Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I don't like smartphones

devever.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 294 posts

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#131

Post by vinay427 »

morganvachon wrote: post #96
wvh wrote: post #91

I've got a Jolla phone running Sailfish, which is reasonably open. I'm happy with it because as an advanced user I can enable developer mode and modify or fix things. It's a stable and usable system. But Jolla doesn't seem to be doing so well right now. Before that I had a Nokia N9, the only Maemo phone, precurser to Sailfish. Another capable although minimal system. That didn't go anywhere either, because Nokia sold…

> Before that I had a Nokia N9, the only Maemo phone The N900 begs to differ with that statement. It ran Maemo 5, and (in my personal opinion) was the best phone of its era hands down.

Not to mention the N9 was marketed as a MeeGo device, not a Maemo device.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#132

Post by shpx »

jvandonsel wrote: post #98

If you had offered someone in 1916 a device that they could put in their pocket that would let them instantly communicate with nearly anyone on the planet, tap into a large fraction of the world's knowledge base, read books, navigate across the country, take photographs and movies, and play almost any song ever written, what do you think that person would say? "No thanks." ? The smartphone is one of the most signific…

You convieniently didnt mention that it also allows their government to know where they are and where they were and what they're saying and what they've said, and what they're reading, and glimpses of what they've seen, forever.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#134

Post by AnthonyMouse »

chakalakasp wrote: post #122
logicrook wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find fantastic how these kinds of arguments can be made blatantly ignoring that they basically are a plea for authoritarian governments. Do you realize how bad basic freedoms are? Most people are better off without them, because many would harm themselves. And can you imagine the gains if instead of letting people speak for themselves, we has a single entity vetting everyone's discourse? Man, dictatorship is…

I fail to see how these scenarios are even remotely analogous. Closed systems are what the consumer has happily chosen for their phones, which they vote for with their dollars. Our system of government is what people have chosen -- and you will note that it is not "open". I can't walk up to the Senate floor and present a bill, nor can you. The system for doing that is closed. If you want to be a part of if, you have…

Windows gets full of malware because "download executables from the internet and run them" is the expected way to install Windows software, so the process for installing Conduit is no different than the process for installing 7zip or Adblock.

What you're making the argument for is a package manager with vetted packages, not a prohibition on advanced users installing anything outside of the package manager using a different method.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#135

Post by vinay427 »

lottin wrote: post #114
cowsandmilk wrote: post #9

pfffft... the first line shows an extremely limited world view. Plenty of people are creating using smartphones. Sure, no one is programming on a smartphone, but plenty of people are creating art via the cameras and on-device editing tools. And doing so much more spontaneously than when you had to awkwardly carry around a camcorder waiting for inspiration to hit. Similarly, lots of people only use PCs for consumption…

Yes I see people taking pictures with their phones but do you really call this creating art? I think it gives them the _illusion_ that they're creating something, and maybe that makes them happy, but personally I think it's an act of self-delusion, and quite annoying too.

I would agree with this. From my experience, most people in my demographic use smartphone cameras for sharing moments on Facebook, Snapchat, etc. which directly fuels content consumption. Relatively few seem to really aspire to be hobbyist photographers.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#136

Post by CydeWeys »

cableshaft wrote: post #82
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #24

I don't really see how some of his points support his position. e.g. I don't own a smartphone, because it's a consumption device rather than both consumption and production, is just silly. So is a photoalbum, so is a book, so is a TV, so is a music player. A smartphone is all in one and it's incredibly useful. Beyond that, it is in ways a production device. It's a messaging device, a photo and video taking device, it…

Almost every app (and many games) being made nowadays are thin clients making api calls where all the work is done on the server. I don't like it. I like having games from decades ago and still being able to play them long after the companies are dead and its employees working on other things. On my own time I try to come up with software that can run entirely without the need to communicate with servers, or even wit…

> Almost every app (and many games) being made nowadays are thin clients making api calls where all the work is done on the server.

This is not true of games. Can you name any? Yes, multiplayer games require a server component, but they're not thin clients. And games that are not multiplayer generally don't require a server at all except possibly for DRM. People don't like wasting their data plan unnecessarily and they like being able to play in subway tunnels.

If you think about the economics of it, this makes sense. Margins are razor slim; you need to be able to profit off of whatever is left after the app store takes its cut of your $0.99-4.99 retail price. Having to run and maintain a fleet of servers to handle your games simply doesn't make sense. Better (and easier programmatically) to take advantage of the powerful processors on the devices themselves and have the games run locally. Think of something like Civilization, that has a mobile app; why on Earth would you want a central server that would have to run god knows how many millions of AIs when the phones could simply calculate that themselves?

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#137

Post by Aoyagi »

ikeboy wrote: post #19

>With a PC, I don't have to perform some arcane operation to actually have control of the device. Moreover, it seems to be common to discriminate against people who have the gall to “root” their device, or to disable some functionality of the device if such “rooting” is performed. Guess what? Most computers come with unfree operating systems, you need to perform an arcane operation (install Linux) to regain control,…

Windows provides incomperably more control than any of the stock mobile OSes.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#138

Post by [deleted] »

hengheng wrote: post #47
joosters wrote: post #39

This person would be happier moving to a pre-computer environment - take a look at their pet hates: https://violations.devever.net/products - including: * AMD x86 CPUs * Intel x86 CPUs ...leaving, ARM CPUs, I guess? Windows ARM machines are also on the list. (And surely ARMs should be blacklisted according to his reasoning; he is unhappy with Intel's secure enclave, while ARM has similar features). Some people will n…

I have seen Kernel programmers walk around with MIPS laptops.

[deleted]

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#139

Post by ordinary »

ekianjo wrote: post #121
jvandonsel wrote: post #98

If you had offered someone in 1916 a device that they could put in their pocket that would let them instantly communicate with nearly anyone on the planet, tap into a large fraction of the world's knowledge base, read books, navigate across the country, take photographs and movies, and play almost any song ever written, what do you think that person would say? "No thanks." ? The smartphone is one of the most signific…

Smartphones are just portable computers. There is nothing new to them apart from the fact that 1) they have internet mobile connection 2) their form factor makes them very practical to carry. Technology-wise, we already had about everything when we had laptops and modems attached to them. It's just become much more convenient but it's still the same concept.

Computers are just really fast calculators. Calculators are just weird abaci made out of sand. Modems are just phones for computers. Phones are just smoke signals through a wire. By reducing things to their absolute basics, it's easy to lose track of the fact that reductions in size or increases in speed are sometimes the driving force of progress, far more than the original concept ever was.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#140

Post by dan_m2k »

shpx wrote: post #132
jvandonsel wrote: post #98

If you had offered someone in 1916 a device that they could put in their pocket that would let them instantly communicate with nearly anyone on the planet, tap into a large fraction of the world's knowledge base, read books, navigate across the country, take photographs and movies, and play almost any song ever written, what do you think that person would say? "No thanks." ? The smartphone is one of the most signific…

You convieniently didnt mention that it also allows their government to know where they are and where they were and what they're saying and what they've said, and what they're reading, and glimpses of what they've seen, forever.

Meh, at some point we've gotta see this as a trade off. And do you know something, I'm really not that concerned that .gov knows my browsing history.
Post reply on HN