At some point, if you say something like that you'll probably be just given one.
I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
51–60 of 267 posts
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#52Never had a personal smartphone, just work-issued ones that usually stay on-location after a shift. Yeah, it can drive people up the wall. I don't care lol.
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#53I do have a smartphone, but I don't seem to feel the pain the author feels about being inundated by QR codes and apps. Maybe I have all the apps I need already? Maybe I just don't mind having an app on my phone because I know that I can set it to basically never bother me. Most of my apps have notifications silenced. My home screen is empty, save the handful of apps I do want. And for the little bit of effort I put f…
I don't think he's complaining about having a lot of apps, or the ability to have a lot of apps. He's complaining about being required to use apps for hundreds of small interactions every day that don't, or shouldn't, require an app. And he's correct. Companies are doing this not because they think it's better, but because they believe that if they can worm their way onto your device, and insert their cloud service (…
> He's complaining about being required to use apps for hundreds of small interactions every day
This is the exaggeration that makes these claims fall flat for me.
How are you getting to hundreds of smartphone interactions per day that require apps?
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#54I have a motorola smartphone. I don't have google play installed. I mainly use obtainium for app installation. Its a bare bones phone and it drives my business partner crazy. "Just log into our instagram account and. . .right, you don't have insta installed on your phone." "Can you log into our scheduling app and. . . right, you don't have that installed on your phone either." Some of the more painful things you have…
> - Not having any banking apps on my phone. Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out. This is the most tyrannical things about smart phones -- banking apps. I get it, the bank wants to ensure the platform is not a liability. But it forces most of us to use one of the only two "trusted" mobile providers on earth: Google or Apple, both of which are American (and I'm an Amer…
One might by Jelly Star and use it just for banking apps. And have a proper phone with their own free selection of software.
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#55I do have a smartphone, but I don't seem to feel the pain the author feels about being inundated by QR codes and apps. Maybe I have all the apps I need already? Maybe I just don't mind having an app on my phone because I know that I can set it to basically never bother me. Most of my apps have notifications silenced. My home screen is empty, save the handful of apps I do want. And for the little bit of effort I put f…
I think the problem is that things that once did not require and realistically shouldn't require apps (like the toilet example - which I can't tell if hyperbole or not) are now "app enabled" by default. Sure, you have taken the time to curate your mobile experience and silence things but a majority of the people in the world don't do that as it takes more time and effort than they are willing or able to give (why sil…
The example could be hyperbole, but Home Depot and Lowes both offer a wide selection of "smart toilets" and if we think "oh this is just a weird niche thing that will never catch on" let's remember how difficult it is to not purchase a Smart TV when television shopping these days.
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#56I've still never had a smartphone (technically my flip phone, a Kyocera Dura, is an android device, but it can't install apps so I'll consider it suitably "dumb")
Occasionally I need to tote along a tablet because several places (some MLB venues, for one thing) will either require a smartphone, or impose a severe surcharge for the convenience of not using it.
Anyway, I really regret that we didn't impose dumbphone protection laws back when we had a large enough bloc of seniors that didn't "upgrade" to a smartphone yet
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think he's complaining about having a lot of apps, or the ability to have a lot of apps. He's complaining about being required to use apps for hundreds of small interactions every day that don't, or shouldn't, require an app. And he's correct. Companies are doing this not because they think it's better, but because they believe that if they can worm their way onto your device, and insert their cloud service (…
> He's complaining about being required to use apps for hundreds of small interactions every day This is the exaggeration that makes these claims fall flat for me. How are you getting to hundreds of smartphone interactions per day that require apps?
Just because you don't need to interact with all of them today does not mean that interaction isn't required when needed.
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#58I have a motorola smartphone. I don't have google play installed. I mainly use obtainium for app installation. Its a bare bones phone and it drives my business partner crazy. "Just log into our instagram account and. . .right, you don't have insta installed on your phone." "Can you log into our scheduling app and. . . right, you don't have that installed on your phone either." Some of the more painful things you have…
> Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out So the burden is on her?
When we're out in public? Yes.
If its time sensitive? Yes.
Like I said, its something that's annoying, but this is the cost of keeping my privacy. My wife uses Apple for all her stuff and she understands. By any account I wouldn't say this is a "burden" per se. She opens the app, hits a few buttons and hits sends. Hardly something that I would consider a burden.
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#59From my experience modified iPhones make the perfect dumb phones that you will actually end up sticking with and it's free if you already have one. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45171200 I use this method ^ which lets you keep essential apps but otherwise have dumb phone (no browser, no App Store). Highly recommend. On the other hand, I have turned my laptop into a dumb computer using cold turkey blocker. I've…
Came here to link this same thread. Have been following this approach for 6 months and its been great. The only non utility apps I have on my device are ChatGPT, Duolingo, and Spotify. I recently removed email.
I'm not nearly as disciplined with cold turkey though.
Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't
#60> Just in my toilet, I’m supposed to have an app for the seat, an app for the flush and one for the ventilation.
Is this a joke? Are there really toilets that require a smartphone to flush?