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My year with a distraction-free iPhone

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101–110 of 189 posts

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#101
Seems oddly backwards to me, but I'm sure I'm not the only one. If I've bought and am paying for a phone that costs a significant fraction of my computer, it seems like a waste not to use it for that purpose. You can make the argument that disconnecting to a point, or for a period of time, is a good thing, but intentionally crippling your hardware because you can't resist the temptation of having it there seems like it would be better solved by forming better habits in the first place.

It just seems like it would be on par with buying a brand new computer to get your writing done, then installing DOS because the web browser was just too alluring.

All that said, I ended up taking this to the opposite extreme: I've set up my phone to be cross-linked into as many work-related systems as possible, so that I can take better advantage of those little "in-between" moments during my work days. Build's compiling? Get an alert when it's done. Waiting for a coworker to get out of a meeting? Get an alert when they ping your name in IRC/Skype/GChat. Not having to sit in front of my computer waiting for asynchronous blockers to resolve means I can retreat to the porch, or the living room, or the park up the street, without having to worry about coming back to find something's on fire. Additional apps allow for limited on-the-go debugging, interfacing with systems and the like, so that I can continue being away from my computer if the situation isn't severe enough to require my actual physical presence at a keyboard and larger screen.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#102
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.

> I also now only require one charger for my GPS and MP3 player.

microUSB?

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#103
I used to work for a mobile company, I used to get new phone every other week, it drove me crazy... Now I carry no phone with me at all. But I don't go around telling people that I am better than them, because I have no phone or that I have a "distraction" free iPhone, an iPhone is still a hell of a distracting gadget.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#104

I used to work for a mobile company, I used to get new phone every other week, it drove me crazy... Now I carry no phone with me at all. But I don't go around telling people that I am better than them, because I have no phone or that I have a "distraction" free iPhone, an iPhone is still a hell of a distracting gadget.

Funnily enough, your comment comes off as more self-righteous and more of a humble brag than the original article.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this also makes a great use case for an iPad. I have hosts-blocked all time sinks on my Mac, and unlike on my iPhone, I don't even have much time to use my iPad. I do miss the convenience of a physical keyboard in FB discussions, though...

That's exactly what I use my iPad for. It's the perfect device for frivolous web browsing, YouTube watching, Twitter/Facebook, etc.

But every visit to the bathroom takes around 30 minutes!

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#106
post #48

Tried this, and one of the big difficulties is that I send email to my todo list manager to create todos ("pick up milk", "Email person about important_thing"). I don't want to give this up, but can't find an app that only sends email. So when I opened Mail to send a todo email, I'd see all the new emails that were begging to be read. I could create a new email account that I use for sending only, but that seems like…

Couldn't you use a dedicated todo app like Remember the Milk?

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#107
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember a time when people were reachable by location. You could call me at home and reach me early mornings (but that's rude), evenings, or weekends. Or at work at my desk. This was a time when toll charges were high enough that unsolicited calls were something of a rarity. That's definitely changed (and lack of caller-ID on landlines is all but unbearable now). There was even a time when answering machines didn'…

Perhaps I've just gotten lucky with sales calls, and either have few friends or courteous friends. I get one sales call a month, from my university alumni association, which I ignore. I talk on the phone or FaceTime with family approximately weekly, but that's on the weekend, and planned casually through email or SMS before hand. The vast majority of my communication with friends is asynchronous through email/Faceboo…

If you've signed on to the Do Not Call registry and/or have a cell phone, it's not so bad.

An established residence over time (a few decades) and various other marketing-database-entry events, and it's a pretty constant annoyance, in my experience.

Problem I've got with chat over phones is that the keyboards stink.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the phone's off, that's going to be less useful. And the tower-tracking location granularity's much lower than GPS Though I don't know what the reporting intervals are. Some smartphones (or their apps) were reporting location data every 10 seconds , with accuracy measured within a few feet. Can't find that article at the moment, though another reports that location information is logged "at least several times an…

While it is obvious that turning off the phone helps, it's good that you make that point as I cannot remove the battery from my smartphone, a problem most "dumb" phones don't have.

I can (and occasionally do) remove the battery as well.

One "feature" of the HTC Incredible (my earlier smartphone) is that the battery is also fairly accessible and can be removed if desired.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#109
post #71
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…

> I would say I hang up rather than answer close to 50% of the calls.

Then you're an outlier. Through common sense, it should be obvious that the vast majority of people don't run into such problems, or it would be a much more widely talked about problem. Hell, people made a huge fuss about "antennagate" when it was really only encountered by a fraction of iPhone 4 users.

Re: My year with a distraction-free iPhone

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.
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