Coffee Talk #365: The Angle of the Dangle

I’m reexamining my position on viewing angles and I’d love to have your input. I was talking to a few friends that review phones and they were dinging the HTC Sensation for its viewing angles. I just don’t…

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I’m reexamining my position on viewing angles and I’d love to have your input. I was talking to a few friends that review phones and they were dinging the HTC Sensation for its viewing angles. I just don’t understand why they’re a big deal on phones. Mobile phones are generally used by one person looking at the device head-on. Certainly I can’t think of a case where my mobile phone experience was lessened by poor viewing angles.

My friends said that I was being contradictory for criticizing the Nintendo 3DS for its viewing angles. If you haven’t tried one, the 3D aspect of the handheld system is very sensitive to viewing angles. The 3D effect breaks if you view it from slightly off-center angles. In this case, one of the 3DS’ primary functions — 3D gaming — can be ruined due to the device’s viewing angles. I don’t think it’s the same deal as on a phone.

My reviewer friends weren’t able to change my mind, but perhaps you will. Please let me know how you feel about viewing angles on phones, portable consoles, televisions, etc.

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

58 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #365: The Angle of the Dangle”

  2. I think it is important on TVs but only to a certain degree. I honestly don't think you need a 178 degree viewing angle. Have you ever tried to watch TV like that? It may be visible but you can't make out anything.

    Many times on my Captivate I had worse viewing angles for privacy reasons. But for the most part smaller portable devices are always pointed at your face, if they aren't you are doing it wrong.

    Laptops are the only thing that I ever notice there being poor viewing angles on. Sitting on the couch with someone trying to show you a video and one person needs it tilted up and the other needs it tilted down (happened last week).

    1. Your thoughts are very similar to mine. On a side note, you've inspired me to try to watch my television at a 164-degree angle today. Let's see how long I can tolerate it.

      1. That might not be all that bad, but it will probably get old.

        Make sure to watch something you have never seen before, then 164-degrees is 7 feet to one side and 2 feet in front of your TV.

  3. I suppose on a phone a good viewing angle could be important if you are trying to show your friends a youtube or personally captured video, but other than that I would say it's only for the individual.

    The 3DS is a completely different scenario than a phone. Although they are both created for the intended use of one person, the 3D aspect is very tricky sometimes to see and needs to be viewed in a very specific way.

    When tv's are concerned it is advantageous to have a good viewing angle just in case. When I had a bunch of friends over for the superbowl earlier this year we were all over the room and having a good viewing angle was important. It simply wasn't possible for everyone to sit directly in front of the tv to optimize their viewing capability. When it's just me and my fiance watching a movie though it's very unlikely for us to want to sit somewhere other than in front of the tv directly, and if we choose to watch a movie from a 164 degree angle, then that's our choice and our fault when we complain about not being able to see everything or having neck cramps.

      1. That works too, it depends on the size of the group of friends you are showing the video to and how long the clip is.

  4. This makes perfect cents (haha) for TVs and larger screens…..like TVs. What is stopping one from from plugging in the phone into the TV via HDMI so everyone can see, or even passing the phone along?

    I think it is a little silly to be concerned with viewing angles on a cell phone.

    2. Me too. I'm happily millions got to hear him play on the new Lady Gaga album. My favorite songs on that album feature Clarence Clemons and Brian May.

      3. Do yourself a favor… and just get a bunch of early (as in BEFORE Born In The USA) Springsteen records.

        I'll happily give them to you if you want.

  7. Verizon LTE plans capped at 2gb for $30. You have got to be f'n kidding. New tech with lower tolerances than the old. US market sucks.

    1. i swear to god i dont understand why everyone isnt on sprint….i realize that in some areas, the service sucks, but if you are in an area where sprint performs well, and are with another carrier…please explain

      this question isnt for n8r, as i know he is fond of his iphonez

      1. The wife is fond of her iPhone.

        Also, Verizon has the most reliable service where I live.

      2. One of my brothers has Sprint, the other has Verizon and I have T Mobile. I love my phone (G2X) and plan (5gb b4 the throttle). My middle bro has the Evo 4g and has great coverage and my youngest bro has an old Verizon Envy2 or something close to it that works fine just as well. However Verizon has the worst coverage underground here.

    2. New story with full details on Verizon data charges is up!

      @thundercracker I'm not on Sprint because I have a better plan with T-Mobile and WiMax performance is horrible indoors.

      1. im just saying, i could NEVER be on a tiered plan. I need truly unlimited, and i actually just got my bill lowered to 57 bucks….winning

  8. @N8

    Those words won't matter when you buy a device with a different radio inside.

    1. 2 more words:

      So what?

      Ray laughed at me when he saw how much data I really use. The most I ever used was 20 MB in one month. I am not a power user, and don't see that changing anytime soon. So, a tiered plan doesn't really mean much to me.

      What matters to me is being able to make calls and get email whenever I need it wherever I am. So far, that's not an issue and is bound to only get better since the merger with T-Mobile.

      The other apps I use the most are Cartel Wars, my tuner, Shazam, Rowmote, Remote Pad, and maybe Tetris. I'm happy with 3G speed for all of that and 2 of those only work on my home wifi network (to operate with my computer).

      However… I realize that I'm a weird guy and this doesn't work for everyone.

      1. See this is when I really wish I could know how much data I would actually use on a smartphone. I would mostly want to check emails, play already downloaded games (wordfeud, words with friends), and maybe use google maps for directions as a gps. Almost all downloads would be made over wi-fi while at home, and every person's house I go to has wi-fi that I jump on with my ipod touch anyways so I don't see that as being a big deal. Mostly what I don't like is being told I am limited in something. On the other hand my fiance refuses to figure out how to make her blackberry switch to wi-fi when it's available (like at home) so she uses probably uses a lot more data than I would, but she also doesn't have as many options on her smartphone as I would have on one that I got.

      2. The only way to know for sure is to take the leap in one way or another.

        The reason I took a leap in the first place and got an iPhone was because when I got my Mac, it became apparent very quickly how seamlessly it integrated with my system. At the time, it was brilliantly new and blew the Blackberry away.

        I was sold right here. My old plan on T-Mo expired and I just went down to a AT&T store, saw I could afford it, and just got it.

        I had no idea about accelerometers and stuff back then when I got it. When the iPhone and iPhone 3G was out, it was pretty difficult (and still kind of is) to explain to someone what all it's capable of. So I had no clue what-so-ever that it was also capable of all the other things it was. When I found out I could get a fully chromatic guitar tuner, a metronome, a decibel meter, and an app I could just hold up to a speaker and it would tell me what song it was all on 1 device that I was going to carry in my pocket everyday anyway… I was floored.

        This is all old news now.

        With what you described… it's not that much data. I do all that stuff too, but who knows if I do it more or less than you would.

        Either way… take a leap. You'll be glad you did and you will then be up to date. In our modern society, your phone is a status symbol. Kind of like the shoes you wear. If you walk into a club with nice clothes but ugly cheap shoes and an old school cellphone, it's now a social status display that says "you aint who you pretend to be". On the flip side, you can go in wearing sweats and a t-shirt but have nice shoes and a current phone, and be treated with better respect.

        You can tell alot about a person by their shoes (women know this in spades)… but you can also tell alot by their cellphone.

      3. Yeah that is true, a cell phone has become a statement about a person. I've seen people using a cell phone in that way since I was in high school, which was around the first time a lot of high school and younger kids were getting a cell phone.

        I don't feel like it would be that much data, but you never know how much it really takes to do some of those things. I will be getting a smartphone sometime, but who knows when. I'll feel more comfortable about getting one later if I think I won't be using that much data usage and getting most of my downloads through wi-fi.

      4. Back in '97 (the year I graduated), it was all about pagers. The most pimpin' pagers were the ones that also got text messages. But… a few kids had cellphones, and they were BALLERS. Usually drug dealers or spoiled rich kids… but in the high school social scene, that was enough.

        I know that every time I see someone pull out their phone, I'm checking out what they got. And then without wanting to, I make a snap judgement about the person based on their phone. And I know for a fact I'm not the only person who does this (looking at Smartguy).

        It's unfair and even prejudicial to a degree… but for some reason I do it anyway.

      5. @ Ray

        May we please have a Coffee Talk one day about our first cellphones?

        That could be very comical.

  11. I just watched Scott Pilgrim last night and loved it. I was looking for a place to *ahem* download the graphic novels right now since I don't have the $45 to buy them all right now, but the movie was so good I totally want moar!! I might even have to play the XBLA game now too. I was talking to Tokz last night about it and agreed with him that it should have been two movies because it felt so rushed. Rushing the movie was actually a cool style which I would've liked more if the entire movie didn't feel rushed. The actions and graphics in the movie were so great. I loved how the words emanating from everyone's actions were constant throughout, and the scores received for everything reminded me of how Code Monkeys did stuff (a show which I absolutely loved and wish there was more of). Definitely looking forward to watching this movie again and reading everything.

    1. I hate hipsters too, but I didn't see the characters in Scott Pilgrim as hipsters. A couple of the x's definitely were, but they were getting their asses kicked.

      2. I guess it could have been, but I didn't take it as much as a hipster band so much as a group of people who obviously loved music and video games.

      3. If you go wikipedia and look up "hipster", it says at one point "recently settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with interests in indie rock".

        If you then look up "indie rock", it says "Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock" etc.

        Lo-fi is a production style, but if you then look up either "post-rock" or "math rock", both of them will make an early reference to a band called Don Caballero.

        If you then look up Don Caballero, you will see that the first member listed in the band (and the only permanent member as he holds the trademark), you will see his name is Damon Che.

        If you then look up Damon Che, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Che), you will see his full name is Damon Che Fitzgerald… this man is my flesh and blood brother.

        Long and short… I've been around hipsters my entire life as I too as a musician tried to leverage this scene. Trust me… that was a hipster band.

      4. Ooooooh… Can I try one of those? I love those kinds of games, N8! Ok, here goes: (You're going to f'n love this one)

        – Damon Che Fitzgerald formed the Speaking Canaries in 1991 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Che)

        – The Speaking Canaries are an indie rock group that are known for their love of 70's and 80's hard rock purveyed by bands such as KISS and Rush. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_Canaries

        – Rush singer-bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson surprised the crowd at a Foo Fighters concert held at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto back in March of 2008.

        – The Foo Fighters played before Pantera at Ozzfest in Milton Keynes, England on June 20th, 1998.

        – Pantera had a fantasy comic written about them by Mike Carey. Carey also did a biographical comic on Ozzy Osbourne.
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Carey_(writer)

        – Mike Carey wrote an Iceman story in X-Men: Manifest Destiny released back in September of 2008.

        Long and short… Damon Che Fitzgerald must like Iceman by association!

        -M

      6. No, man, I meant no disrespect, I just really like word/phrase association games (like six degrees of Kevin Bacon). Your tracing back the history of indie rock simply reminded me of that game. Believe it or not, I have mad love for rock. I've been kind of down for the past few months because the ONLY rock station in South Florida bit the dust.

        Since then, I've had no where to turn to for good/new rock music. The South Florida scene sucks for rock. I've been listening to some of the stuff you have and I have to say that it is pretty awesome.

        Like I mentioned before, I have always wanted to learn to play the drums (especially when I was younger), but I never got the chance. I would happily pay you or your bro for drum lessons and finally fulfill one of my earliest childhood dreams. The other was being Superman, but I don’t think you could help me out with that one.

        -M

        P.S.- I've been finding out about indie rock for the past couple of days. I didn't even know that the genre existed. I've been way too exposed to mainstream rock.

      8. Yes, old farts like me still use that phrase. Still, it's hard to tell when someone is being sarcastic or serious via typed messages. It's much easier to read body language… which is another reason why I prefer in-person communication instead of social websites.

        -M

  13. @N8

    So what? The low tiers are fine for your use today but are inadequate for my use today. In a few years your usage will be on par with mine. Especially once onboard storage starts getting eliminated due to cloud services. I use a minimum of 2gig per month w/o Netflix or YouTube.

    @BSU

    The main character Scott really annoyed me very early on. Him reading the emails really turned me off.

    1. I bet you're wrong.

      I don't really use my phone for music. I definitely don't buy it from my phone, and I don't use it to play music in my car. The folks at the local rock station are all friends of mine and I prefer to support them while educating my kids with music that's current and popular to them.

      Rarely do I pull up YouTube off of wifi in public. In fact, I don't really like watching videos on my phone. Even a 5 inch screen seems too small to waste my time with.

      As for the cloud system… I don't trust it yet. I'm gonna need to dig around and hear experiences for a few years before I do.

      I see and understand your complaint… I just don't share it in my personal use. I also don't eat seafood and I think it's insane that healthcare is to the point where a 59 year old man in NC gets laid off his job after 17 years and reaches a point where he knows that robbing a bank for $1 will land him in prison long enough to receive free medical care (a service we provide our criminals and not our citizens) is actually the best option he has for being treated.

      http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/…

      We have our differences, and data use is one of them. On my home computer… I wouldn't stand for a tiered plan. But on my phone… I'll be okay.

  14. @N8
    In the next 5 years your phone and comp use will merge. You also won't have a choice between cloud or no cloud. It's a way of controlling the device which OEMs and carriers want.

    1. So… at my house, I have Verizon High Speed internet. My phone is carried by AT&T.

      You're saying that Verizon is going to force me to use Verizon LTE network on my phone and make everyone else do the same at their houses to merge the data usage? That would be the only way my cell and comp use would merge… and the folks who invested in Fios are screwed.

      Sorry… you lost me.

  15. @N8
    No the applications you use will merge therefore creating a cloud situation. I hate it.

    Also that wireless signal is probably backboned by Verizon.

    1. I think the cloud system will be very popular… but not mandatory. I don't see on-board storage of mobile devices being a thing of the past within my lifetime. If anything, I see it becoming bigger and more accessible so people won't have to carry flash drives of things they plain just don't want on the cloud.

      As for the apps I use… not many of them go online at all. And the ones that do… use minimal data. I also really don't download much off of wifi. Even if it got serious, I could still download the Apps from my Mac's iTunes (a feature Apple would be idiots to dissolve) and shift them to the phone leaving the wireless signal out of the loop.

      Lots of ways around that.

      I see the reasoning for the cap when it comes to those LTE internet dongle things. I could see them wanting to make sure those are capped and the smartphones just got tied up in the fray because… there's money to be made.

      1. @N8

        I hope I'm wrong. We'll see though. Excluding memory from the build will make it cheaper and allow for more battery space.

        The reason I say the cloud will be ubiquitous is that it allows them to control the environment much more and let's them collect data on you for all aspects. This data in turn is sold in addition to your overpriced phone bill that uses the EMS that we the people simply lease to the carriers. Blah.

        Lots of things happen that we just can't imagine going without though. I'm willing to bet that this will perhaps be the last refresh of non MBPs that has an optical drive on board. Hard to imagine not having that in some respects. Perhaps smaller HDDs as well in lieu of NAND memory for instant on. I love the iPad but it has really put a schism in the portable device market.

  16. @ Iceman

    Full disclosure: I wore a Superman costume under my clothes almost everyday to pre-school and Kindergarten… I feel your pain.

    There are really only a few indie rock bands I listen to regularly. Don Cab of course, but I also really like Shellac and the Jesus Lizard. Those Canaries records my brother put out are really hard to get (even for me). One of them is kind of easier than the rest, but you won't find it just anywhere.

    I figured what you were getting at… But I gotta keep you on your toes.

    1. I'll take that challenge. After all, I what kind of a treasure hunter would I be if I couldn't find a few rare CDs?

      Speaking of treasure hunting; I know of an island in the Caribbean that is rumored to have lots of old silver and gold coins from the 1920's to the 1950's buried all over the island. If we ever have a coffee talk episode about real treasure hunting, I'll explain everything. It's really interesting.

      Thanks for the practice, but a seven-months pregnant wife with hormonal mood swings and an overly-emotional mother-in-law is MORE than enough to keep me on my toes.

      -M

      1. What makes an indie band indie? There are a few crews down here that I love to listen to that I would consider not mainstream.

        Rebirth Brass Band

        Dash Rip Rock

        Ghost Town

        Supagroup

        Maybe Rockin Doopsie.

      2. It depends on the context.

        See… I would put a difference between indie bands and hipster indie bands. A straight indie band is any band that's not on a label affiliated or subsidized by one of the major labels. It just so happens that all the hipster indie bands fall under that category… as do all the bands you mentioned. However… I wouldn't call the bands you mentioned (that I've heard) hipster bands.

        The hipster bands have a more avant garde or warholian approach to the art. It's rare that you will find 2 that sound alike without having any of the same members. The 2 largest that I can think of off the top of my head are Sonic Youth and Fugazi. I love some old Fugazi and I have all the Sonic Youth records… but both of them are in a league of their own.

        I'd also call Dinosaur Jr. a hipster band.

        The biggest movement came out of Chicago. Steve Albini (who produced Nirvana's In Utero among other records) has been in 3 bands. All of them are similar and the most current is called Shellac. These guys are awesome. His first band was called Big Black (hear that BB) and they were awesome too. They built their own guitars and amps from scratch and used drum machines live. This gave them a very distinct sound that hadn't been used before. Kind of like how Tony Iommi literally slashed his amp's speakers to get that distorted sound when distortion pedals were virtually non existent. Hendrix had one made for him… but nobody caught on to that for years.

        It's all really creative stuff… but not all of it is for me.

      3. Muah-hahahaha.

        I can get them… but 2 of them were only released on vinyl (the whole lo-fi movement thing). So… you need to find conversions.

        Like I said… it's hard for me, and the dude is my brother.

  17. @ Ice

    I agree but N8 is a really funny dude and I'm not an old fart so its easier for me to grasp.

    Oh yea that second part of the sentence was total BS.

    1. Dude… when people ask me "How are you today?", one of my responses is "fair to midland".

      Many times, people in their forties will stop and say "Damn, my grandfather used to say that".

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