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Post by billhammond on Apr 15, 2015 21:00:56 GMT -5
Being both a pragmatist and a penny-pincher, I have settled contentedly into having only a dumbphone for many years now. I have no monthly plan, just buy Verizon minutes when they get low, spend less than $30 a month on wireless service. Because I get unlimited free minutes with other Verizon customers, I can talk endlessly for free with both dottirs, my sister and others in my world who happen to have Verizon accounts.
My cheapo Samsung flip-phone has great sound quality, is super-small and allows me to receive and send texts, if need be.
I don't feel like I am missing anything of importance in life w/o a smartphone. My head is up when others are down. I am soaking in the sights and sounds of the world around me, as I always have, and I enjoy that. If I need information on the Internet, it's readily available through my desktop at work or my laptop at home, which of course travels with me when I am away.
I do realize that there are all sorts of amazing apps and other doodads out there that can assist the user in an infinite number of ways, but I just don't find the trade-off of the expense and the tug away from the real world to make it worth doing for my life.
And we can argue that position until the cows come home.
But in the meantime, just out of curiosity, is there anyone else on this forum who doesn't have a smartphone?
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Post by epaul on Apr 15, 2015 21:19:22 GMT -5
I don't.
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Post by Russell Letson on Apr 15, 2015 21:34:35 GMT -5
I have one, but aside from the camera, it's mostly just a phone for me. It was cheap to buy ($20) and part of the TracFone system, so it's cheap to use as well. It's a very good phone, though, and fits nicely in a shirt pocket.
It has a GPS chip, so I got a free app, but the screen is too small for it to be as useful as the dedicated GPS we use in the car. I suspect that any phone small enough to be conveniently carried has too small a screen for anything more complicated than reading texts or e-mails.
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Post by Village Idiot on Apr 15, 2015 21:39:29 GMT -5
I've got one of these,  and I'm quite happy with it. No apps, no internet access, no texting, no nothing. And, like you, I've got this really cheap unlimited plan where I can call all over the US whenever I want. I'm around all this blind assistive technology stuff all day, and after a day of looking at screens or listening to screens and dealing with apps, etc, I don't want something like that when I'm done for the day. I can receive texts, but cannot send them, and it amazes me that when I get a text with an expected reply, that some people are a bit irked when I call them back because I didn't text. Oh well. One thing, though. It is bluetooth compatible, and since I'm on the road a lot I do use that, but always pull before dialing a number or seeing who is calling. Both of which are easy to do since I'm on rural roads with no one around. Using that with both hands on the wheel when in the middle of nowhere saves me a lot of emails when I get home. |
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Post by drlj on Apr 15, 2015 21:45:53 GMT -5
Do you guys have black and white TVs, rotary dial land line phones and Commodore 64 computers, too? Well, I just bet you do!
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Post by Village Idiot on Apr 15, 2015 21:49:36 GMT -5
Weren't the Commodores a 70s/80s pop music band?
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Post by drlj on Apr 15, 2015 21:52:42 GMT -5
Yes, I believe they were.
I am posting this using my smart phone. It is so smart that it changes words because it knows what I meant to say and corrects what I did say to reflect that. It also lets me listen to music while I do this. I am heavily into THE CLOUD and it watches over me even while I sleep.
I watch videos and movies on it. I watched Ben Hur on Easter and it was cool to see the tiny chariots racing around the little track.
I watched the Joni Mitchell concert that Sir William posted on it. Joni was so cute and itty bitty.
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Post by majorminor on Apr 15, 2015 22:15:15 GMT -5
iPhone whore am I. I realize I could get up and go to the computer more but since my recliner and bag of pork rinds are right here.........
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Post by billhammond on Apr 15, 2015 22:19:49 GMT -5
You should have seen how beautiful she looked on a laptop screen.
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Post by Marshall on Apr 15, 2015 22:20:17 GMT -5
It's hard to beat the deal you have for what you do. The way a Smartphone makes sense (if anything does) is the extra things you can do with it and eliminate other equipment. I use my phone as a GPS. (Save the cost of a GPS). I use it to video concerts and performances. (Thus eliminating the GO cams and such). This is a video shot on my phone. I left the phone on a Gorilla stand when i went up on stage
I use the phone to track workouts. Last Saturday I did a 13 mile bike ride in 48 minutes at 15.7 mph. Max speed 35 mph.
I keep my music on my phone. I have an AP, (Audio stretch) that will play any mp3 on my phone and raise or lower the pitch or speed up or slow down the meter. While i'm on my trip I'm working on 4 new tunes I'm going to perform at a gig in 2 weeks. (Richard Thompson, Warren haynes, Al Green, Muddy Waters). I can chose a new key (Al Green for sure) and listen and work it out. 2 of the tunes I used a vid-to-mp3 program on my pc to make the mp3 files from youtube videos. I load the tunes on my phone. And it can change the key and if I want to share it with somebody else, Audio-stretch will make a new mp3 of the changed key and i can email it out directly from my phone.
While on the road in in airports and meetings and such, I can check email on my phone. I can't view drawings and spreadsheets that are attachments. But I can respond to somebody and say, "I got your file. I'll review it tonight and get back to you in the morning).
So it's the "extra" thing the phone does that makes it beneficial. And in many cases you're eliminating purchasing and carrying around several other devices to do what this one device does.
Yes, much of the junk it does is superfluous or can be done on a number of other devices. But it only becomes cost effective if you want to do those things and can eliminate buying other gear.
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Post by drlj on Apr 15, 2015 22:32:13 GMT -5
You should have seen how beautiful she looked on a laptop screen. Wow. A lap concert. |
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Post by billhammond on Apr 15, 2015 22:40:39 GMT -5
You should have seen how beautiful she looked on a laptop screen. Wow. A lap concert. I was a free man in Milwaukee, I felt unfiltered and alive. |
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Post by drlj on Apr 15, 2015 23:10:34 GMT -5
Unfiltered, indeed. Joni, of course, felt unfettered, but I like unfiltered.
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Post by lar on Apr 15, 2015 23:20:44 GMT -5
No fancy phone for me. I have a Samsung that's probably similar to Bill's. I make calls. I receive calls.
My phone can send and receive text. I asked US Cellular to disable that feature because I don't want it.
I don't want or need a phone that plays music, accesses the internet, checks on my e-mail, or that takes photos or videos. I have a GPS that is safer to use on the road than a phone.
As a avid photographer I know that my DSLR can photograph rings around any cell phone camera and that I can control things a cell phone can't. My aim is not to take snapshots. It's to take photographs. The fact that many of my photos appear to be snapshots is entirely beside the point. When I do manage to take a good photo I know that it's something that I could not do with a phone.
I spend nearly all of my professional life and a good deal of my personal life around technological gadgets. I like that I can choose to get away from all of that stuff when I want to. I have no need or desire to be in constant contact with the world.
Sometimes, in what must seem to many of you to be an irrational fit of independence, I leave my cell phone at home.
Oh, yeah, and I'm a cheap S.O.B. too.
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 15, 2015 23:48:19 GMT -5
In my business I learned very early on about the joys of working with a laptop and cell phone from anywhere I want. Got to see a lot of the kids softball games that way. Of course I've learned the value of turning the damn things off strategically (Korean engineers that are 13 hours out of synch from me can cause a whole lot of grief). And like Marshall says, current smartphone technology means less and less reliance on laptops.
So right now I'm in Sacramento working from "home" (joining my wife on her first business trip ever) and working 3 email accounts (personal, employer and customer) and video conferencing with an employer and customer in Illinois. Combine that with Google maps GPS capability and various travel apps and it's priceless.
And I can still keep up with the Soundhole.
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Post by millring on Apr 16, 2015 5:28:58 GMT -5
I have a flip phone. I was cursing that decision a few years back when I renewed my contract just when Square entered the credit card processing market. Everyone with smart phones was all set for doing business, while I was stuck with my flip phone. But it turned out to be a good decision by accident because I'm happier with a flip phone for communication and a tablet for credit card processing. I want a phone I can stick in my pocket, Dar is really hard on phones (and therefore needs a flip phone), and tablet is more user friendly to my customers. The combined bill is better than two smart phones.
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Post by brucemacneill on Apr 16, 2015 5:34:36 GMT -5
We only have dumb phones. The cell only gets used when we're traveling. Neither of us could see the screen on a smart phone without a magnifying glass of some sort.
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Post by godotwaits on Apr 16, 2015 5:51:14 GMT -5
I was a free man in Milwaukee, I felt unfiltered and alive.
with the daily shit gone wrong...Sorry. Couldn't resist... |
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Post by Doug on Apr 16, 2015 7:02:38 GMT -5
I"m like Russell, I have one but it's just a phone. I do text and that's why I have the smart phone to communicate with the daughter. Chris still has the flip phone. I have taken a picture with it, but none of the other stuff that it will do (I don't even know what the other stuff is). Texting on a flip phone is way more trouble than it's worth. We don't have a landline but I don't carry mine around at home, it's on the charger and I carry it when I leave the house for emergencies. I don't answer when driving. I don't talk when driving.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Apr 16, 2015 7:06:03 GMT -5
A "smart" trac phone. Supposedly. I've never been able to connect to wifi with it, even in my house, but I don't really care. I can text my daughter, and call my wife, and that's all I really need. And it only costs a couple of hundred a year for service. The wife has the same deal. Katie, has a iPhone, with service she pays for through walmarts plan. Costs her 45 bucks a month, but you know kids, they gotta have it.
Mike
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