Area 51 » Technology

The Gadgets site didn't have enough activity during the beta, and has been closed. Tagged questions have been migrated to the Apple and Android sites. You can download the data dump of all questions here. See the blog for more information.

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Personally I would love to see this site replace: forceclose.com, phonehow.com, slidetoask.com and askaboutgadgets.com. If they have any developer questions they can go to Stack Overflow, but let the rest ALL come here. – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:23

Anything you might see on engadget.com, gizmodo.com fits here ... including a lot of smartphone stuff. I think it's fine to have a relatively broad gadget site that includes everything from smartphones to ipods to universal remotes... we'll have tags to keep it orderly. – Joel Spolsky May 27 '10 at 23:42

I think we should disallow questions about cameras. (A loose definition): A camera is a gadget/device that you carry around whose primary function is to take photographs. One reason is that I think cameras and photography is a big enough to warrant a site of its own. The other reason is that I'm afraid this site will be swamped by camera enthusiasts (I know several) asking abut lenses, shutters, nicon, pentax, ISO numbers, filmtypes , and on and on and on.... The do love to bicker, compare hardware and thoroughly bore the rest. Not like us compyer geeks at all - * ;-) * – Nifle May 29 '10 at 18:57

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123 Example Questions (12 closed)

active newest votes

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added by Kyle Cronin May 27 '10 at 21:37

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added by Ivo Flipse, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jun 2 '10 at 23:05

closed as off topic by IAbstract, Tall Jeff, Brant, Nifle, David Barry Jun 8 '10 at 23:01

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Rather subjective/speculative, plus unless someone breaks their NDA or it's publicly announced, we can only guess – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:44

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:18

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:19

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:20

closed as off topic by Casebash, David Barry, Marc Gravell, BenA, Gordon Gustafson Jun 16 '10 at 3:05

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

This is one of the most 'popular' questions on forceclose.com, kept as a community wiki – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:45

A. It's subjective. B. How is it useful? If you need it, contact the manufacturer/app producer/whoever can get it done. I can't see much point in just creating a wish list here. – raven May 28 '10 at 13:23

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:20

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:22

As someone stated in another question regarding jailbreaking, if this is illegal, I think it falls directly into the off-topic pile. BTW, what is jailbreaking? – IAbstract Jun 5 '10 at 13:35

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:24

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:26

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:29

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:34

Yet another (probably unwanted) community wiki question, though it may yield interesting features – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:45

One that will get asked though. – ChrisF May 28 '10 at 11:34

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added by Ether May 27 '10 at 22:34

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:35

closed as off topic by Joel Spolsky, Casebash, Kensai, Brant, Nifle Jun 8 '10 at 19:21

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

belongs on meta.stackoverflow.com – Joel Spolsky May 27 '10 at 23:46

Ok and now change the site name, then what? It might be that someone just says: it doesn't support Opera Mini's rendering engine, because it loads the server too much. Question answered. – Ivo Flipse May 28 '10 at 6:16

Oh he went there... – IAbstract Jun 4 '10 at 0:39

doesn't matter where it belongs, its too localized no matter what :) – Gordon Gustafson Jun 16 '10 at 3:08

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:36

Bound to be out of date very soon, just like most hardware recommendations. I would rewrite it as a CW question and list the features that are most important for picking a camcorder – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:47

It seems like general-inquiry "what's the best..." product recommendations should be off-topic on all sites. Only acceptable if OP has a really, really specific use case. – Robert Cartaino May 28 '10 at 1:34

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:38

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:40

Subjective and this is quite a hot topic for discussion between devs and users ;-) – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:48

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added by Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:40

Perhaps it would be more useful when comparing an iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 rather than summoning up all the new features – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 22:49

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added by debug May 27 '10 at 23:03

This is going to be localized, because even if Apple supplied a service, they might not be able to do so everywhere – Ivo Flipse May 28 '10 at 6:17

@Ivo third-party companies can provide insurance for iPhones, etc, but even still it's too localized – Kyle Cronin May 28 '10 at 6:21

There aren't that many iPhone, iPod, iPad insurance services, and few provide accident coverage. It might actually be a good, beneficial question to ask, especially since AT&T and Apple only provide limited insurance. I suspect that "localized" would still result in large enough geographic regions (ie, country size for most insurers) that it wouldn't become a dusty old, out of date, only applies to 5% of the userbase type problem. – Adam Davis May 28 '10 at 7:00

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added by debug May 27 '10 at 23:04

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added by debug May 27 '10 at 23:04

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added by alex May 28 '10 at 7:00

I think this could also apply for Android phones (soon Windows 7 phones as well). – alex May 28 '10 at 7:02

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added by Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski May 28 '10 at 7:32

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added by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 28 '10 at 8:22

(Differential GPS using two owned GPS devices, not DGPS.) – WikiSpeedia hang-around May 28 '10 at 10:59

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added by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 28 '10 at 8:30

	"proper" cameras belong on their own SE. – therefromhere May 29 '10 at 21:19
	as per area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/614/… – therefromhere May 29 '10 at 21:24

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added by ChrisF May 28 '10 at 11:09

	The ripped should be edited to something that sounds less illegal, even if it can be perfectly legal to rip it – Ivo Flipse May 29 '10 at 12:58
	@Ivo - just removed it. – ChrisF May 29 '10 at 13:11

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added by ChrisF May 28 '10 at 11:53

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added by ADB, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 31 '10 at 19:30

Too localised (note spelling) – ChrisF May 28 '10 at 14:34

For argument's sake, too localized should not necessarily apply to all geologically referenced questions. – IAbstract Jun 5 '10 at 13:44

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added by ADB, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jun 2 '10 at 23:03

Super User question I think. – ChrisF May 28 '10 at 12:27

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added by Diago May 28 '10 at 15:38

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added by debug May 28 '10 at 16:20

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added by debug May 28 '10 at 16:21

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added by Jaydles May 28 '10 at 16:36

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added by Good Person May 29 '10 at 12:03

If there's any proof of the pros and cons, I wouldn't be opposed to it. Battery life vs performance can be perfectly measured – Ivo Flipse May 29 '10 at 12:54

Subjective with no correct answer – spaetzel Jun 16 '10 at 17:27

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added by Jaydles, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jun 2 '10 at 23:01

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added by Nifle May 29 '10 at 19:13

closed as off topic by IAbstract, Michael Todd, David Barry, Ivo Flipse, Geoff Dalgas Jun 15 '10 at 0:11

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

I would discourage those speculative questions, even if there might be some proof... I've also seen a fair share of vaporware rumors and discussion on on future products seems inappropriate for a Q&A site – Ivo Flipse May 29 '10 at 21:15

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added by Nifle May 29 '10 at 19:21

closed as off topic by Chris W. Rea, Tall Jeff, Michael Todd, Maxim Zaslavsky, Helen Jun 10 '10 at 19:04

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

up vote 0 down vote

added by Nifle, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jun 2 '10 at 23:01

closed as off topic by Chris W. Rea, A Thing, Michael Todd, Brant, Helen Jun 10 '10 at 19:04

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Speculative. Can't get inside Steve Jobs' head. Off-topic. – Chris W. Rea Jun 5 '10 at 0:36

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added by Gnoupi May 30 '10 at 7:42

closed as off topic by Sim, Maxim Zaslavsky, Nifle, Jarrod Dixon, Mike Sherov Jun 15 '10 at 2:22

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

up vote 0 down vote

added by Adam Davis Jun 1 '10 at 3:37

closed as off topic by A Thing, Dennis Williamson, Nifle, splattne, Jonathan Sampson Jun 15 '10 at 15:07

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	Mini PC? That means it's just a Windows computer I reckon? So that makes it a Super User question – Ivo Flipse Jun 1 '10 at 7:17
	This is not about gadgets – A Thing Jun 7 '10 at 9:50
	You guys are no good at this. The correct answer is "Throw it out a moving car." – Adam Davis Jun 15 '10 at 19:37