with most of your points I do agree. I think for most people its about just browsing facebook/twitter, taking pictures, reading a few news sites, checking email/calendar, and call/text. I hardly think most of HN is representative of general population.
For movement between phone and desktop I use ChromeToPhone and dropbox. ChromeToPhone is probably the most seamless way.
well, just switch to a dumb phone, and I think you'll probably still be alright. Limit yourself to calls and text and for most people you'll realize how little your life has changed.
I don't agree with this at all. The main points seem to boil down to: "I want my smartphone to be a desktop computer." If you try to use your smartphone for the same purposes as a laptop, yeah, then you'll probably hate it, but if you approach it as a different device and explore new and different uses, the phone becomes a lot more powerful.
Desktops aren't going anywhere until laptops catch up to desktop performance on video games and graphics in general. The only reason I have a desktop is for gaming. I imagine most people who buy new desktops now only get them for gaming. I mean honestly, who would choose a desktop over a laptop for anything unless they need to interact with graphics heavily. I suppose you can get a more powerful desktop for cheaper than an equivalent laptop but I think this is a minority case.
(Just my thoughts, no data whatsoever to back this up).
I would choose the desktop anytime. It's just a matter of use case, but a desktop plus a netbook will likely be around the same order of prices as a laptop alone.
True but then you have to sync data between the two devices. Although this might change in the future, there is currently probably not a hassle-free way to sync all of one's persistent data without an expensive mobile data plan for the netbook.
My laptop works fine for gaming. It helps to get enjoyment from quality gameplay instead of bragging about how many frames per second your system can render at the highest possible resolution and graphics settings.
> "the screen is too small to do any useful reading."
This is where I disagree. I love my smartphone (Galaxy S2!) because it lets me read my Google Reader and Kindle on the go. But if you don't like the experience of reading on the screen, I can see how its perceived usefulness will diminish.
Smartphone utility is probably also strongly correlated with time spent away from a laptop. I rarely use my smartphone at work or at home, but I tend to spend most of my time out and about on the weekends, so access to email, IM and Maps while out of the house is worth the price of admission. You are never out of touch, you can find the address/directions to anything, from anywhere, anytime.
Then add on camera, Facebook, Yelp for finding restaurants, Yahoo Fantasy Football app, Evernote for keeping workout logs and saving commonly run queries and I'm pretty much in love. But as always, YMMV.
I'm amazed at my smartphone constantly, because it does things that my laptop/desktop cannot ever hope to do that are productive and important to me.
I have, more times than I can remember, looked up restaurant recommendations, reached consensus with other people wirelessly, and then made a reservation, all without leaving my smartphone, while standing on the sidewalk somewhere.
I have also walked up to a restaurant only to find it closed, and found a delicious alternative within seconds thanks to Yelp, Urbanspoon, et al.
I have taken pictures, uploaded them to [social network] and received responses within minutes, if not seconds. I have met up with friends because the GPS told us we were near each other.
My smartphone is great for consuming the day's news (especially on a high-ppi screen, reading is a joy) while on the train to work. Laptop or even tablet? Don't be ridiculous, I need one hand hanging onto a railing.
My smartphone is also my light meter, when I'm out and about playing with vintage cameras that pre-date my birth. Not a very typical use case, but one where a laptop or even a tablet would be utterly useless.
Just set the background image to all white, touch any button and it will light up. Not too bright but usable in most cases.
The extended battery life is what clinched it for me. The funniest thing is that for years I would be way ahead of the curve and now I'm walking around with something that is probably more of a conversation piece than anything made by apple or htc.
Before you got the dumbphone were you a heavy user of email and calendar information? I wonder if I'd miss things like that if I went back to one. I cut the cord with cable so I don't see why I couldn't go back to a dumbphone.
Contrastingly, I don't like the fact that I'm next to my computer all day. I'd rather have a smartphone and be out and about the town or in nature. Laptops increasingly feel old-tech and kludgy to me.
Yes, but if you spend your whole time out-and-about staring at your cell phone, what have you really accomplished?
If you don't use it much while you're out and about, could you not simply have forgone it, planned your trip 5 minutes before you left home, and checked your email that evening?
I don't spend the whole time on my phone. I don't do social networks and also usually turn off the sound for email notifications as well. But when I do actually need the abilities of the phone, it's there. There's nothing quite like wondering about that bright star on the horizon and then just waving your phone at it and getting the full details. Or getting to know when the next tram/bus home is, before you leave the coffee shop/club. Or grabbing a picture of that rare double rainbow.
I also don't like planning or sticking to plans when going out (how much fun is that anyway?). But I do like to get information on the go, for whatever I decide to do.
My Nokia 2115[0](my first and only cell phone) has a decent LED flashlight. I can make and receive calls and texts on it. It keeps its charge for weeks. I can play snake on it. That's everything I want from a telephone.
I have a Nokia 1800. Does calls, SMS, alarms, calculator, has a flash light, and keeps its charge for about a fortnight.
I'm sure smartphones are good for a lot of people, but I haven't found the need for one personally. Anything I could do on a smartphone I can already do, I just have to wait until I'm in front of my computer. Which suites me fine.
I have a love/hate relationship with my smartphone, but I'm still amazed at some of the things I can do with it. Adding to your list:
When my car's GPS took me miles down a road that was washed out on a trip hundreds of miles from my home, Google Navigation on my smartphone suggested a different route that got me safely to my destination.
It's a flexible and reliable alarm and kitchen timer.
I can read novels comfortably in bed on my smartphone (none of my several laptops are very ergonomic for this purpose).
I can map my bike rides and get stats on min/max/average speed, elevation, etc. (all the while using it as a music player).
It lets me easily maintain multiple shopping lists.
I can tune my guitar with it.
It functions as a real flashlight (my phone has a very bright LED).
My smartphone is no replacement for a computer, but it's better at these tasks than any computer I own.
Oddly, with the conceit of an offline GPS app (map data in the phone) every item you listed would work without a mobile data connection.
The killer network-enabled app is still on the drawing-board. (I don't feel like being able to instagram a photo and have your friends "like" a black-n-white photo of your dinner WHILE YOU ARE STILL EATING IT! is it).
> I can read novels comfortably in bed on my smartphone
Really? I tried with an iPod Touch and an iPad, and really hated both. Then I bought a Kindle and found it extraordinary. The Kindle is the best device I've ever owned.
I bought the Kindle when it first out and loved it but never carried it with me, and found it difficult to read at night - so as soon as reader version came out for my Android, I used that and never looked back.
Reading in bed with a smartphone is great because the light does not bother my partner, and after two minutes of my falling asleep, the phone switches off its screen as well. Any bed lamp I use keeps me awake rather than allowing me to fall asleep.
(I know I am the exception as I have been reading on Palm Pilot screens since the late 90s - it was the only way to make sure I could get enough reading time in medical school.)
Not only that. To the GP: I read also on my phone (Nexus one) but I feel the backlight is not very gentle for my eyes, even when using FBreader in night mode. Also, characters are too small. To me, a (real B&W e-ink) Kindle is better, or a paper book.
Actually, if you get a phone with the AMOLED screens, you can read in direct sunlight. I have a Nexus S, and I do that every single day. I take it out of my pocket the moment I step outside, the screen automatically jumps to full brightness, and I have no problems at all using the phone to read emails, set up GPS while I'm walking to my car, or compose text messages. I can even do this with my sunglasses on.
I have both an eInk Sony reader and a B&N NookColor, and both are pretty good for reading. I prefer the eInk for casual reading, but the Nook is great for PDFs and papers, and reading in bed without light :)
Why not using your phone navigation then? Here in China, without turn-by-turn GPS, I would be lost in nowhere, and the Chinese things they sell as GPS don't count.
> My smartphone is no replacement for a computer
Mine is, in many cases. Before, I was in the habit of turning on my laptop to check some pages or feeds after dinner, now I do this confortably installed in the sofa, on my phone.
I just miss, obviously, the content production abilities of a computer. Hope they'll find quickly a way to input text conveniently in a phone-sized thing. (I won't bet on the voice for that, maybe just a good hand writting detector could work as well)
Text input in horizontal mode is pretty comfortable, IMO, but then the screen you are inputting into usually isnt visible. I'd like to see a phone with a popup screen for horizontal mode. :P
edit: oh yeah, they make slide out keyboards for this exact reason. totally forgot about those.
I think there's a big geographical problem that's overlooked. These things are all designed in California where the weather is sunny year-round.
But in the rest of the world, most of the time, it's cold. You will not stand a long time "on the sidewalk" because you'll freeze. Maybe you're wearing gloves, which make using a smartphone impossible.
In my case, I have a Garmin for GPS, which is much more reliable than any phone GPS I've used.
If you compare the quality of a point and shoot digital camera vs a smart phone, the digital camera will blow it out of the water. For me, it's about the quality of the photo, not the convenience.
We're lucky to have choices. That's the beauty of it.
> If you compare the quality of a point and shoot digital camera vs a smart phone
My rule of thumb is that the best camera is the one you have with you. Seeing as I always have my iPhone with me, it's been the camera I go to most. I don't even know where my digital point and shoot is anymore.
Well, like I said, it's good to have choices. I carry around a point and shoot all the time. There's always one in the car. There's also one in my laptop bag. I routinely have a DSLR near me 90% of the time... then again, I'm a bit of a photography nut. That might explain it :)
I guess I'm an "audiophile" when it comes to photos.
I also have a hard time dealing with 192kbps mp3s. That damn cymbal compression sound is like nails on a chalk board.
If you can tell the difference between 192kbps and 320kbps in a blind test, I would say that is impressive.
I'm a musician and I have a few "audiophile" friends that say they can tell the difference, but when we conducted a blind test, they were basically just guessing.
I am not saying it's impossible, but there aren't many people that can hear the difference, I know I can't. Even with my Grado cans.
I dunno... I compose a ton of emails on mine... some of my "best". I read all the time: books (not a lot), emails, social networks, and web pages and I'm still, years later, a little shocked at how rarely I get up off the couch for a bigger device. It seems unlikely to me that we'll ever plug our phones into our laptops because... nearly nobody really would like that. So... what's left of this article for me? Smartphones should move toward letting people do something "meaningful"? There seem to be apps for doing nearly anything I can imagine [that makes sense on a ~4" screen] and tons of things (more every day) that I wouldn't.
Teenagers have written novels on dumbphones and recorded albums on primitive tape decks. Complaining about imperfect tools and circumstances is the refrain of the wannabe.
If you don't like the screen, download an Audible book or buy an $80 Kindle.
Some of the best music that came out of the 50s was recorded on tape, then overdubbed, then overdubbed again. Creativity shouldn't be judged based on the medium.
I have written a 10,000 word short story on my smartphone with a bluetooth keyboard. Sure, phones are not perfect but I don't see the point of owning a laptop after that experience. I think we are only at the beginning of seeing what is possible from a small, handheld device.
This. I am continually amazed at how few people use Audible. It is an amazing and rich source for books recorded in very high quality (read by voice talents, no stops during audio). I finish a book every 2-3 weeks just by listening on my way to and from class.
Grooveshark is another service I use my phone almost daily for. Play virtually any song on your phone.
Myfitnesspal is yet another. Record daily caloric intake and exercise easily (since you always have a phone around and since you don't know all the calories in the food you eat, but a search-enabled website does).
I also play backgammon while waiting for the bus.
I never take maps to unknown destinations any more. I still remember the times we printed maps before going to tourist destinations in nyc.
I check my email.
I check my calendar.
I talk on skype (via skype mobile). I do international calls without being charged international rates.
I check the weather (mostly the temperature) to know how heavy to wear.
I occasionally take photos when I need to record something (on a blackboard, for example) but don't want to write it down.
I got some free credit on audible, downloaded a book, discovered it's drm'd and none of my: laptop, mobile, tablet can play it. They just wasted my time - worse than useless.
I definitely take photos of whiteboards though and call via my sip provider.
I'm mostly in agreement, but maybe it's just because I don't have much use for a smart phone.
I don't text. I don't IM except at work, and emails can wait till I get home. It is handy to have a web browser for when you absolutely must look up something on the go, but honestly that doesn't happen often enough to warrant a hefty data plan. Yeah, I don't have a data plan. I look for free WIFI if I need internet.
So what else is there? Reading books? I do read books on it (while on the go), but it's generally an unpleasant experience because the screen's so small that it renders everything at the subpixel (read: blurry) level and I spend all my time either squinting or doing zoom-in-and-pan.
Tablet? No, thanks. If I wanted to lug something big around, I'd take my laptop with me. It's far more versatile.
Games? Meh. I still haven't found any really compelling smartphone games. And really, if I wanted to play games, I'd just play them on my laptop or desktop, which have better specs and bigger screens and better input systems.
Camera? Well, I've taken some photos with it, but I don't use it often. I suppose it could come in handy for that one time when i REALLY need to take a picture.
The things I DO like are:
* note taking
* voice recording
* learning apps
* Being able to transfer stuff onto and off the phone without too much hassle
Aside from that, there's not much I find compelling.
Yeah, I don't have a data plan. I look for free WIFI if I need internet.
Not to say that this doesn't work for you, but having a data plan is completely different. Being able to count on the fact that, most of the time, you're able to pull your device out of your pocket and access the internet, whether it's for email, maps, or looking something up is extremely valuable.
It may not be worth the cost for some people, but I will say that before I got my iPhone there were many times where my strategy of "open laptop and see if there's free wifi" failed to work, and occasionally involved driving to the nearest McDonald's trying to pick up their wifi from my car. Not fun.
Agreed, I've owned my first smartphone (an HTC Trophy) for about a year now, the last six months having the data connection on (using prepaid data). It certainly makes the phone a whole different experience.
I was a bit late to the whole smartphone thing, but got my boyfriend's old 3G when he got a new iPhone4. I thought I wouldn't need unlimited data, so I got a plan with cheap data instead. It took two weeks, and then I switched to unlimited data.
Having your phone always on and always connected is a very similar transition as when going from dialup to broadband. No more "I'll look it up on my computer when I get home", instead you can just look it up right now, anywhere.
Sure it's not as convenient to look for wifi, but when I did have a data plan, the actual number of times I'd look something up on the go was so low that it worked out to about $5 per thing looked up. That's just not a cost of convenience I can justify.
Once I cancelled the plan, I soon realized how little I actually NEEDED to look something up on the go. It's a lot like how I got rid of my car and all associated expenses after realizing how little I actually drove it. Now, if I need a car, I'll rent one. That's only happened once so far.
I remember when I had dialup, I couldn't see the big deal about broadband internet. After all, I was primarily downloading text and I could get online in less than 30 seconds.
It wasn't until I went to college and had a persistent pipe that I finally got how different always-on internet was compared to internet you had to bring up.
I suspect at least some of your lack of use for a smartphone is precisely because you don't have a data plan.
Humans are great at adapting to their surroundings. If you give them fancy gadgets, or a new way of doing something that is innovative, they'll forget how they did "x" before they had the new fancy "widget".
My smartphone means I have instant access to a map that will have a shiny blue dot that means "you are here" at all times. And then I can ask "How do I get there?" and it can tell me. And if I get somewhere and realize I forgot to write something down, I can Google it. Or look up the email that had the information. Or I can text the person I'm meeting that I will be late, or maybe they can tell me where they are and I can meet them at the new location.
Basically, my smartphone gives me easy access to information at all times. That it's not useful for work is besides the point - it's useful when I'm doing things other than work.
This is why I'm excited about Windows 8. I can potentially have a pocket-sized/e-reader-sized device that is a real computer. When on the go, use it in its slate mode. Then plug a keyboard into its USB port and a display into its mini HDMI port and it's a full blown computer. No compromise.
My smartphone means I can no longer make reliable phonecalls to anybody, ever, even if I'm standing below the cell tower.
My smartphone has comparable voice quality of two tin cans and some thin wire. I tested. (to be fair, the smartphone has better range and it's network is more scaleable).
My smartphone, whether verizon, sprint or at&t (I've gone through all three in five years) always manages to cost about $130 per month because they force me to pay $30/month for data and $20/month for texting. I never managed to go over on my minutes though, see my first point.
My smartphone meant any hope at privacy or anonymity I might still harbor would be destroyed.
My smartphone can be turned on remotely and tapped if the DHS decides to investigate my pakistani roommate from 11 years ago because he wrote "this policy is unfair" and then posted a cat stevens video on facebook. True story.
My smartphone means I feel the urge to obsessively check facebook, twitter, linkedin, and my 8 email accounts every 3 seconds or else the world will end.
My smartphone breaks the moment I drop it from 6 inches above a surface and costs $600 to replace.
My smartphone(s) are smashed into pieces and disconnected.
My smartphone has driven me to attempt to live without a mobile phone.
My smartphone liberated me through frustration.
Lots of words, not sure what's the point. If you got bad reception, maybe it's a broken handset - have you tried repairing? Smartphones seem to work pretty well for other people so you're really the random bad case here.
The plan has nothing to do with he smartphone itself. I can have mine on around $6 per month prepaid in total (not in the us though). Regarding the true story... Well choose a phone which cannot be. If you don't want to be constantly connected to facebook et al. Just don't configure that account - use it via website, or not at all.
Your phone doesn't force you to do anything - you can use it however you want.
I agree with some of the points, but it's all about user experience. If I want to use Twitter, my smartphone is great. Even replying it's great, because it's a short message. If I click on a link to a web page that has a mobile version, it's also great. Even though the screen is small, the site is designed so the clutter is gone and it's still easy to read.
Where my smartphone isn't so great is when the user experience breaks. I click a link and I end up on a site that isn't mobile friendly, is filled with junk and I need to pinch and zoom all over the place, I hate that. Or if I want to type in more than a sentence, I really hate the onscreen keyboard, or any small keyboard. Trying to do more involved things can be frustrating as well because it's never as fast as my desktop.
So really I think it's an evolving issue. Some things work great on it, many others not so much, but it's just a matter of time for many of these things to get better. When all sites have seamless mobile versions, when speech recognition is good enough that we won't need to type anything, we'll see smartphones be much better.
>when speech recognition is good enough that we won't need to type anything
I dread the coming of that day because using public transportation will become an even more unpleasant experience because there will be more people speaking into their phones and that speech will be even more unnatural than ordinary cell-phone conversations.
I'm with the OP, sort of. I ditched my iPhone a couple months ago and surprisingly I barely miss it. Email, browser, and maps were the most useful applications for me, but I never cared for much else.
Now I own a Motorola F3 (FONE). It's about as simple as it gets while being incredibly durable, crazy long battery (e-ink), and amazing reception. It's also pretty slim and light, but it sucks for texting and the character display is a little painful. Worth it for me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_FONE
Oh and my phone bill went from over $100 / month down to $25 / month, yet somehow I have way more talk time included in the plan (unlimited within the province).
I'm a software developer if you're wondering. Maybe I'd find smart phones a necessity in another profession...
I will add only this: if you desire to do a lot of typing (writing, emailing, etc.) with a smartphone and you do not have a device with a physical keyboard then you need to go out and buy one (droid 2/3, mytouch slide, g2, etc.) before you continue complaining. It's a solvable problem.
At my house there are constantly three things on the coffee table: an Android smartphone, an iPad 2, and a Thinkpad. The iPad 2 was novel at first, but now everyone reaches for the Thinkpad first when they are sitting on the couch.
I made the exact same switch from a 3G to an Atrix. I dislike my Atrix quite a bit, and Android in general is not what I had hoped it would be. I wonder if you are having the same experience. Some of it could really be hardware related (my friends say they can't hear me when I hold the phone with my shoulder up to my ear!)
My friends love their 4S's. I hope making the switch back to apple will make me love my smartphone again.
122 comments
[ 6.2 ms ] story [ 185 ms ] threadFor movement between phone and desktop I use ChromeToPhone and dropbox. ChromeToPhone is probably the most seamless way.
my first thought exactly --> i use chromeToPhone all the time.
Firefox on Android can sync your tabs with your desktop browser (and vice-versa).
I think the default Android browser on Android 3.0 and above can do this too (it certainly syncs bookmarks fine)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3113192 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3047786
Maybe it's time for a 30 day smartphone fast: http://www.addictionandsubtraction.com/30-day-smartphone-fas...
(Just my thoughts, no data whatsoever to back this up).
I used to be a die-hard desktop fan until I found xoticpc http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-lapto... I can vouch for the sager brand...the specs are sick. I can play all modern games, plus I'm portable.
This is where I disagree. I love my smartphone (Galaxy S2!) because it lets me read my Google Reader and Kindle on the go. But if you don't like the experience of reading on the screen, I can see how its perceived usefulness will diminish.
Smartphone utility is probably also strongly correlated with time spent away from a laptop. I rarely use my smartphone at work or at home, but I tend to spend most of my time out and about on the weekends, so access to email, IM and Maps while out of the house is worth the price of admission. You are never out of touch, you can find the address/directions to anything, from anywhere, anytime.
Then add on camera, Facebook, Yelp for finding restaurants, Yahoo Fantasy Football app, Evernote for keeping workout logs and saving commonly run queries and I'm pretty much in love. But as always, YMMV.
I have, more times than I can remember, looked up restaurant recommendations, reached consensus with other people wirelessly, and then made a reservation, all without leaving my smartphone, while standing on the sidewalk somewhere.
I have also walked up to a restaurant only to find it closed, and found a delicious alternative within seconds thanks to Yelp, Urbanspoon, et al.
I have taken pictures, uploaded them to [social network] and received responses within minutes, if not seconds. I have met up with friends because the GPS told us we were near each other.
My smartphone is great for consuming the day's news (especially on a high-ppi screen, reading is a joy) while on the train to work. Laptop or even tablet? Don't be ridiculous, I need one hand hanging onto a railing.
My smartphone is also my light meter, when I'm out and about playing with vintage cameras that pre-date my birth. Not a very typical use case, but one where a laptop or even a tablet would be utterly useless.
I love my smartphone.
Just set the background image to all white, touch any button and it will light up. Not too bright but usable in most cases.
The extended battery life is what clinched it for me. The funniest thing is that for years I would be way ahead of the curve and now I'm walking around with something that is probably more of a conversation piece than anything made by apple or htc.
"You use that?"
Calendar info can be synced with nearly all phones in other ways.
If you don't recieve important calls all that often, test yourself. Leave your smartphone at home for a week.
If you don't use it much while you're out and about, could you not simply have forgone it, planned your trip 5 minutes before you left home, and checked your email that evening?
I also don't like planning or sticking to plans when going out (how much fun is that anyway?). But I do like to get information on the go, for whatever I decide to do.
[0] http://www.esato.com/gfx/news/img/2_2115i_lowres_2005_03_14....
I'm sure smartphones are good for a lot of people, but I haven't found the need for one personally. Anything I could do on a smartphone I can already do, I just have to wait until I'm in front of my computer. Which suites me fine.
When my car's GPS took me miles down a road that was washed out on a trip hundreds of miles from my home, Google Navigation on my smartphone suggested a different route that got me safely to my destination.
It's a flexible and reliable alarm and kitchen timer.
I can read novels comfortably in bed on my smartphone (none of my several laptops are very ergonomic for this purpose).
I can map my bike rides and get stats on min/max/average speed, elevation, etc. (all the while using it as a music player).
It lets me easily maintain multiple shopping lists.
I can tune my guitar with it.
It functions as a real flashlight (my phone has a very bright LED).
My smartphone is no replacement for a computer, but it's better at these tasks than any computer I own.
The killer network-enabled app is still on the drawing-board. (I don't feel like being able to instagram a photo and have your friends "like" a black-n-white photo of your dinner WHILE YOU ARE STILL EATING IT! is it).
Really? I tried with an iPod Touch and an iPad, and really hated both. Then I bought a Kindle and found it extraordinary. The Kindle is the best device I've ever owned.
Reading in bed with a smartphone is great because the light does not bother my partner, and after two minutes of my falling asleep, the phone switches off its screen as well. Any bed lamp I use keeps me awake rather than allowing me to fall asleep.
(I know I am the exception as I have been reading on Palm Pilot screens since the late 90s - it was the only way to make sure I could get enough reading time in medical school.)
(And you can't use a smartphone to read on the beach or any place under direct sunlight...)
Not only that. To the GP: I read also on my phone (Nexus one) but I feel the backlight is not very gentle for my eyes, even when using FBreader in night mode. Also, characters are too small. To me, a (real B&W e-ink) Kindle is better, or a paper book.
Why not using your phone navigation then? Here in China, without turn-by-turn GPS, I would be lost in nowhere, and the Chinese things they sell as GPS don't count.
> My smartphone is no replacement for a computer
Mine is, in many cases. Before, I was in the habit of turning on my laptop to check some pages or feeds after dinner, now I do this confortably installed in the sofa, on my phone.
I just miss, obviously, the content production abilities of a computer. Hope they'll find quickly a way to input text conveniently in a phone-sized thing. (I won't bet on the voice for that, maybe just a good hand writting detector could work as well)
edit: oh yeah, they make slide out keyboards for this exact reason. totally forgot about those.
Do you not have a home? ;-)
I think there's a big geographical problem that's overlooked. These things are all designed in California where the weather is sunny year-round.
But in the rest of the world, most of the time, it's cold. You will not stand a long time "on the sidewalk" because you'll freeze. Maybe you're wearing gloves, which make using a smartphone impossible.
Did I say that? I won't stand for a long time at a street corner typing on my phone without gloves, in bad weather.
He just picked out all the negative things about a smartphone and nothing else.
Would he rather carry a laptop for driving navigation? How about a standalone digital camera to take a picture?
This reminded me of this video:
Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
If you compare the quality of a point and shoot digital camera vs a smart phone, the digital camera will blow it out of the water. For me, it's about the quality of the photo, not the convenience.
We're lucky to have choices. That's the beauty of it.
My rule of thumb is that the best camera is the one you have with you. Seeing as I always have my iPhone with me, it's been the camera I go to most. I don't even know where my digital point and shoot is anymore.
I guess I'm an "audiophile" when it comes to photos.
I also have a hard time dealing with 192kbps mp3s. That damn cymbal compression sound is like nails on a chalk board.
I'm a musician and I have a few "audiophile" friends that say they can tell the difference, but when we conducted a blind test, they were basically just guessing.
I am not saying it's impossible, but there aren't many people that can hear the difference, I know I can't. Even with my Grado cans.
If you don't like the screen, download an Audible book or buy an $80 Kindle.
Grooveshark is another service I use my phone almost daily for. Play virtually any song on your phone.
Myfitnesspal is yet another. Record daily caloric intake and exercise easily (since you always have a phone around and since you don't know all the calories in the food you eat, but a search-enabled website does).
I also play backgammon while waiting for the bus.
I never take maps to unknown destinations any more. I still remember the times we printed maps before going to tourist destinations in nyc.
I check my email.
I check my calendar.
I talk on skype (via skype mobile). I do international calls without being charged international rates.
I check the weather (mostly the temperature) to know how heavy to wear.
I occasionally take photos when I need to record something (on a blackboard, for example) but don't want to write it down.
I definitely take photos of whiteboards though and call via my sip provider.
I don't text. I don't IM except at work, and emails can wait till I get home. It is handy to have a web browser for when you absolutely must look up something on the go, but honestly that doesn't happen often enough to warrant a hefty data plan. Yeah, I don't have a data plan. I look for free WIFI if I need internet.
So what else is there? Reading books? I do read books on it (while on the go), but it's generally an unpleasant experience because the screen's so small that it renders everything at the subpixel (read: blurry) level and I spend all my time either squinting or doing zoom-in-and-pan.
Tablet? No, thanks. If I wanted to lug something big around, I'd take my laptop with me. It's far more versatile.
Games? Meh. I still haven't found any really compelling smartphone games. And really, if I wanted to play games, I'd just play them on my laptop or desktop, which have better specs and bigger screens and better input systems.
Camera? Well, I've taken some photos with it, but I don't use it often. I suppose it could come in handy for that one time when i REALLY need to take a picture.
The things I DO like are:
* note taking * voice recording * learning apps * Being able to transfer stuff onto and off the phone without too much hassle
Aside from that, there's not much I find compelling.
It may not be worth the cost for some people, but I will say that before I got my iPhone there were many times where my strategy of "open laptop and see if there's free wifi" failed to work, and occasionally involved driving to the nearest McDonald's trying to pick up their wifi from my car. Not fun.
Having your phone always on and always connected is a very similar transition as when going from dialup to broadband. No more "I'll look it up on my computer when I get home", instead you can just look it up right now, anywhere.
Once I cancelled the plan, I soon realized how little I actually NEEDED to look something up on the go. It's a lot like how I got rid of my car and all associated expenses after realizing how little I actually drove it. Now, if I need a car, I'll rent one. That's only happened once so far.
It wasn't until I went to college and had a persistent pipe that I finally got how different always-on internet was compared to internet you had to bring up.
I suspect at least some of your lack of use for a smartphone is precisely because you don't have a data plan.
Basically, my smartphone gives me easy access to information at all times. That it's not useful for work is besides the point - it's useful when I'm doing things other than work.
I now have a landline I rarely pick-up.
The plan has nothing to do with he smartphone itself. I can have mine on around $6 per month prepaid in total (not in the us though). Regarding the true story... Well choose a phone which cannot be. If you don't want to be constantly connected to facebook et al. Just don't configure that account - use it via website, or not at all.
Your phone doesn't force you to do anything - you can use it however you want.
Where my smartphone isn't so great is when the user experience breaks. I click a link and I end up on a site that isn't mobile friendly, is filled with junk and I need to pinch and zoom all over the place, I hate that. Or if I want to type in more than a sentence, I really hate the onscreen keyboard, or any small keyboard. Trying to do more involved things can be frustrating as well because it's never as fast as my desktop.
So really I think it's an evolving issue. Some things work great on it, many others not so much, but it's just a matter of time for many of these things to get better. When all sites have seamless mobile versions, when speech recognition is good enough that we won't need to type anything, we'll see smartphones be much better.
I dread the coming of that day because using public transportation will become an even more unpleasant experience because there will be more people speaking into their phones and that speech will be even more unnatural than ordinary cell-phone conversations.
Now I own a Motorola F3 (FONE). It's about as simple as it gets while being incredibly durable, crazy long battery (e-ink), and amazing reception. It's also pretty slim and light, but it sucks for texting and the character display is a little painful. Worth it for me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_FONE
Oh and my phone bill went from over $100 / month down to $25 / month, yet somehow I have way more talk time included in the plan (unlimited within the province).
I'm a software developer if you're wondering. Maybe I'd find smart phones a necessity in another profession...
At my house there are constantly three things on the coffee table: an Android smartphone, an iPad 2, and a Thinkpad. The iPad 2 was novel at first, but now everyone reaches for the Thinkpad first when they are sitting on the couch.
Also, (shameless plug) I wrote about my own experience without a phone here: http://codebrief.com/2011/06/living-untethered/, and came up with a similar conclusion.
But you can. It's called Firefox sync ;-) And it has instant sync of tabs.
My friends love their 4S's. I hope making the switch back to apple will make me love my smartphone again.