# No longer think digital watches a pretty neat idea? What's a pretty neat idea now??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2005, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948 "2005-05-01T11:15:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/21 "2005-05-06T18:15:18Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > Video phones that tell you how much time you have to mow the lawn before it rains. But…it rains _all the time_! ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/22 "2005-05-06T18:21:06Z")
I don’t think it is so much that a watch is a gadget, as it is that there was so much fuss over digital watches, while regular dials do the job just as well. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/23 "2005-05-06T18:59:05Z")
Naw. Douglas Adams thought digital watches were pretty neat. He was a huge gadgetphile. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/24 "2005-05-06T19:14:26Z")
> [@Madd Maxx](#): > > Cite? 😃 [dejected crotch](http://www.flickr.com/photos/98157122@N00/12672342/) ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/25 "2005-05-06T20:51:34Z")
I’ll second (or third) downloadable cell-phone ringtones. As far as I can see, their only usefulness is in showing how “hip” their owner is. The only thing that they do that a simple ring doesn’t is to annoy more people. I think the original quote about digital watches had to do with their original implementation. Maybe some of you are too young to remember, but the original digital watches were of the LED, rather than the LCD variety. In order to conserve battery power (which was still short-lived with LEDs), they didn’t show the time until you pushed a button, which would light up the LEDs. Which meant that it took two hands and a couple of seconds to find out what time it was – not exactly an improvement on analog watches. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/26 "2005-05-06T23:32:59Z")
I’ll just say I don’t mind ringtones per se – I find them useful for making sure the damn phone making the racket in public is _mine_ – but I don’t see the point in paying $3 or whatever for a 30-second low-grade reproduced snippet of music. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/27 "2005-05-06T23:47:22Z")
From the first episode of the “Quandary Phase” of the radio series, which just aired the other day: > [@](#): > > Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy, lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly 92 million miles, was once an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet, whose ape-descended life forms were so amazingly primitive that they thought novelty ring tones were a pretty neat idea. The planet had a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. A lot of them were mean, and the majority were miserable, even the ones whose cell phones were set to vibrate. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/28 "2005-05-14T10:30:17Z")
> [@MisterThyristor](#): > > I think the original quote about digital watches had to do with their original implementation. Maybe some of you are too young to remember, but the original digital watches were of the LED, rather than the LCD variety. In order to conserve battery power (which was still short-lived with LEDs), they didn’t show the time until you pushed a button, which would light up the LEDs. Which meant that it took two hands and a couple of seconds to find out what time it was – not exactly an improvement on analog watches. Yes, a lot of people were bamboozled by those early digital watches. Like the game that no one could ever figure out how to play. Or the feature that let you check Tokyo time, and then you couldn’t figure out how to switch it back to your own time zone. Adams may have been referencing the general state of technology in the '70s, where inventors were hitting their stride (a great deal of the tech we use today originates from a '70s invention) but users weren’t anywhere near catching up to them. Nowadays, most people are techno-savvy enough that you don’t have to be the guy who invented it\* to know how to use it. And for the rest, it’s been dumbed down enough that in order to use the basic functions, all you have to do is choose from a scroll-down list and choose the option that’s already lit up for you. \*By “it” I mean various “its” such as the iPod, the internet, cell phones and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/29 "2005-05-14T10:39:58Z")
Musical Sunglasses - at least I think they’re a neat gadget. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/30 "2005-05-14T10:53:06Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#): > > cameraphones ARE a pretty neat idea! > > right? No. They’re really dumb. To answer the question, I think simply “cell phones” would do the trick quite nicely. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/31 "2005-05-14T11:20:06Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#): > > …but…but…but… > > cameraphones ARE a pretty neat idea! > > right? I wasn’t thinking of this when I first posted the topic, but after a second viewing of the film it struck me that camera cell phones would have been a great alteration of the original quote. In fact I wonder if the film makers had the same idea as me 'cause they kinda worked it in- they just didn’t spell it out for us with a quote. Think of how silly Arthur is presented the way he holds onto that camera cell phone with Tricia’s picture (she wasn’t Trillian yet). He had it with him in the pocket of his bathrobe as he lay in front of the bulldozers (silly). He was gushing over it at the pub while Ford was trying to prepare him for the much bigger issue of the imminent destruction of the Earth (silly). He was even fixated on it still when he was on the Vogon ship- a point at which someone less silly might have had other concerns (silly). Finally he loses the camera cell phone at nearly the same point in the story as the book Arthur had lost (the use of) his digital watch. Hmmm? Methinks there’s a good chance that all that business with his camera cell phone was indeed meant (partially\*) to stand in for all the digital watch silliness. \*and, of course, it was a device to help introduce us to Tricia/Trillian earlier in the story. > [@](#): > > ::dejectedly takes picture of crotch and posts it on internet, where no one ever looks at it:: The crotch picture left much to the imagination, though I’m happy that I followed the link 'cause it included all those pictures of that _cute_ baby! Oh my! that’s a helluva cute baby! Who _is_ that baby??? So cute! ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948/32 "2005-05-14T18:08:54Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Hmmm? Methinks there’s a good chance that all that business with his camera cell phone was indeed meant (partially\*) to stand in for all the digital watch silliness. > > \*and, of course, it was a device to help introduce us to Tricia/Trillian earlier in the story. The cash the producers got from Nokia being a mere fringe benefit 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-longer-think-digital-watches-a-pretty-neat-idea-whats-a-pretty-neat-idea-now/301948.md?page=1)