Smartphone Survey

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What would you give up to keep your smartphone? An arm and leg? or perhaps that mis-behaving first born son? Surely not the dog! Who out there is whispering significant other? The smartphone is ubiquitous, but just how much would you pay to keep your most valued possession? Well, for those of us that are wondering about these very important questions, an official (or maybe unofficial) survey has been conducted and the results may surprise you, find out the truth about significant others and who is keeping the dog at all costs.

A new survey reveals just how much we would go without in order to keep our smartphones.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/would-you-pay-10-15k-to-keep-your-smartphone-one-in-ten-americans-would/

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Myst, Microfix

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Would not give a dime. Don’t have one, don’t want one. (In the Gen-X group, btw.)

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jburk07, Pepsiboy, Myst, Charlie, Microfix

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nothing smart about my mobile phone so don’t give a fiveHoneT.
Although Mrs Microfix uses an iPhone, I need to be her smartphone IT dept sigh

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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jburk07, Lars220, Myst

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Ascaris wrote:

Would not give a dime. Don’t have one, don’t want one. (In the Gen-X group, btw.)

I’m a Boomer who thought exactly the same, then gradually realised the usefulness for all sorts of things that I had never realised before, especially once when I needed help and had no idea where I was to describe to emergency services (WhatThreeWords).

So, now a late convert… :)… but I respect the views of @ascaris.

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jburk07, wavy, Myst

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Rick Corbett wrote:

I’m a Boomer who thought exactly the same, then gradually realised the usefulness for all sorts of things that I had never realised before, especially once when I needed help and had no idea where I was to describe to emergency services

Even “dumb” cell phones are supposed to have internal GPS capability, even if it does not expose the coordinates to the user. Could one not call 911 (or 999 by you, right?) and have them be able to read the location? That’s what the GPS in these phones is meant for.

Like Charlie below, I have an old-style mobile phone, though mine is a slider type, not a flip phone. I have to buy $6.66 of airtime per month to keep the service enabled, and the first ten minutes of airtime per day are 25 cents each. After that, it’s ten cents per minute until midnight, when it resets. Reading or sending a text also has a cost, but I don’t do those, so I can’t remember what that cost is.

I have amassed a huge number of minutes over time, as I keep adding $20 every 3 months and seldom use it. I use my home phone for everything, and people who know me know that I am unreachable when I am out. They can leave a message on my answering machine and I will get back to them when I get home.  It was normal for people to be unreachable when they were not home when I was growing up, and that has always been normal for me. People who know me know that the way to contact me is to call my landline and to leave a message if I don’t pick up, or better yet, send an email.

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[Alex5723]

I use a Phone since cellular services started in my country. I was a beta tester with the first provider using Motorola Alpha (Motorola MicroTAC) . Upgraded through the years. My best phone before the first iPhone was the Nokia communicator 9110 (had many other after the communicator). I still keep the communicator.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Alex5723.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Alex5723.

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jburk07

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I have a flip open Star Trek type cell phone.  The main reason I got it was because there are so few, if any, public telephones that are convenient anymore.  I mainly carry it for emergencies when I’m out, especially in my old cars.  It costs me around $12.90 a month plus 23 cents a minute if I make a call.  I’ve only given the number to a few trusted relatives and I keep it turned off.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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jburk07

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The older I get the more I rely on my Samsung Note 9.

Love the stylist as my fat fingers have a hard time typing on the relatively large screen of the Note.

Out walking and forgot my house key, wife locked the doors and drove off, the phone opens the garage door. At the grocery store what do I need to get? Open up the Alexa app and look at the grocery list.

On the highway need gas? Where’s the best price close by Gas Buddy to the rescue. Break down call AAA don’t have to find a phone.

Got a check in the mail, don’t want to go to the bank, just open the banking app take a picture done!

I could go on and on but you get the picture.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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jburk07, Barry, Trev, CADesertRat, Rick Corbett

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I’m so grateful for my smartphone. At a spoken command it reminds me of events (like appointments) that, at my age, if I didn’t mark them quickly then I would just forget. (“Siri, set alarm for…”)

When I suddenly remember what I need to shop for then I record it on my phone… or just wait for a long while until it occurs to me again.

Most importantly, it reminds me of my family’s birthday events… ‘cos otherwise I really wouldn’t have a clue… and would be embarrassed at forgetting about such important family events.

My memory is going as I get older. It’s becoming something that I am more and more mindful of. Thank goodness for my smartphone as a gentle reminder. I’m becoming more and more reliant upon it to just nudge me in the right direction.

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wavy, Trev

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? says:

what if the phone is smarter than me? i started out with a motorola “brick,”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC which cost lots and was 40 cents a minute for talk time, then on to a motorola “MicroTAC,” and i got rid of the sherpa who used to carry the brick for me. later cycling through a seemingly endless line of “flip,” phones settling on an LG VX8350 which lasted from 2008 or 9 until December last year when the hinge finally gave up. my friendly carrier told me they were phasing out the freequency 12/31 and so i moved to yet another moto (e6) free? not really, 150.00 over a 2 more years contract… some google voice keeps on trying to talk to me (i don’t engage in the conversation) and it eats data like a starving hippo eats lilly pads. modern technology, gotta love it. so, please excuse me i thing google needs yet another 30MB update…

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anonymous wrote:

? says:

what if the phone is smarter than me? i started out with a motorola “brick,”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC which cost lots and was 40 cents a minute for talk time, then on to a motorola “MicroTAC,” and i got rid of the sherpa who used to carry the brick for me. later cycling through a seemingly endless line of “flip,” phones settling on an LG VX8350 which lasted from 2008 or 9 until December last year when the hinge finally gave up. my friendly carrier told me they were phasing out the freequency 12/31 and so i moved to yet another moto (e6) free? not really, 150.00 over a 2 more years contract… some google voice keeps on trying to talk to me (i don’t engage in the conversation) and it eats data like a starving hippo eats lilly pads. modern technology, gotta love it. so, please excuse me i thing google needs yet another 30MB update…

Anonymous… I like that my phone is smarter than me. It remembers stuff that I don’t… so I offload ‘stuff’ and just ‘fuggedaboutit‘… ‘cos phone takes care of it… if I feed it ‘charge’ every few days.

I don’t worry about the hand off… it’s a fair trade… ‘memory’ vs ‘convenience’.

Of course I would be absolutely borked if I failed to provide ‘charge’… but I would fall back on the perennial ‘hey, I’m really old… whatdya expect’ excuse.

I’ll be fine… 🙂

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CADesertRat

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I’m still using a Microsoft Lumia 950 running Windows 10.  Have the dock, too.  Before I retired as a geologist I could input coordinates for prospect drill hole locations in Maps on my laptop, then out in the field open Maps on my phone and its GPS would lead me and the drill crew right to the spot.  A couple of years earlier I had tried Android for a month and didn’t care for it in the least.

When Microsoft got out of the phone business, I bought a spare Lumia 950 from Amazon (at about half the original price) so when this one goes belly-up, I can keep using my Windows phone.  I don’t use Cortana on my PC or laptop, but it’s great on my phone.  My truck radio has Bluetooth, so I can text and drive by talking to Cortana.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I’ve got an S8 and at the prices of the newer phones, I won’t be buying another one anytime soon unless the battery dies. Pretty smart of these manufacturers to stop using removable batteries 🙁

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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MHCLV941

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I find smartphones incredibly useful, for numerous functions, some of which have already been mentioned.

I didn’t see any mention of their cameras however.

I have captured timeless memories of family events, children, grandchildren etc, so conveniently, because the phone is always in my pocket ready to use.

Contactless payment with Google Pay/Apple/Samsung etc has been well appreciated in these pandemic times…

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rick41

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My iPhone is an alert system that pretty much can save our lives here in the land of inferno Maximus. Reminders app gets a workout because of a ToDo list that never ends. The landline is the chat line and email is to stay in touch. If the device was out of reach for an unknown period of time, I wouldn’t crumble. It does make life a little easier in crazy times. But, once upon a day or night it was just me behind the wheel of a VW at 2 in the morning driving miles with no access to a phone unless I had a dime in my pocket or there was a gas station open in the middle of nowhere. And I lived to tell the story. Times change. The phone is handy if I need it, but it isn’t glued to my ear or affixed to my hand. Pocket ready in an emergency.

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rick41, Lars220, SueW

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I, too, am a baby boomer. I do NOT have, do NOT need, and do NOT want a “smart phone”. I see no NEED to have everything in and about my life in my back pocket. Especially if I sit down the WRONG way and destroy it. For me, a cell phone is to MAKE and RECEIVE phone calls. Nothing more and nothing less.It is for IMPORTANT and EMERGENCY communications ONLY.

Call me an ignorant old f**t, but, that is MY opinion and I’m sticking to it.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Dave

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GarthP, MHCLV941, David F

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Pretty much the same here.

I kicked around getting one once or twice but I can’t see what use it would fulfill, and buying something to try to induce an addiction to it for things I don’t need in the first place seems to be an act of futility

I do have an old Nokia cellphone which can make calls for emergencies which works fine for me

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… this is a sort of silly question.

Smartphone is just a tool. It does approximately nothing that I couldn’t do with other devices. It’s just more convenient to use a portable device. (Also these days, some things are actually cheaper to do with a mobile “smart” device than with the other methods.)

Mind you, I did fairly recently pay a bit more than I’d have preferred, to get a *new* one that’s ruggedized and has an user-replaceable battery.

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Purg2

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Mixed feelings here about the smartphone. It’s a great device as an organizer.  I have many events to remind me to do things.

Texting is just an OK thing to do because I’d prefer an actual conversation where I can hear vocal intonation cues & whatnot that are not available via text.  But I get that many people don’t want to talk on the phone anymore, so I’ve adapted to a degree.

Those that are seen speaking on their phones in public places is always a lesson in the observance of sociological phenomenon, SMDH.  I don’t want to hear your conversation (speakerphone, bluetooth or earwig etc.) in the grocery line or the doctors office or anywhere else I can’t escape from at the moment.

I’m not one to feel the need to upgrade to the latest & the greatest when it comes to phones.  Because of that, I’m not certain what other choices there are.  I just use my phone until it doesn’t work, then I get a new one from my provider.  My experience says it’s basically Android or Apple phones.  I’m sure there are some fancy niche type or luxury models that don’t fall into those two types, however, this is it for the most part from my perspective.  It bugs me from time to time, because there should be more variety.  Otherwise, it’s not really a choice.  Especially if a person is opposed to one or the other, they have no option but to select the other one if that makes any sense.  I’m not an Apple guy, so it feels like I’m confined to whatever Android fits my needs, usually Samsung because I’m familiar with the organizer.  I wouldn’t be opposed to learning a new organizer if it means I can have a third or forth option.  A long time ago, I scrounged around trying different organizer apps & none of them impressed me, le sigh.

Don’t get me started on mobile banking or shopping.  That stuff seems risky to me.  But hey, to each their own I suppose.

Am a little worried that my next phone might be a make due sorta situation.  Most of the newer ones are too big in my opinion.  I don’t want to stream video or play games.  Just need the thing to get along, so don’t force me to carry around a f******* thing that won’t fit in my front pocket without sticking or falling out, meh.

So is the poor ole Purg saga.  It was fun to read what some of youses had to say on the matter, great food for thought.

Win 8.1 (home & pro) Group B, W10/11 Avoider, Linux Dabbler

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Charlie

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Purg2 wrote:

But I get that many people don’t want to talk on the phone anymore, so I’ve adapted to a degree.

By my way of thinking, the device in question is a phone, not a “handheld texting device” or something similar, so if there will be any adaptation, it will be on the part of the person who doesn’t want to use a phone as a phone. I don’t demand a call, though; I would much rather use email, personally, and I have not seen a smart phone yet that could not send and receive email.

The main difference between email and texting is that email is stateful, like a TCP connection that is initiated by one side, kept open for as long as both parties are interested in communicating, and then terminated. If more communication is necessary, another connection will have to be made, and that, too, will end.

Texting is stateless, like sending a UDP packet into the void and not really knowing if it arrived at its destination.  Since it’s stateless, another one could come at any time, and the amount of mental resistance the texter has to overcome in order to send a text is practically zero… he can do it while doing anything else, and he expects that I, too, can and will approach it in the same way. I’ve gathered from pop culture that people generally expect a response to a text about as quickly as they would if they were there in person and had spoken the same words. In effect, that means I’d have to be engaged in many conversations with many people 24 hours a day. I’m not about that.

When a phone call comes, for the most part, what you are doing from that point forward is being on the phone, and that remains so until the call ends. The greater effort involved to initiate the state of being in a communication session, like the greater demand it places upon the participants, is what makes it preferable to me. The very things that the young’uns don’t like about phone calls are what I do like.

Emails are kind of a hybrid of the two. It doesn’t lend itself as well to quick, throwaway one liners or back and forth stuff. It raises the effort level on the communication in such a way that it is more logical to compose the entire thought and put it in the message all at once, rather than sending it one puzzle piece at a time over a series of texts. Because each email contains what would be multiple texts (if done properly), I cannot be expected to respond in a timely manner to each one of them, and people who email me will find quickly that I do not respond to email the moment I receive it just as a matter of course.

If they want to try to send me an email containing the same level of content that they would normally send in a text, that’s fine… I’ll respond in my own time as I always do, and if they find that the back and forth of a normal text conversation takes too long that way, it would be reasonable for them to conclude that skipping the back and forth and putting all of the stuff they want to say in the message would work better.

If I were to do texting, it would be an alternate form of email for me. I’d keep the text message notification sound off, and I’d check for messages waiting when I have some time to respond, which is on an ad-hoc basis. I’d send the replies, then be done with them until the next time I sit down and read texts. If replies came in while I was still responding, I may well leave those until the next time rather than handle them right now.

With me, it would never be the realtime “always on, while I am doing other stuff” way that goes hand in glove with text messages (and people who are glued to their fondleslabs, as The Reg calls them, while doing every other thing they do).

That’s what I have the objection to, not the actual physical process of communicating electronically or the protocol involved. If you were to hang out with me, you’d never have to compete with my phone for attention or see me constantly thumbing away at the thing while I am supposedly doing some other thing. That’s the flip side of not being “always on” in terms of communication availability. I don’t have to do whatever I am doing half-way because I am spending the other half in an endless texting session that essentially lasts for every waking hour of every day. Being able to prioritize things and to put the phone down, as we are all told is an important thing to do, necessarily comes at the expense of some part of the immediacy that is the very reason that some people don’t want to communicate by phone or email. That immediacy, all the time, is poison.

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We are talking about Smartphones here and they are bigger and put out more light in a dark room.  It seems that many people today can’t seem to bear the idea of turning off their smartphone so they “silence” it by putting it in vibrate mode.  Even though you can’t hear their phone go off in a movie theater, you sure can see that big bright screen when the person checks to see who is calling or emailing them.  This is very annoying to me.

My Flip Phone has a nice camera too.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Charlie wrote:

Even though you can’t hear their phone go off in a movie theater, you sure can see that big bright screen when the person checks to see who is calling or emailing them. This is very annoying to me.

That, though, is just manners… or lack of.

Some non-smart phones have had sort of loud vibrate functions too and very bright screens… and this was sold as an advantage, too… back in 1999 already.

(Meh. I bought a cheap BT smartwatch the other time. Paired with the phone, it tells me who’s calling and lets me mute the call without pulling out the actual phone. Among other things… and though the newer models in this line do require an account with the watch manufacturer, this one doesn’t.)

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[Trev]

Charlie wrote:

We are talking about Smartphones here and they are bigger and put out more light in a dark room.  It seems that many people today can’t seem to bear the idea of turning off their smartphone so they “silence” it by putting it in vibrate mode.  Even though you can’t hear their phone go off in a movie theater, you sure can see that big bright screen when the person checks to see who is calling or emailing them.  This is very annoying to me.

My Flip Phone has a nice camera too.

Flip phone cameras are way inferior to those on modern smartphones.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Trev.

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That is really a matter of opinion. I get photos sent to me in emails that are 4, 5, & 6 Megabytes each in file size, mainly because of the extremely high megapixels used by phone cameras today.  Pictures taken at 10 to 12 or more megapixels could be used to print a wall mural! My cellphone camera uses two or three megapixels and I get great pictures to put in emails or print normal size pictures if needed and they’re less than 1 Megabyte in file (jpg) size.

All that extra file space costs you either hard drive space or cloud space that you pay for.  And by the way, my flip phone is less than a year old.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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They can claim as many pixels as they want because the sensors are tiny but those teeny weenie lenses won’t do much.  Software can clean up phone photos with fake contrast and manufacturers can say they violate the laws of optics but any decent DSLR with a good lens set for 4-6 megapixels will kill phones that cost more than they do.  That big honking lens is there for a reason.

A comparison to a box camera or another logical fallacy will inevitably present, making a phone seem awesome amazing.  I doubt most phone fans know even the basics of photography.  Depth of field in a phone?  Maybe if it’s very sunny.

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Jim, Myst

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Having seen someone invest in a new phone based on the camera performance, it’s amazing to see some of the photos they can produce – far superior to an older DSLR, and weighing far less than a new one.

I even hear the camera being left behind on a tramping trip, in favour of using the phone’s camera for scenic shots.

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iPhone 11 Pro vs $7500 Pro DSLR Camera

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My interpretation of comparing a DSLR to an iPhone 11 Pro, is the real thing versus an all in one take a photo and call your friend at the same time scenario. Getting behind the lens of a DSLR is a matter of focus in handling the skill of photography. No phone involved, just the photographer and the perfect shot through skill and planning. Price is always a factor when decisions get serious.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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There are quite a few professional photographers and even movie directors who switched from pro equipment to an iPhone.

http://austinmann.com/

https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/world-photography-day-iphone-influencers/

11 Movies Shot on iPhones, From ‘Tangerine’ to a Charming Short By Michel Gondry

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Vivo X50 Pro: A Camera Disguised as a Smartphone
AUGUST 10, 2020

https://www.counterpointresearch.com/vivo-x50-pro-review-a-camera-disguised-as-a-smartphone/

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That said, the camera is still not as great as an iPhone or Pixel or Samsung Galaxy S/Note

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… but a little less investment required 🙂

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The art of photography in my world and on the stage of photographers I’ve known throughout the years, the skill of operating a high end camera far surpasses taking a phone out of pocket using presets for filter and special effects. My point is there are more shortcuts these days rather than using a skill many have earned through rigorous training and hands on experience. The world is in a rush to accomplish much in too short of time. A good story isn’t written in haste, it’s a timeline of savoring each frame until the end.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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Oh yeah. Reminds me of the time I tried to teach some kids the actual sequence needed to take a photo…

I used an old Linhof. The kind where you need to manually align the lens board to the rangefinder every time you unfold it if you plan to use the rangefinder in the first place instead of just using the ground glass focusing screen… oh and shutter needs to be cocked separately and…

Also could bend the thing into all kinds of shapes for depth of field and perspective control if necessary.

Sort of a bother how digital sensors in that size just don’t exist at any price, let alone affordable for a hobbyist… well except maybe scanning setups. (Yes, Linhof does sell “stitching” type gear for using a smaller sensor back. Meh.)

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Myst

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both my wife and I have Pixel phones and I am a semi-professional photographer who has done several office installations and sells a fair number of prints.  I now use a Nikon Z6 regularly.  I have printed images from a Pixel phone to 11 x 17 inches and they look surprisingly good.  Focus is sharp and the colors are what Google decides to give you though you can manipulate things in Photoshop or Lightroom should you so want.  My wife only uses her phone and captured a number of nice images in New Zealand while traveling there.

For posts on social media, a good cell phone camera is all that is needed.

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I have a smartphone because I’m supposed to have one, otherwise, couldn’t care less about it.  Yeah, they’re convenient and can do a lot but I’m of the vintage where I can actually do things; phone culture is a waste of time and dangerously wrong for the arcane details I may miss.  Phone addicts walking around screaming inane things at their lifeblood device are very sad and mostly in the way.  Hands free use in cars has done absolutely nothing to make driving better; cars wander, don’t maintain speed, drivers find it difficult to concentrate long enough to stop or accelerate smoothly.

We’re well into the development of a continuously distracted culture where knowledge is paltry, inaccurate, cult and dopamine driven.  Sports?  Who plays sports?  Some clowns are trying to make e-gaming an Olympic event!  Lemme see their workout routines.  “Our what?”

Ease of communication is wonderful but not when facts are determined by subculture acceptance.  Those who haven’t been involved in tech for many decades and were brought up in phone culture miss the correlation between easy and bad communication (EDITED.) 

I use mine for calls, email sometimes and solitaire when totally bored.  Screens are too small for any sort of experience enjoy happy or whatever. My eyesight is excellent, phones are just not interesting, I have a wonderful full life and refuse to make it tiny by funnelling it through a tiny gadget.  Funny manufacturers are trying to make screens bigger these days.  A folding tablet, cool!  Laptops and desktops are what I use for going online, gaming, video and photo editing; 4K 17″ laptops that payback faster than any iPhone ever could.

Anyway, the question should be reversed: What would I give up my smartphone for?  IDK, lunch, a decent SSD, lots of things, let’s deal!

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Lars220

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[Rick Corbett]

Ascaris wrote:

Even “dumb” cell phones are supposed to have internal GPS capability, even if it does not expose the coordinates to the user. Could one not call 911 (or 999 by you, right?) and have them be able to read the location? That’s what the GPS in these phones is meant for.

I actually have no idea. In the UK you phone 999 and an ‘Emergency Services Operator’ asks which service you require (Ambulance, Fire or Police) then forwards your call. The ‘Ambulance Service Operator’ I was forwarded to didn’t seem to have a clue where I was… so perhaps GPS co-ordinates are only available to the first-line responder and not to services further down the support chain.

Again, I have no idea… it was ~3 years ago and that can be a lifetime in terms of technological advances. Or it could just reflect the shockingly poor communication between our supposedly ‘joined up’ emergency services which hit the headlines at around the same time.

When I’ve phoned 999 to report motorway accidents or vehicles driving erratically on the motorway, I always get asked ‘Where are you, sir?’… and often have to wait until I reach the next motorway ‘Blakedale Post‘ (a ‘distance marker’ spaced 100 mtr apart  which shows its position on the road network), which always makes me wonder ‘Shouldn’t you already know?’. (I actually once asked ‘Don’t you know?’ only to receive an icy ‘Please just tell me where you are, sir’ reply.)

As an aside, I’ve since learned how to display precise lat./long. co-ordinates on my car’s built-in SatNav, just in case… but I would have to pull over to bring up the display and read them out.

It’s noticeable from posts (e.g. @ascaris and @charlie) that mobile (cell) phone charges vary enormously. I use a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) here in the UK and pay £6 ($7.75) a month for unlimited voice calls and txts plus 500MB data (which I have only ever used once in full when I tethered my iPad… resulting in eye-watering excess data charges. Moral… always download Google Maps data offline if using it as an alternative SatNav). This suits my needs as I no longer have a landline (I got so sick and tired of robocalls) and my family now all seem to txt amongst themselves rather than speak. 🙂

I suspect this reflects the vast size of the US in comparison to the UK. Here in the UK we only have 4 major mobile phone service providers (Vodaphone, O2, Three and EE) who cover the UK in mobile network service, with sometimes wildly varying degrees of signal reception.

We also have dozens of MVNOs piggy-backing off them, including a couple of our larger supermarket chains who offer their own MVNO services. Given the tiny size of the UK, I suspect fierce competition has resulted in a culture of offering ‘all in’ deals rather than seperating out charges for service, airtime, calls and txts (especially txt with photos).

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Rick Corbett.

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? says:

Rick see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

Europe: “…most countries have a constitutional guarantee on the secrecy of correspondence…”

lucky you!

and thank you Lars for the post, had a couple of the Nokia mini-bricks and enjoyed using them. also have thousands of “cell phone photos,” and love the “dog,” ones the mostest…

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Lars220

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Are we having Fun yet? This is the Fun Stuff Forum isn’t it?

Embrace the future technology era, you will be assimilated. Has it arrived already? I must have been sleeping. I had to unwillingly give up my most beloved vintage 2003 Nokia 5180 cell phone when Tracfone informed me that they were no longer going to support that older generation cell phone technology. Yes, it was a dumb phone, but it was very lovable, and served me well for 17 years. I had to move to some new fangled thing a ma jig called 4G LTE. Long Term Evolution? Oh good grief, who comes up with this silly marketing advertising nomenclature? I did keep and will never give up my faithful Black Lab Buddy dog, I don’t care what others are doing to keep their smartphones. Although, I am still mulling over that idea concerning the sig other. Only joking Honey, never again, Yes Dear!

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Myst

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You can embrace the NEW Nokia 3310 and even play Snake.

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Lars220

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more colors and larger keypad buttons:

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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I’m rolling down the hill laughing! But I do like the yellow case, beats Apple’s mundane gold, black or silver.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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This was my Mom’s mobile phone in 1990 or thereabouts. 🙃 Her phone was black and the case was the size of a miniature suitcase. She offered it to me for a road trip and I opted for my CB radio instead. It was smaller.

 

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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Myst wrote:

This was my Mom’s mobile phone in 1990 or thereabouts. 🙃 Her phone was black and the case was the size of a miniature suitcase. She offered it to me for a road trip and I opted for my CB radio instead. It was smaller.

Same experience here… (looks like the same darn brick of a phone but mine was also in black and took 18+ hours to trickle-charge… yet lasted less than 6 hours on stand-by and about 15 minutes of talk) but CB was much better (even though illegal here in the UK at the time… oopsie).

CB chatter was ‘all the time’ whilst we cruised… mobile phone calls were zip, ‘cos no-one knew anybody else who had one.

So young… so foolish. 🙂

Wow… memories from 45+ years ago…

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Myst

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Rick Corbett wrote:

CB chatter was ‘all the time’ whilst we cruised… mobile phone calls were zip, ‘cos no-one knew anybody else who had one.

The CB was a good alert system for anything from what lies ahead to entertainment over the air waves as Trucker Bob and his entourage sang Ronstadt’s “Willin’”. Willie Nelson was in the queue somewhere too. They saved my life a couple of times, and from a ticket or two on the highway speedway. The iPhone can’t do that when you don’t have the number of the rig rolling ahead of you.

in reference to the singalong on the highway. https://youtu.be/IJHcD0kHTGk

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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wavy

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Not really so foolish, in the 80’s & 90’s I would turn my CB on in my car and listen to the truck drivers on channel 19.  I got first hand news of car crashes and other things that slowed or stopped traffic when I was commuting to and from work.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Myst

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anonymous wrote:

? says:

Rick see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

Europe: “…most countries have a constitutional guarantee on the secrecy of correspondence…”

lucky you!

and thank you Lars for the post, had a couple of the Nokia mini-bricks and enjoyed using them. also have thousands of “cell phone photos,” and love the “dog,” ones the mostest…

Sorry but that’s based on ‘mobile-phone (cell) tower triangulation’ (not accurate), not satellite-based GPS (military – very accurate [frighteningly accurate when backed up with additional laser-ranging]; civilian – not so much)… it’s completely different.

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? says:

i stand corrected, sir!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_navigation_device

“Almost all smartphones now incorporate GNSS receivers.”

now where did i put that tinfoil hat?

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The point is, having a GNSS receiver doesn’t mean your location is transmitted anywhere. Most receivers are passive-only.

Of course phones do have transmission capability, so it comes down to trusting your device (and configuring it correctly for the way you want it to behave)…

Transmitter triangulation though… now that is the tricky one if you really want to be untrackable. Anything that can join a cellular radio-based network for receiving calls is trackable, question is just how much effort it requires. (Government-level actors can get passive listening gear that can track stuff pretty well even without help from the communications providers. Decryption is a whole another thing but…)

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anonymous wrote:

? says:

i stand corrected, sir!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_navigation_device

“Almost all smartphones now incorporate GNSS receivers.”

now where did i put that tinfoil hat?

Ummm… I see ‘GNSS devices vary in sensitivity, speed’ and ‘GNSS signals are already very weak when they arrive at the Earth’s surface.’… which, for civilian applications, doesn’t inspire confidence.

Sorry but… even though I read ‘user location services was driven by European and American emergency services to help locate callers’, the citation gives little information about how effective it has has been.

In other words, it’s just opinion (or the link has changed), so of little or no value..

Did I miss something?

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Pepsiboy wrote:

For me, a cell phone is to MAKE and RECEIVE phone calls.

Once upon a time, reviews of new cell phones devoted a lot of coverage to how good a telephone it was.   From the reviews today, you would not know these little cameras/app platforms/game consoles/entertainment screens had any capacity to make a phone call at all.

I use the phone, texting is handy and the only “smart” thing I find more or less the price of admission is navigation.  But I also know how to read a physical map.

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Jim

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[Alex5723]

Kirsty wrote:

… but a little less investment required 🙂

You pay less you get less. You’ll never get more for less.

Will this VIVO get 6 years of updates and OS upgrades ? Will it get even 3 years of support ?
No. it will be dumped after a year.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Alex5723.

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My Samsung tablet I bought lots of years ago (new, as a current model, about 2012) had its second and final update within about a year of purchase. Even if I ignore the security implications of having a non-updated OS, it still is less useful than it was or should be, as many of the apps won’t work in the version of Android it uses. It’s still perfectly fine hardware-wise, as far as I am concerned (no, it’s not fast, but it doesn’t need to be… if I need speed, I have my PCs), but its maker has decided they’d really rather have me buy another one. Well, sorry to disappoint you, Samsung, but no, I won’t be doing that, and if I was going to, you would not be on the list of candidates.

I don’t intend to buy any more devices where I am dependent on the hardware’s OEM or some mobile carrier for updates, whether it be iOS, Android, or MacOS. It’s not in their financial interests to keep supporting their devices with software updates, so any single-source of hardware and software is out, even if there are other advantages, like the ability to closely tune the drivers and such to the hardware (one of the advantages of the Mac). At least with a Mac one could put Linux on it (though if I was going to buy something to put Linux on it, I’d pick something cheaper).

I’ve never bought into the planned obsolescence thing. When I buy an electronic item, I expect it to be useful until it becomes obsolete by hardware limitations. Six years is not good enough, and the implication that that’s really good just illustrates the severity of the issue. I’ve had my current phone, I am thinking, about 13 years (it’s my second cell phone… I only got my first around 2005), and I would be pretty annoyed if they told me it was no good anymore. It works fine and does what I require of it (make calls), so I have not gotten my full money’s worth out of it yet. That’s for a phone that cost $50 back in the day (unactivated cost… it’s prepaid, so there’s no burying the price in the contract).

My expectation of longevity would scale quite linearly with increased purchase cost, and that would not change even if the purchase cost was hidden in some service contract. I know dang well that some cell phone carrier is not going to give me a $500 phone for $50… if that’s what it costs if purchased unlocked, then that’s what I paid for it, even if they say I got it for $50. I’m perfectly aware that I paid the rest of it as part of the monthly contract fee.

I’ve also become a lot more critical of Google since I bought that tablet. It was (and is) wifi only, and it mostly stayed at home, so it wasn’t going to be tracking my day to day movements, and I never did put any sensitive data or pictures or the like on there, and I never connected it to any of my real email addresses. The one it knew was a throwaway one I created for that purpose.

I didn’t do a lot of browsing on it either, since I had (as I do now) more PCs than I really know what to do with that provide a far better browsing experience, and if I was out and about, I would rather wait until I am home to do my browsing (as opposed to now, when I can use my Acer Swift and get something quite close to my home experience).

Even with the circumstantial mitigation of the snooping, I wouldn’t repeat the purchase of an Android device now even if I had a guarantee from the manufacturer that the device would get security updates for ten years. Not when it’s Google.

I wouldn’t buy an iPhone either. Apple works too hard to make sure their customers can’t repair (or hire independent shops to repair) the Apple devices that they paid for. They’ve sent out malware disguised as updates that bricked phones with “error 53” if the touchscreen had, at some point in the past, been replaced with an aftermarket part (which is all you can get if you don’t send it to Apple and find out that the repair cost is 90% of the cost of the new one, followed by a sales pitch about the new one). DRM chips in charging cables, silent updates to slow older phones down, bendgate, “you’re holding it wrong,” and all of that… so they’re out too.

There are some alternatives, like Pinephone and Purism, but I have come to loathe smartphones so much that I would never get one even if it wasn’t Apple or Google. Not to mention that I am too old to be able to use a 5 or 6 inch screen without reading glasses, and I don’t usually bring them with me. I can see my Swift’s 13.3 inch screen quite well, though.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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MHCLV941

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A corollary to your annoyance – which largely matches my own – with these #%$$% things is constant din from all side “You can do that on our app”.   I don’t want to screw with your app on a little tiny screen and deal with little tiny virtual keys a third the size of the end my pinkie finger.

It also annoys me that a company that wants me to pay them for something would require me to spend more money on a completely related product just to be able to keep getting the service for which they want me to keep paying them.

Also, the push to do everything by text message.   My time is more valuable than to waste on such a limited puny way of communicating.  I’ll listen to your [annoying] hold music so that, when someone does finally pick up my call, I have their undivided attention (more or less) and they have mine so we can solve the issue.

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Rick Corbett wrote:

When I’ve phoned 999 to report motorway accidents or vehicles driving erratically on the motorway, I always get asked ‘Where are you, sir?’

Has anyone discovered What3Words, which will define any position on this globe to a three-meter square?  Not so great though, Rick, when you are bowling along at 70 mph.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Rick Corbett wrote:

once when I needed help and had no idea where I was to describe to emergency services

Even a cell phone is not a guarantee that 911 can find you. A few years ago (my S7 was no longer brand new), I saw an accident take place on I-15 south of the Provo, UT area, just as I passed it.  I called 911 and the operator asked where I was.  I told her I was on I-15 and that the accident happened between mile markers x and y.   She then asked what county I was in.  Exasperated by that point, I told her I was reasonably sure I was in Utah and to consult a map of the freeway to figure that out.

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How much would I pay to keep my iPhone 11?  I pay $180/mo for two phones and three lines (don’t ask – it’s complicated). You will have to pry my smartphone from my cold, dead hands. The ubiquity of the phone and what it does for me is deep and profound. It is integral to my work life and has changed many parts of that for the better. I’m a Boomer.  I still have a rotary dial phone that will still work on my copper landline. But on this, I won’t back down.

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Jim, wavy

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Don’t have to give up anything; I don’t have a smartphone (just a sidekick cellphone that I only rarely turn on for emergencies or once in a few weeks calls with my siblings).   I’m behind a PC at home and at work, so don’t want to be behind one 24/7.   I know eventually I’ll have to breakdown, but so far I’ve not.   Other than occasionally would like a QR code for a coupon discount, I’ve no need for a smartphone.  When my printer busted, I didn’t replace it either (and again, could also have printed out a coupon before going to the store, but this just doesn’t happen that often for me to get another lazer printer.  My Inkjet also is busted, but I keep it around still since the scanner feature still works fine).    Life’s too comlicated as is, so I’ll continue to refrain from getting one until the powers that be forces the issue.   I know I should change cell phone plans (currently pay $47/month for a phone I may turn on once every 4 to 6 weeks; lol).   Though about getting a pre-pay, but then I have to give up my out of state cellphone number and a lot of other hassles due to that.   I can afford $47/month for now.  🙂

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$47 / month for NOT using it>> NO WAY
Get a trac phone (I just did on a different carrier when mine had problems) $32 for phone and $120 per year for service. A ~$400 savings for you, but go ahead and give the corps their feed 😉

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Lars220

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I am PCcentric predominantly. BUT, I do use a Samsung smart phone. The best feature I can think of is the ability to hold and remind me of appointments. I sync the phone back to the PC (via the GMail calendar) using Outlook 2013 on the PC with the GSyncit outlook addon to do the synching. GSyncit is a very nice Outlok addon BTW).

It’s a nice feature to be able to look at my phone in, say, a doctors office and confirm that I can make an appointment in 3 or 6 months. Sure beats going home to a physical calendar to find out that I have a conflict on that just-made appointment and having to call the doctor’s office back and change it.

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I have absolutely no desire or need for a smartphone. Many years ago I signed up with TracPhone and bought the cheapest cellphone I could. The package came with 1200 free minutes.

I immediately had the text function made inoperable. No one has the number except my grown children. I have never received a call from anyone.

The phone is  off unless I need it for an emergency. It costs me $6.41/mo to maintain service. I have 975 minutes left after 13 years of use. Enough said.

 

CAS

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Lars220, wavy

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Got my first smartphone only because a client used DuoMobile to validate access to their computer system.  For my money the only things I need a cell phone for are the phone and text messaging, neither of which requires smart phone capability (did just fine with my old one, thank you).  And, as far as I’m concerned, if telephones disappeared completely from the face of the earth I probably wouldn’t miss them.

That said, I do have some apps that I’ve grown accustomed to, but none that I couldn’t live without.  Our new security system at work, though, will be controllable from the phone, so that’s another reason to have it.  But something like email — which of my 18 addresses should I hook up to the phone?

(For the record, I have a Moto g6 and use Google Fi as my carrier — monthly bill is under $20 since I don’t use it for data much, and data over wi-fi is free, anyway.)

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Lars220

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I have a canoe and a pair of skis. Can’t see any reason for a smart phone. Don’t have any way to recharge it if I did have one. Sure pretty views here, and nice and quiet too with no phones ringing.

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anonymous wrote:

I have a canoe and a pair of skis.

If I had a canoe and a pair of skis I wouldn’t have a smartphone either. No need. Lucky you. Float on. 🚣🏼‍♂️

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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Lars220

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Actually, that is a target market for smartphones. Well over here it is at least, with most of the official bureaucracy doable online even at rural-area speeds and no contiguous inland areas more than a few square km completely without coverage.

Smartphone, solar charger and maybe a directional antenna, and you don’t need to actually visit towns as often 😉 … a bunch of people find that a desirable feature, what with the Covid-19 isolation scare and all.

… sure it’s a bit of a bother to do all your tax forms and such on the smartphone, but it’s possible. And a lot lighter to carry than a laptop and enough solar to power that, and rainproof smartphones are cheaper than rainproof laptops too.

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Lars220

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as far as cell phones in general, I unfortunately obtained one in February this year. A samsung A20.. I dislike the thing..look I made it 64 yrs without one, why do I need one now? my family seems to think I need one. they are upset as I leave the thing in the house or under the car seat and I loose it somewhere in between. I seldom answer..the service has the same number of bars as the town- ONE and seems to be just as functional for me….nada….ya cannot type on the things, where is the keyboard? just finger poke? that touch screen thing does not always work with my fingers…so text is out as is data..it is a phone a poor one at that the audio quality is horrendous. hard to hear even on Speaker setting. 

Ham Radio is more reliable still! If I have to do it again a flip phone may be better thing to try…then again nothing may be best. Kids and their tethers…besides I like my privacy. Then there is the cost- what a waste of $…..when it dies it is gone! oh well to each his own just do not impose your unfounded needs on me.

RJ

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Lars220

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anonymous wrote:

Ham Radio is more reliable still!

Unfortunately it’s illegal to do your taxes and other government digital-substitute paperwork on just ham… because they require SSL for those nowadays (at least in this country), and encryption is illegal in hamradio by international treaty.

(Got an external keyboard for my waterproof smartphone though. Can recharge that too from the solar panel.)

Mind you, the smartphone is a lot heavier than my smallest ham handset…

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Amateur Radio rules, got my first license in 1980 as a Technician class. 2M 144 MHz.
While we are here with everybody having barrels of fun, let’s consider an additional item to the survey, as proposed by the Android Police website:

Weekend Poll What Price Do You Consider A Budget Phone?

There are some lower priced super economy budget smartphones if you search around enough. If you just need a vehicle emergency phone to call AAA Auto Club when you are on the side of the road, this works great, and plays the mellow, tranquility inducing, habit forming and very fun Alto’s Odyssey endless runner game while you patiently wait for a tow truck to arrive. BTDT. Been There Done That. I need to spell it out because I am still learning my acronyms. I may be very old and slow, but I am still trying to learn stuff. P.S. in Alto’s Odyssey, the Zen Mode does not keep score or end turns, so it is just pure carefree playing. Zen is good for you 🙂

https://www.imore.com/altos-odyssey-tips-and-tricks-help-you-escape-lemurs-ride-walls-over-chasms-and-more

The Kinks – Low Budget (from One For The Road) 6 minutes Live 1980

 

Amazing Truths Revealed: Link to Simply Magnificent AskWoody Knowledge Bases

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One good thing about a flip, you can actually see the key pad in sunlight!

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I’ve only had one smart phone which will be two years old in December. I think this survey should be about your smart watch as THAT is the one I love ….far more than the phone (iPhone 10XR). Ironic, as I decided after I got an Apple watch Series 5 for Christmas last year that I didn’t want it but was sick for two months early this year and could not return it and got “stuck” with it. Now, I can’t imagine being without it! Of course, I have to have an iPhone to pair with it and wish it could stand alone.

I LOVE the watch because I have my credit cards in Apple Pay and an app (Stowcard) that allows me to never need to get a store/library loyalty card out. I LOVE Apple Pay but love it much more on my Apple watch than on the phone. The watch tells me when there is an incoming phone call BEFORE the iPhone does! So, I use the watch for phone calls as well as Apple Pay.

The watch records my walking exercise and free weight lifting and any other exercise I might choose and it is far less cumbersome than the large iPhone 10XR.

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Mele20 wrote:

I think this survey should be about your smart watch

I have not worn a watch in about 7 years, so it would be worthless to me.

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I wore a “waist watch” for a couple of decades, when I started to carry a smart phone I stopped with the watch. Instead of a $10 casio I now use a $800 phone to tell the time 😏

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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wavy wrote:

Instead of a $10 casio I now use a $800 phone to tell the time

Not quite cause and effect, at least for me.  I got in the habit of carrying a phone for work reasons.  It had a clock in it, so it was already there and there was no value added by the watch.

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[Alex5723]

wavy wrote:

Instead of a $10 casio I now use a $800 phone to tell the time

I never look at my iPhone to see the time.
I have an Apple watch for that (the watch face tells: local time, NYC time, heartbeat, current min-max temp, day and date, noise level, ECG, timer, battery level). 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Alex5723.

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