Newt Gingrich wants your help in renaming the cell phone

[GM Griffin]

I don't necessarily disagree with him, but that doesn't make it any less hilarious. Video included.

"If it's taking pictures, it's not a cell phone," he declares.

It's not a cell phone if you can access a McDonald's app or watch a YouTube video, either.

"Think about it. This device is something new and different," he continues.

...


"I've been calling it 'a hand-held computer'," he insists.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57584094-71/gingrich-to-world-rename-the-cell-phone/

[Swedish Cheese]

Just call it a mobile like the British (or as we Swedes say mobil)

Wether it's a phone or computer or what ever it's certainly mobile.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Gingrich is an interesting character

The crazy:
Impeached Clinton for a BJ
Wants to repeal Obamacare

The not so crazy:
This actually wasn't so bad
Coming to Gore's defense when Gore supposedly said he invented the Internet

[IDS Legislator Alfred F. Jones]

Isn't that sort of thing called a smartphone (as opposed to a cell phone, which just makes calls)?

[Tender Branson]

Hahaha, Gingrich is still in the 90s ...

*hand-held computer*

lol.

...

BTW, we call a mobile phone "handy" here.

[True Federalist]

How about minitablet?  After all, both iOS and Android are used on both phones and tablets so that essentially a smartphone is just a small tablet with a dedicated phone app.

[For Oklahoma]

I swore this was an Onion article, even after I read the OP

[IDS Legislator Alfred F. Jones]

How about minitablet?  After all, both iOS and Android are used on both phones and tablets so that essentially a smartphone is just a small tablet with a dedicated phone app.

Yeah, but smartphones came first. A tablet is essentially a big smartphone without a dedicated phone app.

[Keystone Phil]

A friend sent this to me yesterday. I was rendered literally speechless. Now that I've overcome my initial shock, I can point out that it's pretty obvious that Newt is doing two things: 1) trying to be relevant again and 2) playing up the "I'm an intellectual heavyweight. A renaissance man." persona. He desperately needs people to think, "Wow. Newt is so right about that. Only he would think about this and challenge us to think deeply like he does!"

[Insula Dei]

I call it GSM. Though 'smartphone' is on the march round here, too.

[True Federalist]

How about minitablet?  After all, both iOS and Android are used on both phones and tablets so that essentially a smartphone is just a small tablet with a dedicated phone app.

Yeah, but smartphones came first. A tablet is essentially a big smartphone without a dedicated phone app.

And a computer was originally a person employed to do computations.  Words change.  Granted, what Newt is proposing is a solution in need of a problem, but I've seem far worse things that politicians have spent time on.

[Beezer]

Mobile Porn Storage Unit.

[memphis]

How about minitablet?  After all, both iOS and Android are used on both phones and tablets so that essentially a smartphone is just a small tablet with a dedicated phone app.

Yeah, but smartphones came first. A tablet is essentially a big smartphone without a dedicated phone app.

And a computer was originally a person employed to do computations.  Words change. 

^^^^^^^^^
Also, Gingrich is showing his age in using the term "cell phone." It's just a phone. I can't think of anybody who still has a residential landline. Not even my 60 something year old parents or their friends.

[dead0man]

I have a landline (for a few more months at least)

[Lloyd Bentsen's Ghost]

How about minitablet?  After all, both iOS and Android are used on both phones and tablets so that essentially a smartphone is just a small tablet with a dedicated phone app.

Yeah, but smartphones came first. A tablet is essentially a big smartphone without a dedicated phone app.

And a computer was originally a person employed to do computations.  Words change.  Granted, what Newt is proposing is a solution in need of a problem, but I've seem far worse things that politicians have spent time on.

Isn't that what politicians generally do? Or, if not that, propose problems masquerading as solutions to problems?

I do have a soft spot for Newt because he seems like someone who is genuinely curious and interested in learning about new technology and scientific breakthroughs. That's an achievement not just for a Republican whose party would prefer to believe the Earth is a few thousand years old and more carbon dioxide just makes the plants happy, but for politicians in general who usually are content to act like they already know everything worth knowing. If he had gotten a PhD in biology or chemistry instead of in history, and stuck to research, he probably would have done more good for mankind in science than he ever did in politics.

[Rocky152]

In honor of the genius Newt Gingrich, I say we rename it the Newtron.

[Invisible Obama]

Does it really matter? Most people just say phone anyway and those who do say cell are preconditioned to the word from years of usage. No one really wants to over think words, you just say whatever it is you're used to.

[asexual trans victimologist]

How about minitablet?  After all, both iOS and Android are used on both phones and tablets so that essentially a smartphone is just a small tablet with a dedicated phone app.

Yeah, but smartphones came first. A tablet is essentially a big smartphone without a dedicated phone app.

And a computer was originally a person employed to do computations.  Words change. 

^^^^^^^^^
Also, Gingrich is showing his age in using the term "cell phone." It's just a phone. I can't think of anybody who still has a residential landline. Not even my 60 something year old parents or their friends.

I have a residential landline and plan to primarily use it once I've graduated college.