alt Hacker NewsYou're not even wrong. In your words, a "general computation device" is the device that enables you to "live your life"? How does "being their only device" make it even "general computational"?
I have no idea what your definition of "general computational device" is, but it's very clearly different from mine.
In my worldview, "general computational device" is the piece of hardware specifically designed to run any program you want. Personal computers, desktop computers, servers, and mini-computers are examples of these.
Smartphones - with the exception of a few very niche devices – have never been any of this. They didn't start as "mini-PC", they grew out of telephony – a heavily regulated industry with strict standards around the usage of frequencies, and where compliance and billing matter more than ability to tinker. The ability to "run apps" was never even on the table in pre-iPhone era. iPhone, ofc, changed it by pioneering the app market, and it was locked in from the very beginning - for security and user experience reasons. We can argue whether that was a good decision or not, but that's the short history of smartphones never being a "general purpose computational device". Modern phones are heavily optimized, specialized devices for the "daily life" tasks - camera, navigation, calls, messaging, web browsing – that also have very limited and sandboxed capability to run apps in a way that the manufacturers allowed.
So no, phones are not "general computational devices" and have never been. I'm sorry that your worldview doesn't allow listening to other people's opinions. Debating is indeed very hard without it.
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> The ability to "run apps" was never even on the table in pre-iPhone era. iPhone, ofc, changed it by pioneering the app market
It was on the table, between the SymbianOS apps for Nokia or the various Java apps for other smartphones.
Meanwhile the first iPhone didn't even have 3rd party app support (or 3G capability) on release, it took around a year.
I'm not even sure I can give you the app market claim, though I presume you meant on the phone itself, rather than having to connect it to a PC ?
(Also whatever BlackBerry was doing ?)
Why are you arguing semantics on something which you're obviously just wrong on? Even if you're right, a semantics argument is weak - we can play around and define words all day.
The smartphone has replaced the home computer for most people. Period.
Them being locked down is a profiteering and rent seeking strategy - not a user experience one. It SHOULD be open, and we're feeling the effects when that's not the case.
> I'm sorry that your worldview doesn't allow listening to other people's opinions.
My worldview is just fine - I get frustrated when people know they're wrong and decide to play stupid instead of rethinking their reasoning.
A smartphone is not a washing machine, it's a personal computer. If you want to debate that that's fine - I don't really care if you're wrong, just know that pretty much nobody will agree with you.