What is the snazziest computer/phone thingy?

[dellzeqq]

Gravesend, en route to Whitstable, 2.30 a.m. A bright object is just north of straight up. Is it a star, or is it a planet?

Two riders lift up their phones, point and click. A diagram of the heavens appears on their screen. Our bright object is, apparently, Jupiter and Mars, pretty much in line.

How cool is that? What else could you want from technology? Surely this is the very best of the best? I'm wildly impressed by the GPS stuff that tells you where you are and where you've been (Andy A has posted his report of the Martlets FNRttC which shows not just the route on a map, but a profile, and also the speed at which he was travelling) but this astronomical thingummy surpasses even that.

Where to now? What more can there be?

 

[Fnaar]

I've got that on my phone (smug). I reckon by the time my kids reach middle age, we'll be using thought-messaging... think into your mobile (or 'podule', as they will be called) and it'll send a message on your behalf. Possibly. Youread it here first. I claim credit and royalties.

 

[beanzontoast]

I believe in another 50 years, mobile phones will post to each other on forums about the latest app they are running on their human.

Or summat.

 

[upsidedown]

I believe that my phone can send text messages. It does not have a camera though.



Oh but it does have a torch.

 

[Amanda P]

They're amazing those iphone thingies, aren't they?

Funny thing is, when did you last see anyone making a phone call on one? I'm not sure I've ever seen that.

 

[CharlieB]

It is Jupiter. I remember talking to someone about it at the time. Quite the brightest thing in the dusk sky at the moment. You should see it through a reasonable telescope! They haven't developed an iPhone app for that (yet).

The easiest way to tell whether a bright object is a star or a planet is stars twinkle (due to their distance) and planets don't!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Funny thing is, when did you last see anyone making a phone call on one? I'm not sure I've ever seen that.

I think I made a call on mine once although I'd have to check to be sure.

 

[dellzeqq]

I think these phones were HTC Android jobbies, rather than I-phones. I am told that I-phones are less whizzy than Androids

 

[661-Pete]

I saw one of those gadgets being demonstrated at a recent meeting of the Astro society I go to: quite impressive I thought, although I don't have one myself. There was a complete newbie at the meeting, came as a guest, didn't 'know his way' around the sky at all, and we suggested he might consider getting one. If he's really keen and takes up the hobby, good idea. Especially when it's partly cloudy and makes it difficult to pick out the constellations.

As for me (*even more smug*): well: I have to say I don't really need it. I know enough of the night sky that, when it's clear, I can pick out the main constellations without having to look anything up, and I generally know roughly whereabouts the visible planets are going to be at any time before even going out at night. But that's a familiarity that comes with years of practice - just as someone fluent in a foreign language can slip into that language without needing to think about it. I don't expect this facility of everyone I meet of course!

For more detailed information on the night sky I use a PC-based planetarium. Stellarium is a very popular one, a freebie, and often the choice of those new to the hobby. I use Cartes du Ciel, also a freebie, a bit more technically-oriented, very comprehensive but perhaps not the best for beginners.

 

[MacB]

I think these phones were HTC Android jobbies, rather than I-phones. I am told that I-phones are less whizzy than Androids

brave man

 

[zacklaws]

I think it will be just Jupiter you saw, Mars at present is in a different position in the sky at the moment. The only other planet in the same area at the moment is Uranus which is not far off alignment, with I think Neptune a bit further to the right but they are not visible with the naked eye. Mars would have rose about 1019 in the morning yesterday and set at 2034 last night, Jupiter would have rose about 1957 last night and set at 0752 this morning, according to my handheld computer, so both of them would not have been visible at the same time, plus Mars is a reddish colour and very distinct. Plus I doubt that you would have seen Jupiter in the North at that time of the morning, the computer says it was in the South at that time, then I think it sets roughly about West'ish as it is rising roughly East'ish as I watch it rise on a night between the flagpole's and over the shop on a night for the past few weeks.


One has to do something at work on a night shift when your out on patrol and nothing much happening, so I look up at the planets and follow them from week to week. Working nights tonight and I'll know for definite where Jupiter was and catch up on its transitions throughout the seasons.

 

[dmoan]

How cool is that? What else could you want from technology? Surely this is the very best of the best?

Do you ever watch some of the earlier (60s/70s) Bond movies and think 'I remember when all these gadgets were like magic - now have handheld technology which is better than that'?

I am (just) old enough to remember when Teletext was just fantastic - controlling what appeared on screen was like having the power of the Gods.

However, I am still waiting for my Dick Tracy watch, jetpac and hover car. Less patiently every year...

 

[661-Pete]

Yup, should have added: Jupiter is the bright planet visible in the east during the evenings at present.

 

[Theseus]

Do you ever watch some of the earlier (60s/70s) Bond movies and think 'I remember when all these gadgets were like magic - now have handheld technology which is better than that'?

I am (just) old enough to remember when Teletext was just fantastic - controlling what appeared on screen was like having the power of the Gods.

However, I am still waiting for my Dick Tracy watch, jetpac and hover car. Less patiently every year...

I remember reading in a book by Robert Heinlein (Space Cadet - pub 1948) about the main character having to ditch things to save weight before going up in space in 2075. One of the things he leaves behind is a personal phone. A case of real life surpassing fiction.

 

[661-Pete]

I wonder when it was that the mobile phone - or something like it - first appeared in TV fiction as the communcation of the future? My belief is, it was well before Star ("beep-beep-beep-Kirk here") Trek, it dates from The Man From UNCLE, early 1960s, IIRC. All good stuff! Of course when I used to watch it, as a kid, I never believed that everyone and their dog would be carrying one of the things around come the 2000's...

There was also a spoof version of M-f-U, Get Smart - anyone remember? The eponymous agent carried his mobile built into his shoe.