that I was not eligible ball to put in a pre order for a fIF pair of Developers glasses. Yeah, that price is a bit steep for me, but in in five years it will probably assuming that people buy them, that the price will

drop and it will book home more common. Yeah. When you said that, you know, think about smartphones being a mature technology technically, I mean if we think of it from the iPhone era, so the consumer smartphone, not smartphones and general those have been around for a while, but you're talking about five years. It's been five years since since the iPhone one came out, which is amazing to

think about. Yeah, so it's not mature, it's geriatric. Yeah, because we're in the world tech after two and a half years, you're like, come on, you're starting to show your age, buddy. You think Hollywood is harsh, Silicon Valley, buddy, that's where the harsh comes in. But yeah, so, I

I think I think generally I agree with Shanklin. I generally believe that that the smartphone era is now at a point where I think I think one of the big disappointments people have with Apple right now is that in the early days when the iPhone came out, in the iPhone two and in the iPhone three, uh, it was exciting enough for people to upgrade immediately, and for some people that meant paying big bucks to get the new version of the phone, because they would have entered

into a two year contract and Apple wasn't introducing a new model every year, So people would go from their iPhone to an iPhone too and pay either to get out of a contract, or they'd pay the full retail value of the phone, or or at least more than what it would be if they were signing a new

contract just to get the new device. And I think now people are feeling like there's less there's not enough new stuff in the phone to justify that behavior anymore, which to me just says that the rampant out of control consumerism is no younger being uh pushed and supported from a corporate level, and maybe that's not something we

should be mad about. Yeah, yeah, I kind of I kind of agree with you, I have to say, UM, but that's that's my point of view, and I know I'm sure that all of our listeners UM will not necessarily agree with us. But the thing is, though, I mean Um, it's not necessarily a bad thing to to be at this point. Um, you know, because they can concentrate. Now I'm personally I've had an Android phone now for about a year and a half, um, and it's been upgraded.

The operating system has been upgraded once. I've actually appreciated some of those things, and I think, uh, the improvements, and I think that seeing the new technologies they add, even when they're incremental technologies, I I think I can get excited about those little things and you know, not get so overwhelmed by the whole Wow, look at this thing that they added, you know, looking at both Google and Apple have been upgrading their maps apps. Okay they're

not new, but they're better than they were. Apples got turned by turn Now. Yeah, I mean these these little things though, I mean they're not uh there there are things that improve their devices overall. And there may not be something to h to jump up and down about necessarily, but if they improve our our everyday lives, and when you look forward to the next operating system release, because it brings a bunch of these changes at one time, I don't think that's that bad to be excited about.

Even if it's less excitement than the overall u UM jumping up and down of the original device. And there are very few devices, even when they first come out, that I have to wait in line for because I'm just not that kind of guy. Well, I like I like the fact that I can buy a phone and not feel in a year that I need to get rid of the one I have while I still have

another year on my contract. Yes, And of course, for for everyone who's out side of the United States who doesn't have this whole contract supported phone model, this is a discussion that doesn't really apply to you, because you know, you you might be used to buying a phone at full price and then just using it with whatever service happens to support it. For those of us in the United States, were more, we're more UM used to either

going no contract pre paid. More and more people are doing that or doing a two year contract and as subsidized phone. Yeah. And I don't think anybody who waits in line for, you know, an an overnight release of a brand new product, or somebody who buys something new in a year because they want to. I don't think that's silly necessarily, but different things UM appeal to different people,

and that different strokes for different folks. So yeah, I'm certainly not making fun of anyone in in that case. It's just a situation. Though. I think we're going to see it less in the smartphone world now because they've reached a point where there's a certain expectation of size, there's a certain expectation of function, and you know, there are their improvements in in communications technologies and the software that powers them. But I think, yeah, you might see

trends developed. You know, well every year we've decided that well this year glass is the thing, and well this year brushed aluminum is the thing. Kind of reminds me of when we went to c e S that say, the year that both of us went at the same time, and um, color was one of the big things in UH and television that year, HDT vs no more black

and white. No, like the colors of the sets and the thicknesses of the devices, and I was thinking, well, as the resolution any different, Like no, no, it's ten a DP. Yeah, yeah, but you know, how how is the as functionality went that year, it was also about power conservation, you know, or the big the big thing was plasma versus A is L C D, and it was you know, it's okay, all right, but it's not. Neither of those was the big There was no big

breakthrough in technology. It was it was a fashion thing. And I think I think smartphones are really at that point. So if I can sum up what Chris just said, I think, um, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you

may not be right for some. And so, guys, that wraps up this discussion about the the general on we that has seeped into the tech world as as it goes to a smartphones, we'll I'll just have a dramatic sigh and sip our expensive fancy fruit foud coffee drinks and and and make make comments about the industry in general.

If you guys have any suggestions for topics we should tackle in future episodes of tech Stuff, let us know by sending us an email our address as tech stuff at Discovery dot com, or drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter or handle at both of those is X stuff, hs W and christ I'll taught to you again really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics hot works dot com see guys, I told you we talked to you again really soon. That really

soon is right now. I'm just reminding you that we have our photo upload widget live on the site at www dot how stuff works dot com. Slash upgrade your tech. Toyota is giving us the chance to let you share your creativity. So send us those pictures of your modifications, your tech ideas, those gadgets that you've created, all those hacks, if you're steampunking everything in sight, put on your goggles and show that to us. We can't wait to see them.

Brought to you by the two thousand twelve Toyota Camera