Weekly Phone Digest
The Future of Phone Design: Flexible Screens That Roll Up
FOR MORE THAN a decade, smartphone designers have stuck closely to
the humble rectangular slab. Yet of late, manufacturers are
experimenting with wilder forms. We've seen devices with multiple
displays, phones of different shapes, and handsets of varying sizes.
Last year, Samsung and Motorola made clamshell-shaped flip phones that
opened up to look like normal smartphones. Even Microsoft waded into the
weird end of the pool with the Duo, a book-like phone with dual displays
connected by a vertical hinge in the center. And now there's a new trend
in phone design: handsets with flexible screens that unroll to become
larger. The week at CES 2021, TCL and LG both unveiled concepts for new
phones with rolling screens.
What exactly is a "rollable"?
The form can vary, but imagine having the ability to expand a phone's
display by pulling on it vertically or horizontally to increase its
surface area. Think of it like removing plastic wrap from its container.
That's what TCL and LG showed off. It's not hard to recognize the
benefits. Unlike folding phones, which are thick in their closed state
since the rigid screens stack on top of each other, a rollable phone can
start out slim. An ultra-compact phone with a rollable screen can grow
into the size of a traditional smartphone and then shrink back down with
a gentle two-handed tug or push.
Roll Call
These innovations have been in development for years, but they arrive at a time when smartphone sales are in decline. A part of the reason may be the lack of meaningful hardware upgrades year over year, not to mention that people are holding onto their phones for longer. To combat this stagnation phone-makers are hunting for ways to get you excited about buying a new phone, and playing around with display technology seems to be a solution. LG said as much when it debuted the Explorer Project late last year, an initiative meant to "discover yet unexplored usability concepts in an effort to expand the mobile industry." "We are 100 percent convinced that all these display technologies—foldable, flexible, bendable, rollable—will be quite disruptive," says Stefan Streit, general manager for global marketing at TCL. "If you look back to the last 10 or 12 years, we are all using the same phone; the form factor hasn't changed. Consumers want to have a large as possible display with a small as possible form factor, but there are limitations if you have a fixed display." The biggest barrier to widespread adoption of phones with these new designs is their high prices.
SourceYour Old Cell Phone Can Help Save the Rain Forest
TOPHER WHITE SPENDS a lot of time walking in—and thinking
about—the forest, and how quickly we’re losing it. So much so that he’s
gotten a black eye from being smacked by flying tree branches. But
that’s just a small example of what the engineer is willing to endure to
stop global deforestation. Founder of the San Francisco-based nonprofit
Rainforest Connection, White has developed a simple but ingenious
strategy: using old cell phones to listen for the sound of destruction.
Forests are disappearing worldwide, and fast: Swaths half the size of
England are lost each year. The Amazon has lost close to one-fifth of
its rain forest cover in the last four decades. Forest loss not only
harms wildlife, including many species that live nowhere else, it’s a
big contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that stoke climate
change, accounting for about 17 percent of the world’s annual total. “I
didn’t know any of this stuff when I started,” says White, who began his
journey in 2011, when he traveled to Indonesian Borneo to help dwindling
gibbons. “I just kind of thought it was about protecting the small areas
and animals,” he recently told National Geographic. “But no,
[deforestation is] actually one of the biggest contributors to climate
change.” Between 50 and 90 percent of the logging that happens in the
world’s rain forests is illegal, according to White, yet detecting
chainsaws and other sounds related to that activity can be tough,
because the air is already filled with the cacophony of nature. So he
has developed a system in which he rigs a cell phone to stay charged by
solar cells, attaches an extra microphone, and listens. From there, the
device can detect the sounds of chainsaws nearly a mile away. And
believe it or not, cell phone reception often isn’t bad in the rain
forest. When you’re up in the canopy, “you can actually pick up a signal
from pretty far away,” says White, who is also a 2015 National
Geographic Emerging Explorer.
Early Success
Because it’s not feasible to have people listening to the devices all the time, he added some “old-school data analysis,” so that the cell phone’s computers can distinguish a chainsaw’s sound from others in the forest. (See “Illegal Logging Has Become More Violent Than Ever.”) This way, his device can automatically detect logging activity and send a text alert to authorities who can determine if it’s illegal and then stop it. On the second day of testing out the idea in Sumatra, Indonesia, White and forest rangers picked up chainsaw noise in the forest. They went to the spot, caught illegal loggers in the act, and talked them out of continuing. White notes that he’s not alone in the fight: Many people and organizations are working tirelessly to stop forests from vanishing. For instance, indigenous groups are particularly active in forest conservation efforts, White says.
SourceProviding Cellphones for the Poor
John Cobb, 59, a former commercial fisherman who is disabled
with cirrhosis of the liver and emphysema, lives in a studio apartment
in Greensboro, N.C., on a fixed monthly income of $674. He has been
hoping to receive more government assistance, and in February, he did.
It came in the form of a free cellphone and free service. Mr. Cobb
became one of a small but rapidly growing number of low-income
Americans benefiting from a new wrinkle to a decades-old federal law
that provided them with subsidized landline telephone service. In a
twist, wireless carriers are receiving subsidies to provide people
like Mr. Cobb with a phone and typically 68 minutes of talk time each
month. It is a form of wireless welfare that puts a societal stamp on
the central role played by the mobile device. Mr. Cobb’s cellphone is
a Motorola 175. “I feel so much safer when I drive. If I get sick, I
can call someone. If I break down, I can call someone,” Mr. Cobb said.
“It’s a necessity.” The users are not the only ones receiving
government assistance. Telecommunications industry analysts said the
program, while in its infancy, could benefit mobile phone carriers,
who face a steep challenge of their own: most Americans already own a
cellphone, so the poor represent a last untapped market. The low
hanging fruit is gone, and the wireless companies are going after the
nooks and crannies,” said Roger Entner, a wireless industry analyst
with Nielsen.
Carriers can receive up to $10 a month in government subsidies, sufficient to cover what amounts to about $3 in service, Mr. Entner said. Since November, the number of customers receiving free or subsidized wireless service has doubled to 1.4 million, he said. To be eligible for the program, known as Lifeline, a person must meet federal low-income guidelines or qualify for one of a handful of social service programs, including food stamps or Medicaid. The opportunity has prompted interest from the nation’s biggest carriers, including Sprint Nextel and AT&T. But at the forefront is a much smaller company, Tracfone, a Florida provider of prepaid mobile service that has become the face of the fledgling subsidized cellphone. Tracfone began providing its service, called SafeLink, in Tennessee in August and now does so in 16 states, including New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, according to its Web site. Each time it enters a market which generally requires state approval it runs television ads telling people how easy it is to get a free Motorola phone, like Mr. Cobb’s. The company says the economy makes the audience particularly receptive. “We’ll read that more people are signing up for food stamps and look at our numbers and see volume rising,” said Jose Fuentes, director of government relations for Tracfone. “It’s not scientific proof,” he added. “But we know times are tough.” He declined to say how many subscribers have signed up. But he said Tracfone, whose paid service has 10 million subscribers, sees the Lifeline service as an opportunity to make some money but, more pointedly, to eventually convert the subsidized customers into paying ones if their fortunes turn around and they no longer qualify for a free phone. “It could make for a good business,” Mr. Fuentes said. According to Nielsen, 90 percent of Americans have at least one cellphone. That leaves 32 million, including the infirm, still up for grabs. “And the race is on to get them,” Mr. Entner said.