Will smartphone ownership become a de facto requirement?

[Duke87]

An interesting observation from this past weekend. Officially, MLB has for a few years now made a stink that you need the Ballpark app to get into a ball game, they will not accept printed tickets anymore.

Well, I showed up early for a game at Angels Stadium and happened to be walking right past the sales windows on my way in. There were a few people at them so I decided to linger and watch what happened when someone bought a ticket for that day's game right there at the ballpark. Sure enough, at the end of the transaction... they were handed a paper ticket.

So there's a workaround to attending a baseball game without a smartphone, though it will only work for games that do not sell out before game time and your choice of seats may be more limited.

[Dirt Roads]

An interesting observation from this past weekend. Officially, MLB has for a few years now made a stink that you need the Ballpark app to get into a ball game, they will not accept printed tickets anymore.

Well, I showed up early for a game at Angels Stadium and happened to be walking right past the sales windows on my way in. There were a few people at them so I decided to linger and watch what happened when someone bought a ticket for that day's game right there at the ballpark. Sure enough, at the end of the transaction... they were handed a paper ticket.

So there's a workaround to attending a baseball game without a smartphone, though it will only work for games that do not sell out before game time and your choice of seats may be more limited.

My experience is with AAA minor league, but you probably can do the same thing in the Majors by placing your game tickets on Will Call and picking them up at the booth.

[abefroman329]

An interesting observation from this past weekend. Officially, MLB has for a few years now made a stink that you need the Ballpark app to get into a ball game, they will not accept printed tickets anymore.

Well, I showed up early for a game at Angels Stadium and happened to be walking right past the sales windows on my way in. There were a few people at them so I decided to linger and watch what happened when someone bought a ticket for that day's game right there at the ballpark. Sure enough, at the end of the transaction... they were handed a paper ticket.

So there's a workaround to attending a baseball game without a smartphone, though it will only work for games that do not sell out before game time and your choice of seats may be more limited.

My experience is with AAA minor league, but you probably can do the same thing in the Majors by placing your game tickets on Will Call and picking them up at the booth.

If they offer will call as an option, sure.

I'm sure I've said this six or seven times in this thread already, but the no-paper-tickets rule is so that the major leagues can control the resale market.  Since the minor leagues aren't cash cows for anyone, they're unlikely to change their practices.

[Road Hog]

Dropped the guillotine today on my old 8 and am right now the proud owner of a 13. Transfer process took about 2 minutes. Made a work call already on it and it bipped. (Is that the slang?)

[Road Hog]

To answer the OP question, sorry but evolving tech requires occasional changes. Even extreme olds of the time wouldn't be caught without a radio in 1930, a telephone in 1940, a television in 1970, some sort of desktop in 2000 or a smartphone in 2020. So yes.

[Scott5114]

I have a smartphone but use it as little as possible. I question what the benefit to me (rather than the tie-wearers) is for doing many of these tasks on a smartphone rather than a desktop. Often, it turns out there isn't any–it's just that it's a lot easier to get people to think and act and spend money the way the powers that be want you to on a smartphone rather than a desktop. You can use an adblocker to remove ads from Gloplr.com in Firefox, but you can't block ads if they con you into using the Gloplr app.

[kkt]

To answer the OP question, sorry but evolving tech requires occasional changes. Even extreme olds of the time wouldn't be caught without a radio in 1930, a telephone in 1940, a television in 1970, some sort of desktop in 2000 or a smartphone in 2020. So yes.

We had a party line back in the 1960s.  Cost a lot less, for people who didn't make a lot of calls and were able to share.

[Road Hog]

My grandparents had a party line well into the 70s, probably into the early 80s. Their ring was one long and one short.

[abefroman329]

My grandmother waited as long as she could to pay the extra money each month for a touch-tone phone (as opposed to a rotary dial phone).  I think she also leased a phone rather than buying one since it was cheaper per month, but if she did, then she should have known she was paying more in the long run.

[kkt]

Having to pay for "touch tone" service at all was a crock.  It saved the phone company money.  The process of dialing occupies a circuit at the central office for the entire time the number is being dialed, say 30 seconds or so for rotary dial.  If the caller was using touch-tone, they could dial in less time, say 10 seconds, and the phone company needs only 1/3 the circuits.  Worldwide that adds up and more than pays for touch tone equipment at central offices and each user's phone.

[seicer]

I have to use my iPhone in order to access a security feature on my work computer.

I use my iPhone to type in a generated key to access my secure applications and services, but will probably switch over to a hard USB-C key in the future. It's more stable and secure than my phone (if it gets stolen or lost or disabled).

[ZLoth]

I have a smartphone but use it as little as possible. I question what the benefit to me (rather than the tie-wearers) is for doing many of these tasks on a smartphone rather than a desktop.

Why do you consider it a "either-or" situation?

In my case, my phone is also my personal organizer. Since my calendar and contacts are on the cloud, they can be accessed either through the desktop or smart phone. For management of my personal calendar or contacts, I find that it is easier on a desktop with a mouse and keyboard to manipulate the data. Having said that, it is easy to put in the preliminary information for a new contact or appointment on my phone, or even duplicate an existing appointment with new date and time. If I have an address entered, I just touch the address to open up the mapping app and set up navigation.

[NWI_Irish96]

I have to use my iPhone in order to access a security feature on my work computer.

I use my iPhone to type in a generated key to access my secure applications and services, but will probably switch over to a hard USB-C key in the future. It's more stable and secure than my phone (if it gets stolen or lost or disabled).

I have a smart phone app that is required as part of a two-step login process to my work network remotely.

I have a smartphone but use it as little as possible. I question what the benefit to me (rather than the tie-wearers) is for doing many of these tasks on a smartphone rather than a desktop.

Why do you consider it a "either-or" situation?

In my case, my phone is also my personal organizer. Since my calendar and contacts are on the cloud, they can be accessed either through the desktop or smart phone. For management of my personal calendar or contacts, I find that it is easier on a desktop with a mouse and keyboard to manipulate the data. Having said that, it is easy to put in the preliminary information for a new contact or appointment on my phone, or even duplicate an existing appointment with new date and time. If I have an address entered, I just touch the address to open up the mapping app and set up navigation.

At home, I will use my laptop for anything I can use it for, my phone is mostly just for texting and phone calls. However, I've become very reliant on it outside the home for keeping in touch via social media, GPS, finding restaurants, etc.

[zachary_amaryllis]

I just happened to see a few videos about lock picking.... General purpose locks are meant only to protect against honest people, as it seems.

Lock picking is fun!

Its interesting to me, not in a criminal sort of way, more of a hacker-ish kinda way. I just like to know how stuff works.

[MikeTheActuary]

Late Tuesday evening, I replaced my cable modem, as I thought the old one was starting to have issues.

After I had the new cable modem connected, I wasn't able to access the sandbox where users can use an automated process to activate their new modems.

So, I called Comcast...er, Xfinity customer support.   After some arguing with the voice menu system, I was finally able to convince it to connect me to a human.

It insisted on sending me via SMS a link to a text chat session.   If I hadn't had a smartphone (or if my cell reception at my home were any worse)....

[Henry]

Sure, the use of landlines may be declining, but they're still being used today, so smartphones are still optional. In fact, my parents never felt the need to use a cellular phone, not even when they first came out. I may have one now, but using certain features (autocorrect and voice calling) can be such a pain in the ass.