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

191–200 of 294 posts

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#191

Post by JoeAltmaier »

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…

Yeah but we're old guys. The young folks don't have old bought copies of things. I think its a losing battle, and pointless to proselytize to the young about things they cannot do or experience any more. But good points.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#192

Post by seba_dos1 »

mikegioia wrote: post #162
barnabee wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't remove the possibility of open hardware either, there are options for partially or completely open smartphones (as a quick web search will attest) but the most popular products sold by Samsung, Apple, et al. are not. Equally, as for free speech, there are options for completely uncensored speech (although fewer than you think, and even then if you say certain things you'd better hope they can't be traced bac…

This is ridiculous. Name ONE option for a "completely open smartphone". I've spent the last 4 years in search of just ONE open phone and the closest we've come is the Neo900 (stalled, out of money) the Freerunner (production run of 100?), OsmocomBB running on an ancient candybar (illegal), and this hobby project [1] that is more toy than anything viable. The Nokia n900 was the last "openish" phone to come out and the…

You probably meant GTA04 phones instead of Openmoko Neo Freerunner - the latter was sold in more than 10 000 devices.

Yes, not counting GTA04, N900 was pretty much the last phone out there that you could call "openish". However, I can tell that Neo900 is not quite done yet and even though with time passing by it obviously gets less exciting than when it was announced, I'm still looking forward to it.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#193

Post by digi_owl »

thebaer wrote: post #170
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…

> it's a consumption device rather than both consumption and production, is just silly It's not just the fact that it's an underutilized general computing device; just look at the apps on your phone and tell me the percentage of them that open to a blank "canvas" rather than some kind of stream / feed. On the desktop, you have your text editors, word processors, photo editors, video editors, 3D modelers, IDEs, file s…

> On the desktop, you have your text editors, word processors, photo editors, video editors, 3D modelers, IDEs, file sharing utilities, digital audio workstations, etc.

Could have sworn i have seen examples of all but 3D modeling in the Android Play store.

That said, some of those uses can be very RAM demanding, and phones do not have much to offer there compared to a desktop.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#194

Post by seba_dos1 »

jdietrich wrote: post #148
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…

>Sure you can hardly build software or write books on a smartphone in a practical way Novels written on mobile phones are a popular literary subculture in Japan. http://www.ualberta.ca/~berban/cell/cellwho.html The Android SDK will run on Android, so apps can be written and built entirely on the device. Definitions of 'practical' vary, but I have done web development work on an Android tablet with a Bluetooth keyboar…

I loved the resistive screen of Neo Freerunner and Nokia N900, as it allowed me to write code on screen (surprisingly, the awful bezel around Freerunner screen actually worked great as a resting place for the finger, N900 while more comfortable in every other situation is more tiring when writing code). I've written quite a lot of Python on those phones in my life.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#195

Post by seba_dos1 »

petra wrote: post #160
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…

Also, with regards to openness: First Android does have an option to sideload apps, and while Google can exercise control and limits on the OS, it usually only does so with regards to ad-blockers, and even that only partially. And are ROM's hard to install ? For the technical user ,No,At least for large enough variety of phones. And as for the non-technical users - they always needed to pay someone or ask a friend wh…

Generally, the reality is that while the Android is open, the devices that run Android usually aren't, so in the end it doesn't really matter.

For very similar reason I wasn't crying after Firefox OS, even though it had some progress when it comes to platform openness in some other areas.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#196

Post by digi_owl »

jdietrich wrote: post #148
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…

>Sure you can hardly build software or write books on a smartphone in a practical way Novels written on mobile phones are a popular literary subculture in Japan. http://www.ualberta.ca/~berban/cell/cellwho.html The Android SDK will run on Android, so apps can be written and built entirely on the device. Definitions of 'practical' vary, but I have done web development work on an Android tablet with a Bluetooth keyboar…

Google looked poised to take Android beyond consumption when they introduced 3.0.

But then they did one misstep after another that effectively neutered it, and tried to pitch ChromeOS for office uses (watch them demo Citrix during the unveiling for example).

Now they seem to be coming back around, but can't get their ducks in a row (shipping hardware before the software is ready etc).

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#197

Post by ausjke »

I don't like staring at the small screen that will damage my eyesight along the way, I also don't like some unnecessary time wasted on it.

However its benefits outweighs those drawbacks way much, so no, I do like my smartphone.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#198

Post by JoeAltmaier »

digi_owl wrote: post #193
thebaer wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's a consumption device rather than both consumption and production, is just silly It's not just the fact that it's an underutilized general computing device; just look at the apps on your phone and tell me the percentage of them that open to a blank "canvas" rather than some kind of stream / feed. On the desktop, you have your text editors, word processors, photo editors, video editors, 3D modelers, IDEs, file s…

> On the desktop, you have your text editors, word processors, photo editors, video editors, 3D modelers, IDEs, file sharing utilities, digital audio workstations, etc. Could have sworn i have seen examples of all but 3D modeling in the Android Play store. That said, some of those uses can be very RAM demanding, and phones do not have much to offer there compared to a desktop.

And few professionals are going to be satisfied with a tiny screen, tiny processor and throttled connectivity. And no mouse or keyboard or Bamboo pad. Heck, I need three monitors to be most productive!

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#199

Post by jhasse »

swiley wrote: post #128
jhasse wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think because Android already IS open-source. Why would I need an alternative to reinvent the wheel? When using F-Droid [1] with a custom ROM and no Google Apps, Android is as open-source as Ubuntu, Sailfish or Firefox OS. The one big problem left is proprietary drivers, and this hasn't been fixed be these three alternatives yet. IIRC Sailfish and Ubuntu use the same proprietary Android drivers. [1] https://f-droid…

Have you ever tried to compile it? With the current residential bandwidth caps in the US it's not even practical to download the (100GB) source.

I'm living in Germany, downloading 100 GB wouldn't be a problem for me. But no, haven't tried to compile it yet. I'm trusting CyanogenMod.

Also I guess very few people are compiling Sailfish, Ubuntu or Firefox OS from source either ;)

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#200

Post by jhasse »

newday wrote: post #189
jhasse wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand: Have you ever heard of examples of malware which told the use to root their phone? I think CyanogenMods solution, where root access has to be enabled in the Developer Settings, which have to be enabled by tapping the Android version number 6 times, is the perfect solution: My mum would stop immediately doing such a complicated thing if she wanted to install something.

Yes, actually. My ex, sister, and nephew all got bit. Wan't American netflix on your phone, do x, y and z. Want to play games free, just follow these simple steps. You're not seeing it because you probably have a good BS detector and google/research first. But they very much exist.

Good to know :) Were these steps to enable installing apks from 3rd party sources or really rooting the phone though?
Post reply on HN