Everywhere I go, a vast majority of people seem to now have two things in associating with their phone -- a protective case, and a spare USB charging battery. The battery is there because most phones stopped having switchable batteries some time ago. The cases are there partly for decoration, but mostly because anybody who has dropped a phone and cracked the screen (or worse, the digitizer) doesn't want to do it again -- and a lot of people have done it.

While there is still a market for the thinnest and lightest phone, and phone makers think that's what everybody wants, but I am not sure that is true any longer.

When they make a phone, they do try to make the battery last all day -- and it often does. From time to time, however, a runaway application or other problem will drain your battery. You pick your phone out of your pocket in horror to find it warm, and it will die soon. And today, when your phone is dead, you feel lost and confused, like Manfred Mancx without his glasses. Even if it only happens 3 times a month it's so bad that people now try to carry a backup battery in their bag.

One reason people like the large "phablet" phones is they come with bigger batteries, but I think even those who don't want a phone too large for their hand still want a bigger battery. The conventional wisdom for a long time was that everybody wants thinner -- I am not sure that's true. Of course, a two battery system with one swappable still has its merits, or the standardized battery sticks I talked about.

The case is another matter. Here we buy a phone that is as thin as they can make it, and then we deliberately make it thicker to protect it.

I propose that phone design include 4 "shock corners" which are actually slightly thicker than the phone, and stick out just a few mm in all the directions. They will become the point of impact for all falls, and just a little shock buffer can make a big difference. What I propose further, though, even though it uses precious space in the device, is that they attach to indents at the corners of the phone, probably with a tiny jeweler's screw or other small connection. This would allow the massive case industry to design all sorts of alternate bumpers and cases for phones that could attach firmly to the phone. Today, cases have to wrap all the way around the phone in order to hold it, which limits their design in many ways.

You could attach many things to your phone if it had a screw hole, not just bumper cases. Mounts that can easily slot into cars holders or other holders. Magnetic mounts and inductive charging plates. Accessory mounts of all sorts. And yes, even extra batteries.

While it would be nice to standardize, the truth is the case industry has reveled in supporting 1,000 different models of phone, and so could the attachment industry.

The Oscars

While not worthy of a blog post of its own, I was amused to note on Sunday that Oscars were won by films whose subjects were Hawking, Turing, Edward Snowden and robot-building nerds. Years ago it would have been remarkable if people had even heard of all these, and today, nobody noticed. Nerd culture really has won.