Cagey said:
in 3 months, count how many toes you have on your left foot. Then let's hear how well you like that iPhone.
As long as it's still under 7 I'll be happy.
Great Ape said:
Personally, I think one's ''vision'' is in greater jeopardy from looking more at one's iPhone than at the world around you, with the attendant dependency that so often ensues...which is why I have always gotten by just fine with my old-fashioned fuPhone... :icon_biggrin: Can I find out RIGHT NOW what tomorrow's weather will be in Micronesia? Nope, but somehow I'm OK with that, y'know?
This is a great argument that comes up a lot when smartphones are discussed. Far as I can tell, it works like this:
- Apart from making calls, the other thing smartphones can do is [pointless task] (in this case "tomorrow's weather will be in Micronesia").
- This pointless thing somehow is enough for people to be buried in their phones all the time.
- If I had a smartphone, I, too, would be constantly checking tomorrow's weather in Micronesia.
Therefore, I do not have a smartphone.
Bit of a weird argument really.
I think Cagey has the best argument, because he puts it quite simply as he doesn't need a pocket computer. This neatly sidesteps the rather silly argument people make when they say "I don't need my phone to do X", which is fine, but totally ignores the fact that a smartphone is a pocket computer that happens to be able to make calls. That argument falls down when you consider the case of an iPod touch, which is an iPhone without the ability to make calls.
Nobody "needs" a pocket computer really, otherwise we'd have become extinct a hundred thousands years ago because we didn't have them yet.
I would like to perhaps talk a little bit about why I like having a pocket computer. Most of these things, however, have been true since I got my iPhone 3GS in 2009, and don't justify the fact that I've upgraded to the latest version every year since then.
I am a geek. Let's face it, that's the overriding reason I have an iPhone. I like computers, it's a computer, it's a gadget, it's not hard to see the attraction.
Aside from that, let's look at some of the things I use my phone (or PDA if you like) for. In no particular order:
Calendar. I am too old and too busy to use my brain as my calendar any more. It worked when I was single and didn't really do much, but now I have to write things down or I forget I'm meant to be doing them. Like many things, a paper equivalent would work here. But I already take my phone everywhere I go, so it's more convenient to combine the two. The point where it becomes better than a paper equivalent is that my wife and I share our calendars with each other. It means that when I check a day to see if I'm busy, I can see what my wife's got planned that day too. We never double-book ourselves any more because of this and I don't know quite how we'd organise our time without it. The ironic truth is that it would probably involve a lot of phonecalls.
Contacts. My address book used to be a thing I constantly exported and imported from one device or email program to another. Now it lives in the cloud and is always up to date on all my devices.
Reading. The Kindle app means that whenever I have my phone with me, I have a book with me. The amount of extra reading I get done since I got an iPhone is huge. It's not great for anything that needs diagrams or tables, but if you're just reading prose, it's perfectly serviceable. I do have an actual Kindle as well, which is nicer. Whichever device I read on updates my current page to my amazon account, so when I switch over to the other device it automatically opens on the right page. Simple but very useful.
Note-taking. I have several note-taking apps, for taking notes in various formats. Lists, plain text, mind maps, doodles etc. It's not quite as easy as a pen and paper, but if I make a note, I have it with me from then on until I decide to delete it. Another case of it just being useful because I always have it with me.
Calculator. Obviously. I also have a unit conversion tool on there, and the Wolfram Alpha app which, although it has lots of everyday functionality, I mainly use for maths stuff like solving simultaneous equations.
Music. I've always had a personal music player since I was about 11, so really this is just a case of combining it into one device. The nice thing about it being on my iPhone is I have a Spotify subscription, meaning that I can pretty much listen to any track, at any time. To imply that I couldn't survive without this would be silly but hey, what can I say - sometimes I like to live my life above the level of basic survival. For example, I'm wearing shoes right now!
Flashlight. You'd be surprised how often this gets used.
Travel info. I live in London and I never drive anywhere. Having a device in my pocket that knows where I am, knows where I live, and knows the complete public transport infrastructure of the city is a godsend. Along with this is maps - it's now impossible to get lost (unless I want to). My phone can show me where I am, where I'm going, and if I want, show me a route to follow. When I'm walking in London I prefer to just find out which general direction my destination is in, and choose my own routes according to what looks interesting as I'm walking. When I get nearby I look at the map again for the last quarter mile.
Camera. I don't use it
that much, but it's nice to always have one on you. It records video in HD these days as well. It's nice to be able to look at photos and be part of a "shared photo stream" after an event - everyone adds all their photos to the same place, and they all just appear on my phone. I can then do what I want with them, put them on my computer, get them printed etc. But getting everyone's photos together after our wedding was a nightmare project that we eventually had to abandon, and this would have made it simple.
Music discovery. I have several apps that recommend me new music based on my tastes. I have found some great stuff through these, both new and old. Along with that I have Shazam, so if I'm in a pub and I hear a song that sounds good, I can find out what it is there and then. I have found some great stuff with that too.
Guitar stuff. I have a guitar tuner that works off the internal microphone and is good enough for most uses. I have guitar toolkit which also gives me a metronome, chord dictionary, that kind of thing.
Alarm clock/reminders. My phone is what wakes me up every day. And if I need to remember to do something at a certain time (or even when I'm next in a certain place), I can get my phone to help with that too.
Email. I don't get much email, but when I do, my phone buzzes in the same way as if I got a text message. Most of my email requires no action from me. The mail app I use lets me quickly swipe a message to the side to archive it, so mostly I deal with my email in a series of 10-second events throughout the day, rather than setting aside any time in the evening to "check my mail" and deal with it all then. I can also move an email out of my inbox but set it to come back at a specific date and time, which I use for things like ticket booking references, or just if there's an email I can't deal with until a certain time.
Voice recording. Doesn't get used a great deal, but when I interviewed Ace Bergman last year I just put my phone on the table and it recorded the entire conversation incredibly clearly. It's also OK for recording a riff idea quickly or whatever.
Messaging. Texts, basically. This gets used a fair bit, it's like mini-email and it's mobile. It's a nice way to keep in touch with friends on an ad-hoc basis. And my wife sends me pictures of our son throughout the work day, which brings me a smile every time.
Tracking. My wife and I have this enabled on our phones so we can each see where the other is (or more accurately, where their phone is) at any time. This has been great for me and cut down massively on having to answer the phone just to say "yeah, I'm on the train, be home in 20 minutes", stuff like that. If you think this is creepy then fine, but I really am fine with my wife knowing where I am.
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Now, to every single one of these, you could say "you don't need that", and of course you'd be right. In fact, I don't need a phone at all, as evidenced by the fact that I survived to the age of 20 without having one. But also of course, not everything we do or have is something we
need to do or have. Sometimes we just buy ourselves a bit of convenience or pleasure.
Equally, I don't think many of those can be described as pointless. Sure, I have Twitter and Facebook on there, and occasionally I install a game (turns out I just don't really like phone games though). And there's "life admin" stuff, like I have an app that lets me submit our gas and electricity meter readings. Some of those might fall under the "pointless" thing, they're just time-killers. That's OK though. Overall my life gets more difficult when I don't have my phone. I like my life to be easy.
