Thanks.
Seriously. It’s like humanity has finally invented a practical jetpack, and you’re insisting on buying a pogo stick.
You may be interested in the Samsung Edge 7 has just been/ is about to be released.
Eh. My mother has had a smart phone for 10 months. She hates it and wishes she could’ve replaced her dead flip phone with another one just like it.
Arrendajo, I wasn’t trying to be snarky, and as you point out I also have separate tools for most things like you mention. The point I was trying to make is that it’s like carrying a Swiss army knife (Army knife for Android, Great App!) or a Leatherman in your pocket. There are specialty tools that will do a better job, but not all of them… For the difference in price between a flip phone and a slab, the scale of capability is vast. Even if you only use the occasional app or Youtube video to adjust chain slack on your new scooter, as an example, it makes having that computer in your pocket worthwhile. Well, that’s my opinion, anyway; YMMV.
Looking at something like a Sony Z3 Compact or a Samsung S5 mini and it takes up only slightly more footprint than a flip, has decent battery life, and in the case of the Sony, is waterproof.
TL;DR: You can still use a smart phone for nothing more than telephony and texts, but it offers up the potential for so much more if you want it to.
Oh, no snark taken, swampspruce. In fact, I have been thinking a lot about the generational divide among tool users – older people like me who haven’t made the smart phone transition (it’s silly to even call them phones any more – they are pocket-sized internet connectivity devices/computers for the most part) and young people who use their smart phones for almost everything. For me, and I suspect a lot of people my age, the logic goes “I want to take a picture – I need a camera. I can’t see – I need a flashlight.” A young person thinks “I need to tune the uke - there’s an app for that.” So I’ve got to shift my thinking in this regard. As I mentioned above, once I have a smart phone in hand, I’ll find all kinds of ways to use it that I don’t think about now simply because I’ve never had one. No matter how incredible they are though, I doubt it will ever replace the Snark tuners I keep clipped right to the headstocks of my ukes, though.
I was helping a lady in the library yesterday with her phone – it looked like an older model iPhone – and I was struck by how much smaller it was than most of the slabs I see today, and yet it was very easy to use and navigate the internet. When I put my girlfriend’s phone in my pocket, it takes up the whole pocket in two dimensions. So I think I need to look at different models of phones and get one that suits my needs physically as well as technologically. Something else to consider that I hadn’t thought about before.
Thanks for all the advice!
I’m probably about the youngest person (37) in the nation who still uses a flip phone. I’ll probably get a smart phone at some point – but I don’t know if I’ll call it that. I may refer to it as my pocket computer – partly just to see how people react, and partly because that’s really more accurate than calling it a phone.
I’m 56 and obviously love my Android. But working all my life in high tech industries, I’ve tended to be an early adopter. I had a first generation Palm Pilot and was one of the first in my group of engineers to put mp3 in his ride. One of the first to get an ereader but nowadays I just read books on my phone.
At this point I’m wondering how much longer flip phones will even be continued to be manufactured. It’s got to be getting close to the point that a low end slab phone will be cheaper to manufacture.
I have mine set to voice-activate when I say “Computer.” It’s hard not to incorporate an English accent when I say it!
Well last night I bought an unlocked Moto G smartphone. I absolutely love it! I can’t believe I went so long without one. So far, it’s done everything I ask of it. I haven’t actually taken it out of the box or activated it or anything, so it’s had no chance to frustrate me or develop annoying quirks or start letting itself go and get fat. We’re in the honeymoon phase.
Yeah, my friends love to quote my younger self: “Well, I have to get an iPhone so I can teach students how to design for that platform, but I’m only going to text on it. No apps, no faps.”
Ha! You try having access to the world’s collective wisdom and not use it! I’ve limited myself to mostly just using a web browser, but unfortunately that means I can check comic book prices and sports scores and Deadpool reviews instead of interacting with real life…
But I do miss flipping my phone open like a Star Trek character…
(and saying stuff like “Enterprise, this is Ensign Redshirt of the Away Team. Things are not as they seem down here.”)
Hello all you dopers from my new Moto-phone! I am using Tapatalk to post a message! Ain’t technology amazing?
That’s it. You’re sunk now. Welcome to the other side!