A cellphone is a phone!--exactly like the old black Bakelite thing on the wall back in the day!
Really? Really? You make me LOL.
Oh,sure,you can take pictures with a smartphone,use it as a half-arsed computer,& lots of other great stuff,but in the context I was referring to,it is a phone!
Why,with all those capabilities do people spend most of their time texting?
Kids sit about a metre apart & text each other---great DX!! ROFLMAO!
Actually.one thing about smartphones which is good,is that they have proper (if pretend) QWERTY keyboards,instead of the old "Ma Bell" keys,making it a lot easier to text.
Apart from that,they are oversized clunky things compared to the previous generation of cellphones.
Skype is basically a way to get cheap phone calls using the Internet---interesting & fun?
Yea - considering it has video too. Yea it's interesting and fun. Again I LOL'ed at your post.
Videophones are great,whether Skype or dedicated systems,but I have noticed over the years that people
enjoy the novelty for a while,then go back to ordinary phone calls.
It's nice to see Auntie's face when you talk to her,but is it worth the clunky interface,& Auntie's lack of skills as an on-air personality?
Many ex hams make the mistake of going with a 2m or dual band HT when they return to the fold.
The heyday of 2m & 70cm repeaters is gone,so it can be pretty boring.
There are a lot of other aspects,such as HF,digital,satellite coms,aircraft enhancement,& many others.
In front of me,as I write,is the July issue of "Amateur Radio " magazine which reports,& I quote, in part :
On May 23rd,Andreas DJ5AR & Jan PA3FXB succeeded in making contact on 23cm via reflection from the ISS.
Both stations used three metre dishes tracking the ISS with Andreas running 100 w,& Jan with 375w.No repeaters or translators,just reflection!-----Try that with your smartphone!