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kevyn668
Are there more rules on cell phones out there?

It seems like they never got updated considering what cells can do nowadays. Hell, the average high school kid has a better phone than I do and I at least have a still pic camera on mine.

Thoughts? Page numbers? (no pun intended.)

Kagetenshi
Hopefully the practice of camera phones will have died out like the abomination it is. /prejudice

Basic Matrix access with minimal processing seems likely.

~J
heliocentric
QUOTE
Basic Matrix access with minimal processing seems likely.


That is usually how I handle it. I also fudge some storage space and a few useless features depending on the model.

Thinking about it though I don't see any reason a cell in 2060 couldn't perform any task a 2004 era PC could. Without a keyboard of course...
Ol' Scratch
Modern cellphones are closer to Pocket Secretaries (including a camera -- sorry, Kage). Shadowrun's cellphones are closer to a barebones system.
kevyn668
QUOTE (Doctor Funkenstein)
Modern cellphones are closer to Pocket Secretaries (including a camera -- sorry, Kage). Shadowrun's cellphones are closer to a barebones system.

Makes sense.
Crimsondude 2.0
I wouldn't expect a cellphone in SR (that is, one that isn't specifically an "earpiece" or "wrist" cell) to be as fancy as, say, a Treo 650--or even a Blackberry. Whereas a PocSec would be your run-of-the-mill PDA (even if they based it on the Newton). But it's not something you can rely on them to tell you about. For example, an earpiece cellphone on its face is pretty silly. One without a speaker/mic, but connected to a jawbone earpiece via (encrypted for the shadowy and paranoid, natch) Bluetooth OTOH seems more rational. Especially if it had voice recognition (so to speak) autodialing from one's addressbook.

But then again, this is SR. Reason doesn't usually apply.

Reading SSG, wireless is very popular in SR (although they glossed over the fact that there is no form of wireless transmission of power when mentioning that they did away will all of those nasty cords) and I would have no doubt that were someone so inclined that they could ditch the phone part of said earpiece phone, add a second noise-cancelling Bluetooth earbud and run everything through their PocSec, utilizing it as a calendar, addressbook, hub to connect to their Bluetooth-enabled iPod (which we will see in less than 5 years anyway) and even the laptop in their backpack to read their CrimPro outline which is projected onto their Whitelaw shades (or via their wireless, subdermal datajack to their Image Link if they're from Bellevue. smile.gif) while they make notes on the PocSec as they ride the Monorail to U-Dub from their apartment in Renton.
Eyeless Blond
QUOTE (Crimsondude 2.0)
...or via their wireless, subdermal datajack to their Image Link if they're from Bellevue. smile.gif) ...

I'm not sure how that could ever become popular. A wireless datajack is just asking for someone to invent a way to deck their way right into your brain by remote; I can't honestly ever see that as becoming widespread.
Crimsondude 2.0
Never underestimate the stupidity (and dangerousness) of a popular fad.
Arethusa
QUOTE (Eyeless Blond)
QUOTE (Crimsondude 2.0 @ Dec 5 2004, 01:54 AM)
...or via their wireless, subdermal datajack to their Image Link if they're from Bellevue. smile.gif) ...

I'm not sure how that could ever become popular. A wireless datajack is just asking for someone to invent a way to deck their way right into your brain by remote; I can't honestly ever see that as becoming widespread.

For one, the benefits are substantial, so much so that with proper precautions, it's worth it. Take a look at both GitS movies and SAC for an idea of both the benefits and dangers of this. It's obviously a bit more high stakes than wireless networking, and, in a hell of a lot of ways, doesn't mesh well with SR's cyber-phobic (or soft class based) dynamic, but the idea itself can hold up. SR tends to have a lot of 80s style hardlines, however, so I can't say I can easily envision tons of wireless, unless the latest '64 books have changed that significantly.
Crimsondude 2.0
SSG described most middle class and higher homes as being (almost) entirely wireless, usually centralized through a single hub. Of course, like RL, most people are too stupid or lazy to activate encryption on their wireless devices in 2063, too.

But, to be honest, that wasn't just some random idea I thought up off the top of my head. It's something I've been trying to figure out how to do now IRL (minus the datajack... for now). There's no logical reason why the 80+ year old Crimsondude of 2064 shouldn't be capable of doing at least this.

But from a SR tech standpoint, you'd just need to port the datajack to a headware radio (although not SR's, since the communications cyber sucks).
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