Who Else Is Bucking the Smartphone Trend?

[vdeane]

Everyone here has an electronic device.

How do you know that I'm not just having someone read to me every post and reciting to them what to reply via a rotary telephone?  Or telegraph?  Or carrier pigeon?

[1995hoo]

.... And not to be TMI, but taking a crap would become a lot more boring again.

Chris

That's why Ms1995hoo bought me a magazine rack for the upstairs hall bathroom closest to my home office.

[Scott5114]

Ultimately, that's going to be a judgment call on the parents part on what privileges are granted and have to be earned. After all, it is the parent's job to raise their kid to be responsible and productive members of society.

Or not. I grew up in the dial-up age, so my parents had a password on the Internet connection that was required to connect at all. What did I do? Opened up Visual Basic 6 and programmed an exact copy of the password screen that saved the password to a text file, then faked a connection error message (to explain why the modem didn't handshake). Then I used the password from the text file to connect to the Internet at midnight after my parents went to bed, since having to ask for permission was a nuisance.

Rather than locking things down by technical means, a healthier approach would probably be to establish trust with the child, such that they can talk to the parent frankly about what they see online without fear of reprisal. It's important for a child to be able to ask for help, and if they're afraid they'll get into trouble, they won't turn to the parent for it.

[kkt]

Everyone here has an electronic device.

How do you know that I'm not just having someone read to me every post and reciting to them what to reply via a rotary telephone?  Or telegraph?  Or carrier pigeon?

IP over avian carriers
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549

22 years ago exactly! 

[ZLoth]

[zachary_amaryllis]

i'm an old guy, and i love my smartphone.

i twirl an advertising sign on a corner for a living, and having one of those makes it so much easier. the music is the obvious thing, i have about 800 songs and about 30 full albums stored on it. the bluetooth headset gives me total control of it. i usually set the phone down near where i'm working, and as long as i stay close to it, the music speweth forth.

the headset will also read my text messages to me, and allow me to reply to them, dial the phone, answer the phone, and many other things. all, while i'm gyrating wildly in a ridonculous costume.

the downside, is that at home, i live in a canyon that barely has cell service. if i stand on the 2nd floor, i can get blistering 1x or 3g speed. texts will go through, but i have yet to successfully hold a call up here. so i still have the landline. but since i work in town, and i'm there most of the day, it makes sense.

plus, i like things like pulling up somewhere and my food's ready, the map-thingy, and all the other doodads.

i think the killer app would be a mechanism to send/receive text from a landline. its already there, really, there's a short burst of data that carries the caller-id info, seems like it'd be pretty simple to work a text into there.

[JayhawkCO]

I'd have to carry a camera with me when I travel.

Why?  My dumbphone has a camera.  Don't a lot of them?  It's been a long time since I've had a phone without a camera–definitely longer ago than when I first got a smartphone.

Without knowing your model, I'm guessing my smart phone camera is better than your phone's camera.  If my camera didn't take really nice photos, I would have kept my DSLR.

Kind of confused what you mean about insurance premiums, though.  Then again, I have neither a Garmin nor a watch.

My company (a medical software company) has a policy where if you're more active, you pay less for premiums.  Since I'm already plenty active anyway, one way you can prove it is to link your fitness tracker to their health website.  Even if I weren't active, doing that step alone knocks my premiums down $15 a month.  My Garmin watch connects to my phone to track heart rate, steps, sleep, etc.

Chris

[JoePCool14]

Semi on-topic, The 8-Bit Guy just released a video talking about electronics stores (Radio Shack, Circuit City, most recently Fry's, etc.) going bust. In the video, he opens up an old Radio Shack catalog to see how much of it has been replaced by smartphones, and lo and behold, it's just about all of it.

It's a bit depressing to see all these old gadgets become replaced by one super gadget. It makes sense; after all that's what technological progress is. But still, I can't remember life pre-smartphone since I was too young, so it would be cool to actually go back to those days where if you wanted to do all these different things, you needed to carry around a bunch of different tools for the job.

You could say I'm nostalgic for an era in which I did not live.

[kkt]

A smartphone may substitute for many different gadgets, but it doesn't make them obsolete.

I read a watch forum that includes a for sale section.  You can tell the people who take their for sale pictures with a phone camera vs. the ones who get a camera with a macro lens for the closeups.  The closeups tell buyers a whole lot more.

You can get the time and date from a phone... but if you're on the edge of a timezone it will flip back and forth according to which cell phone tower is nearby, so you still have to figure out the hour by yourself.  And if you're in a meeting it's not a very subtle gesture to take your phone out, vs. glancing at your wrist.

[1995hoo]

....

You can get the time and date from a phone... but if you're on the edge of a timezone it will flip back and forth according to which cell phone tower is nearby, so you still have to figure out the hour by yourself.  And if you're in a meeting it's not a very subtle gesture to take your phone out, vs. glancing at your wrist.

I once saw the outstanding comment, "When he wants to know the time, a boy looks at his phone and a man looks at his watch." Don't remember where I saw that comment.

[hbelkins]

Two things a phone will never replace for me: a camera and a watch.

I've worn a watch all my life. I feel naked without one. The only time it comes off is when I take a shower. I've used both digital and analog watches during my life. The one I'm currently wearing is an analog Timex. For a long time, I had a watch (received as a gift from an ex-girlfriend when I was in college) that only had hour notifications at 12, 3, 6, and 9. I can't imagine someone of much younger vintage trying to tell time with it.

A phone camera is great for grabbing a quick shot if you're out and about, but I can't see a phone camera ever replacing a DSLR or even a feature-packed point-and-shoot for action photography. I have never been able to take a decent picture with my phone when I'm driving. It's a breeze with my primary camera, which is an all-in-one model but has programmable features like ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc., like a SLR. The phone camera is great if I want to get a picture and immediately post it to Facebook ("Hey, look at this neat old VA 63 cutout and 'maximum safe speed' advisory plate I found next to each other in Haysi!") but that's about it.

[kphoger]

Rather than locking things down by technical means, a healthier approach would probably be to establish trust with the child, such that they can talk to the parent frankly about what they see online without fear of reprisal. It's important for a child to be able to ask for help, and if they're afraid they'll get into trouble, they won't turn to the parent for it.

This sounds suspiciously like something said by someone without teenaged children of his own.

[Rothman]

Regarding Radio Shack, my phone can never replace cable splitters and the like.

[NWI_Irish96]

Regarding Radio Shack, my phone can never replace cable splitters and the like.

Wi-fi can replace cable splitters.

[kphoger]

Regarding Radio Shack, my phone can never replace cable splitters and the like.

Wi-fi can replace cable splitters.

The two generally don't serve the same purpose, so I'm not sure what's being argued.

[Rothman]

Regarding Radio Shack, my phone can never replace cable splitters and the like.

Wi-fi can replace cable splitters.

Not to connect my Atari 2600, NES, Super Nintendo and Xbox One to my TV simultaneously, it can't.

[ZLoth]

I've worn a watch all my life. I feel naked without one. The only time it comes off is when I take a shower. I've used both digital and analog watches during my life. The one I'm currently wearing is an analog Timex. For a long time, I had a watch (received as a gift from an ex-girlfriend when I was in college) that only had hour notifications at 12, 3, 6, and 9. I can't imagine someone of much younger vintage trying to tell time with it.

On every cruise I've taken, I've looked at the selection of watches they offer for sale. Yes, I admit that I liked some of the designs of some of them, but when I looked at the price of some of them, I've said no thanks, as I would be afraid of losing it or damaging it.

The problem with many analog and digital watches (and clocks for that manner) is time drift. Unless they are periodically set, they will add/lose a little bit of time each day that add up to minutes over a long period of time. For at least 12 years now, they have sold watches that set themselves each day, but they start at $25 and go up. The mobile phones receive their time from the cellular networks, thus no time drift while on-network. In my youth, I worked at a job which, for safety reasons, watch wearing was not allowed. When I switched careers, I did wear a watch again, but stopped a year or so after I got my first mobile smartphone. And both smartphones and dumbphones display the time.

Yes, my mobile phone has also replaced my alarm clock, and served as a timer and stop watch. Although now, my Echo Dot wakes me.

Yes, they do have WearOS watches that link up to your smartphone, but they start at $200. Sorry, but that's too pricey for me, as I'll be afraid to lose it. Yes, I've lost a fair share of cheap watches.

A phone camera is great for grabbing a quick shot if you're out and about, but I can't see a phone camera ever replacing a DSLR or even a feature-packed point-and-shoot for action photography. I have never been able to take a decent picture with my phone when I'm driving. It's a breeze with my primary camera, which is an all-in-one model but has programmable features like ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc., like a SLR. The phone camera is great if I want to get a picture and immediately post it to Facebook ("Hey, look at this neat old VA 63 cutout and 'maximum safe speed' advisory plate I found next to each other in Haysi!") but that's about it.

Uhhhh.... if you are driving, shouldn't you focus on driving and not on taking pictures? 

The quality of pictures is going to depend on the quality of the phone sensor of the smart phone, and the higher end smartphones take better pictures than the lower end of phones. Still, they won't match the flexibility of the dedicated cameras.

Having said that, I have used my smart phone to take pictures of receipts for submission later as reimbursement. I have taken a picture of my Covid vaccine card and passport front page, not for posting on Facebook, but as digital backup copies. The smart phone camera has been used to scan bar codes, including the USPS tracking numbers. Can't really see a number in the back of some equipment? Snap a digital picture, then size up the picture on the phone.

[Scott5114]

Having said that, I have used my smart phone to take pictures of receipts for submission later as reimbursement. I have taken a picture of my Covid vaccine card and passport front page, not for posting on Facebook, but as digital backup copies. The smart phone camera has been used to scan bar codes, including the USPS tracking numbers. Can't really see a number in the back of some equipment? Snap a digital picture, then size up the picture on the phone.

Oh, yeah, you can definitely indulge in some creative laziness with phone cameras. In a meeting and there's a slide with information on it that you want to save for later? Instead of copying it down ("can you leave that up for a minute? I'm writing this down...") or trying to catch the speaker afterward and having them email their slides to you (and hoping they don't forget), you can just snap a pic.

[JoePCool14]

Having said that, I have used my smart phone to take pictures of receipts for submission later as reimbursement. I have taken a picture of my Covid vaccine card and passport front page, not for posting on Facebook, but as digital backup copies. The smart phone camera has been used to scan bar codes, including the USPS tracking numbers. Can't really see a number in the back of some equipment? Snap a digital picture, then size up the picture on the phone.

Oh, yeah, you can definitely indulge in some creative laziness with phone cameras. In a meeting and there's a slide with information on it that you want to save for later? Instead of copying it down ("can you leave that up for a minute? I'm writing this down...") or trying to catch the speaker afterward and having them email their slides to you (and hoping they don't forget), you can just snap a pic.

This is very useful for university students for in-person classes.

[kphoger]

watches

watches

I haven't worn a watch in probably twenty years.  I think I stopped as soon as I had my first cell phone.  The main reason is that I simply got tired of them breaking.  Missing watchband pin, torn rubber, cracked face, etc.  Then I asked myself why I should buy a new one or pay for a repair, when I have another device that tells the time clipped to my belt.

(Oh, and Swatch watches were the bomb.)

Uhhhh.... if you are driving, shouldn't you focus on driving and not on taking pictures?

Security!  Would you please escort this person out of the forum?

[hbelkins]

You can get a watch for less than $10 at Walmart. It's not going to break the bank if one has to be replaced.

[1995hoo]

I think I have 12 watches, so I don't really wear all of them often enough. Six of them belonged to my father. He loved watches. The memory is seared into my brain–the day after he came home from the hospital for the last time before he died, he had my mom bring in all his watches and told my brother and me that he wanted us to divide them up between ourselves, so we took turns selecting them. Some of them are very nice watches (I took the Tag Heuer), but you can understand why I wish they were still Dad's....

[Scott5114]

I used to wear a watch at work, because we weren't allowed to have our phones with us while we were working. Later I transferred to a job where I was on a computer all day. I started just using the clock on the taskbar instead of my watch, so I stopped wearing it.

You can get a watch for less than $10 at Walmart. It's not going to break the bank if one has to be replaced.

Yeah, but the $10 watches suck ass. A $50 watch definitely lasts more than five times as long as a $10 watch.

[Bruce]

Since my Pebble broke, I've been without a watch for over a year. I took a bit of time (pun intended) to adjust to checking my phone more often, but with the pandemic I'm close to my car's clock anyway. I'm definitely looking for a new smartwatch of some sort, or even a basic fitness tracker that can also tell time.

[kkt]

I am kind of fond of vintage mechanical watches.  Mostly Omega, partly because I like their style, and partly because compared to some brands the replacement parts are still mostly available to watchmakers with a parts account.