NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-satellites

Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by drzaiusapelord on Friday April 26, 2013 @03:36PM (#5614962)

Interesting how the press just calls these things "smartphones" but if they were iPhones, we'd see endless articles about Steve Jobs' vision, iPhone in the headline, etc.

There's something shameful about how little attention the excellent Android project gets. Those are Nexus One phones, a phone from Jan 2010. I feel Android being open and mallable for NASA is pretty noteworthy, but the press just sells this as a "smartphone" instead of really discussing the technical platform that makes stuff like this possible so quickly and so cheaply.

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Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by tiredofcareer on Friday April 26, 2013 @03:54PM (#5615059)

This is like being upset that someone referred to a Bentley as a car, which you consider a conspiracy based on people liking Ferraris more.

Alternate theory: the media calls it a smartphone because it's, well, a smartphone.

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Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by Retric on Friday April 26, 2013 @07:46PM (#5616151)

The problem is unlike iPhone using Android by it's self in a headline is often ambiguous. Saying Android Smartphone is accurate but while iPhone is shorter than Smartphone it takes far more space to say Android Smartphone thus the useage discrepancy. Which is one of the main issues with choosing that trademark.

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Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by hammock on Friday April 26, 2013 @08:21PM (#5616260)

Reminds me of the old "IBM/Compatible" vs "PC."

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Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by aray on Saturday April 27, 2013 @06:02AM (#5617341)

I think part of it is that for NPR, "smartphone" resonates with a larger audience, while Ars Technica or Slashdot might be more specific with "Android phone" or even "Nexus One".

Also, its a Linux phone as well, standing on the shoulders of all of the years of work poured into making an awesome kernel to build operating systems like Android off of. And the rocket used to launch the satellites. And microsatellite launch programs (like cubesat).

At the end of the day sometimes to get people interested in an article, you just need to find a simple human way to connect to their life--or in this case, their pocket.

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