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My year with a distraction-free iPhone

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Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#151

Post by collyw »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #134
collyw wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dumbphone plus a GPS device, mp3 player could so the same. I still prefer my Sansa clip to my phone for music (I never even set the phone up for music). Small, battery lasts a while, and I basically don't need to worry about it. I even put one through the washing machine and it worked after a couple of weeks. As a side note, I find my Android phone a serious step back in usability. I would say I hang up rather than a…

"Do the same" - if you're now using 3 devices to do something that 1 can do, you're not doing the same. This is important to some. Also, the Sansa doesn't stream, so it's not really "doing the same". Some like their own curated music and for that an on-device music player is fine. Some others (me, for example), want a radio style stream where I don't know what's coming. > I would say I hang up rather than answer clos…

How do you know how many times I have pulled the phone out of my pocket and fat fingered a hang up? Lets not resort to speculation because it doesn't happen to you.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#152

Post by collyw »

maccard wrote: post #100
collyw wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dumbphone plus a GPS device, mp3 player could so the same. I still prefer my Sansa clip to my phone for music (I never even set the phone up for music). Small, battery lasts a while, and I basically don't need to worry about it. I even put one through the washing machine and it worked after a couple of weeks. As a side note, I find my Android phone a serious step back in usability. I would say I hang up rather than a…

That's terribly awkward to carry around. Also, a GPS device doesn't tell me when my next bus is due (there's about 45 minutes between my buses). I also now only require one charger for my GPS and MP3 player. I can also look at cat pictures on the bus.

The point in the article was to remove as many apps as possible, particularly the cat picture ones.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#153

Post by pyre »

ghshephard wrote: post #62
dredmorbius wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still really hard to get around the privacy invasions of a smartphone, though. I'd like something without GPS and for which I can completely control the OS and environment. CyanogenMod seems to be as close as I'm likely to get to that at present.

Richard Stallman, as usual, was quite ahead of the curve on this topic when he noted that he didn't carry a cell phone of any kind because of the privacy considerations associated with logging your location, accurately with triangulation, against cell towers. The instant you start using a cell phone consistently, you've effectively handed over a log of your location history to whoever can convince the sysadmin in you…

> ... as usual ...

If you wonder why people don't listen to you, phrasing like this comes across as condescending, and that you have some sort of belief that Richard Stallman is infallible.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#155

Post by pyre »

w1ntermute wrote: post #110
dredmorbius wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite and absolutely. The man has an outstanding record for predictions. I wish he weren't so good.

And yet he continues to be mocked on sites like HN.

Things that don't help:

- When people want to point out that "Stallman predicted this X years ago," they phase it as, "Richard Stallman was right, as usual." Richard Stallman is not infallible. Overstating one's case doesn't win any new friends.

- There are many of Stallman's "followers" that are very aggressive at promoting the GPLv3 over all other open source licenses. While this might not be Stallman's personal position on the matter, if definitely doesn't win many people over (and probably pushes many away).

- Richard Stallman isn't necessarily the most lovable and charismatic figure. While people shouldn't factor that in to things when evaluating his message, they do.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#156

Post by michaelcampbell »

collyw wrote: post #151
michaelcampbell wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Do the same" - if you're now using 3 devices to do something that 1 can do, you're not doing the same. This is important to some. Also, the Sansa doesn't stream, so it's not really "doing the same". Some like their own curated music and for that an on-device music player is fine. Some others (me, for example), want a radio style stream where I don't know what's coming. > I would say I hang up rather than answer clos…

How do you know how many times I have pulled the phone out of my pocket and fat fingered a hang up? Lets not resort to speculation because it doesn't happen to you.

Nor anyone I've ever seen use a smart phone.

I'm just playing the odds. Seriously, if you can't pick up a call much more than half the time, get a different dialer.

And I think you and I both know you're carrying this too far.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#157

Post by wink »

collyw wrote: post #71
ggreer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A stripped-down smartphone has quite a few advantages over a dumbphone. Notice which apps are installed: Google Maps, subway maps, Rdio, Uber, Instacart. As he says, these things are like living in the future.

Dumbphone plus a GPS device, mp3 player could so the same. I still prefer my Sansa clip to my phone for music (I never even set the phone up for music). Small, battery lasts a while, and I basically don't need to worry about it. I even put one through the washing machine and it worked after a couple of weeks. As a side note, I find my Android phone a serious step back in usability. I would say I hang up rather than a…

Interesting sidenote that while 2 sibling comments praised their Sansa music player, we had one from audible for audio books and it's been so frustrating that I think of it as the worst mp3 player I ever used.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#158

Post by donniezazen »

yodsanklai wrote: post #140
Gracana wrote: post #11

As someone who owns a dumb flip phone, it's funny to read someone's enthusiastic account of their life-changing experience of... living exactly the way I do. But on the other hand, I get it. This sort of thing (facebook, hacker news, freaking imgur ) sucks up so much of my time (albeit on the desktop), and for what? Occasional interesting tidbits, and frequent annoyance and frustration? Some of it is straight-up bad…

To me, the worst one are the regular news, especially if there are comments. Not only you don't learn anything, but it leads to bitterness and anxiety and give you a wrong perception of the world. At least, hacker news is informative and the comments are of high-quality. However, I wish I was able to read some articles more thoroughly rather that passively browse.

You are right comments bring out the worse in you.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#159

Post by r_singh »

“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

-- by social scientist, Herbert A. Simon.

Keeping our phone distraction free will definitely make us attention rich and free us from the information pollution that we're getting used to. If not a distraction free smartphone, we should probably make better decisions about what information we choose to spend our attention on.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#160

Post by nb4hnp »

CalRobert wrote: post #135
collyw wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dumbphone plus a GPS device, mp3 player could so the same. I still prefer my Sansa clip to my phone for music (I never even set the phone up for music). Small, battery lasts a while, and I basically don't need to worry about it. I even put one through the washing machine and it worked after a couple of weeks. As a side note, I find my Android phone a serious step back in usability. I would say I hang up rather than a…

The loss of physical buttons and keyboards has made basically every modern phone a frustrating step back in usability.

2007 called, and they want their complaints back.
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