Was it worth it?

I'm still using one of these bad boys:


It holds a charge for 3 days but all I can do is text and make calls since it has no data plan due to it being pretty horrible when it comes to doing anything data related.

I was debating on grabbing a smart phone, mainly because I'm thinking about branching out into app development and I wanted a native device to test against but I'm sure it would be mildly useful for day to day stuff too.

going from cell phone to smart phone is like going from type writer to computer

if money was a concern though, you could buy a cheap android tablet for around a hundo and develop that way.

For me it's always been a combo of practicality vs money. I do most of my development in front of a workstation at home so I never sold myself on the value of a smart phone. I only got a mobile phone within the last year.

I feel like I'm missing out tho.

A mobile internet/calling/texting/pedometer/calorie tracking/music player/bank manager/photo backup/remote file access/game/GPS/map/video player/book reader/alarm/calculator/weather tracking/miscellaneous anything else machine is actually pretty powerful, even if you don't use it for software development.

Personally, I enjoy being able to change my thermostat from several states away from my home.

i would say it's like going from a perfectly good plain text editor to microsoft word with the "tool ribbon" fully expanded.

there are only a few things about the smartphone that are legitimate life improvements: decent camera/video in your pocket, GPS apps like waze, and maybe ebook readers. if i'm being objective, i think nearly every other app on my phone is ultimately a distraction and makes my life worse.

EDIT: i could probably think of a few other "good" apps, but i think the cost of the distraction is immense and is essentially invisible because of silent cultural acceptance.

I used to have one similar to that, it was one of my favorite phones.

I realize now I was definitely missing out. I'll make a longer post later.

massive +1 here!

The only thing I have from a smart phone that I didn't have with my Blackberry knockoff is Google Maps and Uber. The UI of Gmaps is getting so bad though.

If I was inclined, I'd jump and buy a better phone, but I honestly don't know what a $500 phone -vs- my $150 phone would get me. I don't use it for anything but calls, texts, email, some web browsing, GPS, and listening to music.

I don't even know what my ringers sound like since I keep my phone on silent all day.

I too am an old man yelling at cloud when it comes to smart phones.

I resisted for the longest while, finally gave in last year cause my work gives us a yearly phone purchase budget and I had reached the cap.

There are some benefits but some hassles as well, the biggest one being the miserable battery life in these things. My old nokia brick could run for a week on a single charge after 5 years of use. My current phone barely lasts 24h with moderate use.

Totally. I remember with my old flip phone, I purchased an extra battery and external charger on ebay for $10 or so. Every day or two when the juice was low, I'd just pop the battery, slip in the freshly charged one, and put the depleted one into the external charger. It was so much easier than having to remember to plugin in my iphone for some reason.



What's awesome about that reference is how just making it dates you now...

What on earth are you guys doing that your battery doesn't last 24 hours? My iPhone 6 lasts at least 3 days of web browsing, weather checking, calorie tracking, map using, GPS exercise tracking, emailing, texting, book reading, call making, and picture taking.

I guess that illuminates why some of you consider cell phones a distraction: overuse.

How do you guys think that having the Internet at your finger tips is not one of the greatest features of a smartphone?

You have access to such a ridiculous amount of information at your finger tips. No time in history could you access so much information nearly anywhere.

Is a lot of that information cat videos and pron? Maybe, but that doesn't mean there is a lack of great stuff out there.

Yeah, my 6+ goes about 2 days with pretty moderate use (which has gone way up since having a kid).

Edit: Also I'm with just_grindin - while there are lots of stupid apps, having the internet always available is incredible. Like legitimately incredible.

I'm at or near an internet connected computer so much that I barely need to use the phone for that ever.

I feel about phones the way Knuth feels about emails:

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/email.html

Is 20 years with these stupid things long enough to feel jaded?

Set phone to DND, only check it when you want to. Life no longer controlled by constant barrage of tones, ringers, and alerts.

What are the best job boards/sites to post entry-level jobs? Not sure if we're covering all the bases. Any that should be avoided?

Sure, it's incredible. It's also incredible that in most developed nations the majority of people have access to basically unlimited food in unlimited variety. How can you not want that? How can you say that's not good? Well, people get fat. That's just what happens. In general, with humans, unlimited access to good things often causes problems and addiction.

Adding to Wolfram's point, how many hours a day do you need?

Does it matter how much information is available when you can only consume so much of it? It being at your fingertips, as a practical matter, means you are more likely to spend your time digesting trivial news of the day (whether in the form of Huffington Post or your facebook feed or whatever else) rather than what's important to you, if you had to make a conscious decision about it. If every month I laid out the books and articles and blog posts that I was really interested in, and said, "That's my information for the month, I can't read anything else" -- I would be so much better off. And I think that's true of most people.

EDIT: regarding battery life, I have a 5s and it lasts less than 24 hours even if I don't use it for anything.

I've read that before, it's great. I'm especially fond of this line:

I'd used email since about 1975, and it seems to me that 15 years of email is plenty for one lifetime.

Just because something has negative consequences doesn't mean it's bad.

I would argue the positives out weigh the negatives in both the Internet and food consumption, especially when it's easy to identify and fix the bad.

I would argue that if you look at the facts, in both cases this is false. The case of food is more clear cut. Also, much of this boils down to deep cultural values and opinion, so it's fine to disagree, but eg it's hard to argue that an America where food was restricted (but still provided for healthy sustenance) would not be healthier than the current America. I would wager it would be happier too. Of course, such restriction would never happen except through natural food shortages, and I'm not arguing it should. But it's an interesting thought experiment.

For me the "internet at your fingertips" is analogous. And analogously, it is not going anywhere except by some sort of disaster.

Do some people use it in a way that improves their life more than it hurts it? Of course.

But most don't, and most of those who don't (imo) are oblivious to the way it harms them.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm not saying it's "bad" -- it's obviously way more complex than just that.

I'm a pretty curious guy. I remember reading sci fi books as a kid where people had devices that could immediately answer the many questions they had. That seemed amazing.

And now I have that. Like I can think of any random question and usually get an answer right away.

And even as a practical matter it's never been easier to determine if something is bull**** or not. It's voting day in Canada today. I have no idea how you knew when a politician was lying to you before the Internet (aside from their mouth was open! Bah-Dum!).

Agree this is one of the good things.

@gaming_mouse, I don't agree with you about the amount of food in Americans' reach being the problem. I believe it is rather the way it has been processed/prepared that creates problems. But I admit that is a topic I do not have expert knowledge in.

With regards to the battery life on your 5s, there are essentially 5 potential sources why your battery drains so quickly.
1) The battery itself may be worn/shot.
2) You're spending a lot of time in an area with poor reception.
3) Some apps are using a lot of energy, even in the background, or system services screw you over with location tracking.
4) Software is having problems, so it falls over on a task and keeps retrying.
5) Phone is borked somewhere else other than the battery itself.

For 1) you'd need a new battery obv. Visit an Apple store to see if it is the battery indeed. I think they do have the option to diagnose the battery without you being there if you call customer service, too.

For 2) good luck, mate. Might be able to change carriers to improve that.

For 3) you can first find out what is using your battery. That information is found under settings->battery (in iOS 9) or settings->general->usage->battery usage (iOS 8).
See what is using the most. For apps you can adjust back ground app refresh behavior in settings->general->background app refresh, location services under settings->privacy->location services (especially system services; if home and lock screen uses a lot of battery this may be the source.)

For 4) you may get an indication that apps/services are failing if you have a ton of error logs under settings->privacy->diags and usage->diags and usage data. Most likely, even on a good phone, there will be a long list, but look at the timestamps. Lots on a single day means software could be screwed. In that case, restore to factory settings and start fresh.

For 5) it's obvious. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

My iPhone 6 can easily last about 3 days.
I'm a light user. Hardly ever get a call, send or receive limited texts (avg about 1 sent/received a day).
I do love listening to music or podcasts while in transit, checking my mail, looking at weather forecasts (I walk to and from work), using maps when I'm in unfamiliar areas.
The main reason I got it was having a music player built into my phone.

I very rarely browse the web (don't like having to squint/zoom/hope I hit that link or button and not the one next to it) and just as rarely do I take photos. So the camera is essentially wasted on me.