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'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

theguardian.com

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Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#231

Post by crazygringo »

kxrm wrote: post #211
tokioyoyo wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends where you are and which flights. Around me, maybe 60% of people use mobile. From the other 40%, some probably got their paper tickets when they checked in their baggage and going with that now. > boarding passes at home before they leave for the airport It’s been years I’ve heard or seen anyone doing it. Even my parents in their 70s get theirs at the airport.

I guess I am weird. I still do this. I just don't want to have to worry about my device being available during boarding nor do I want to have to stop at a kiosk. Just print at home, go through security and scan at the gate.

> I just don't want to have to worry about my device being available during boarding

I don't think most people worry about that at all. Why wouldn't it be available? If you're heading to the airport from home, your battery is charged.

And if your phone somehow breaks on the way, you print at a kiosk.

It seems far more likely that I'd lose a random piece of paper on the way to the airport than lose my phone...

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#232

Post by kxrm »

zulban wrote: post #195
tdeck wrote: post #92

One thing not mentioned yet is what happens when you've got a cheaper phone filled with photos and videos. At various times I've had to spend a few minutes deleting things just to download some stupid 100 meg app that I need to use for a total of 5 minutes to complete some basic task.

If you have a place to live, you shouldn't carry all your belongings with you in a backpack when you go outside. Similarly, a phone should not be your archive of all your media.

> If you have a place to live, you shouldn't carry all your belongings with you in a backpack when you go outside.

I really don't like this analogy. These are entirely different concepts. A backpack has weight, dimension in real space that impacts the real world. A phone full of videos has no extra weight or volume in the real world.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#233

Post by ryandrake »

tdeck wrote: post #216
zulban wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a place to live, you shouldn't carry all your belongings with you in a backpack when you go outside. Similarly, a phone should not be your archive of all your media.

Perhaps I can be patient and explain the underlying concepts here, since they seem to be unintuitive to a small minority of very condescending commenters: 1. I like to have access to my photos and videos while I'm on the go. You never know when the subject of some trip or experience from 2 years ago will come up in conversation, and I'll want to show a photo of it to someone I'm talking to. Since photos and videos do…

> Since photos and videos don't weight anything inside my phone, it's no trouble to carry them.

But in your example they -do- weigh something, measured in megabytes. So there is an obvious tradeoff in terms of what you can fit on your phone with some spare empty margin, similar to physical goods that you need to fit into a backpack when you know you might pick something else up along the way.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#234

Post by LinuxBender »

kxrm wrote: post #217
LinuxBender wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People here do have smart phones and I'm sure some have apps installed. What I am saying is none of that is required today. Nobody here is penalized for not installing some app.

Unless it's McDonalds. Then you pay more for not having the app.

I would have to pay more regardless. The closest McDonalds is a 2 hour drive each way and going up steep mountains on the way back. The burgers at the local restaurant are much better and healthier ... well ... as healthy as a burger gets.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#235

Post by crazygringo »

kxrm wrote: post #215
noqc wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what if your phone runs out of battery?

For me it is less about being concerned about my device running out of batteries. It's more about some weird incompatibility between my device and the scanner. It's one less thing to worry about when I just want to get on the plane. My paper ticket isn't going to lock before I get to the gate, or not be bright enough. I won't have to "play" with my ticket to keep it active and proper for the scanner.

> It's more about some weird incompatibility between my device and the scanner.

That's not a thing. They're literally just cameras looking for a QR code.

And unlocking your phone and adjusting brightness is pretty effortless, I dunno. I already do those things lots of times a day.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#236

Post by ryandrake »

crazygringo wrote: post #231
kxrm wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I am weird. I still do this. I just don't want to have to worry about my device being available during boarding nor do I want to have to stop at a kiosk. Just print at home, go through security and scan at the gate.

> I just don't want to have to worry about my device being available during boarding I don't think most people worry about that at all. Why wouldn't it be available? If you're heading to the airport from home, your battery is charged. And if your phone somehow breaks on the way, you print at a kiosk. It seems far more likely that I'd lose a random piece of paper on the way to the airport than lose my phone...

Maybe I'm weird, but when I go on a trip, I generally pack my smartphone, if I bring it at all. It would be a royal pain to go find it again when I get into line to board.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#237

Post by crazygringo »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #174
noqc wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what if your phone runs out of battery?

I’m gonna say something stupid — the chances of my phone running out of battery and me not being able to charge it is lower than me losing the paper ticket.

Not stupid at all. I think that's the case for most people.

It's easy to lose a random piece of paper. Whereas people are generally extremely aware of where their phone is at all times.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#238

Post by kxrm »

ryandrake wrote: post #233
tdeck wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I can be patient and explain the underlying concepts here, since they seem to be unintuitive to a small minority of very condescending commenters: 1. I like to have access to my photos and videos while I'm on the go. You never know when the subject of some trip or experience from 2 years ago will come up in conversation, and I'll want to show a photo of it to someone I'm talking to. Since photos and videos do…

> Since photos and videos don't weight anything inside my phone, it's no trouble to carry them. But in your example they -do- weigh something, measured in megabytes. So there is an obvious tradeoff in terms of what you can fit on your phone with some spare empty margin, similar to physical goods that you need to fit into a backpack when you know you might pick something else up along the way.

No, they don't "weigh" anything.

Digital storage is so far removed from this concept. Let us not excuse poor business practices by trying to offload a piece of their business systems on to their customers' devices.

I shouldn't have to provide space on my property to conduct business with another organization.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#239

Post by aucisson_masque »

2shortplanks wrote: post #167

One thing this article doesn’t mention is how this all falls apart when you spend time in more than one country. My UK bank (Barclays) won’t let me install their app on my US iPhone (i.e. my phone that uses a US based iCloud account). Tesco won’t let me use their loyalty app. I can’t install an app that’ll let me order Starbucks or McDonalds in the UK (I only have access to the US versions of these apps). I can’t wat…

Is this the same on Android side ? I know that you can more easily sideload app there so it could be an issue only on iphone walled garden.

Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

#240

Post by bdcravens »

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, you started to see more and more interactive phone systems appear due to touch-tone phones being common place. However, I grew up poor, and for quite some time we still had rotary phones (when we could afford to have a phone that is), making those systems inaccessible to us.
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