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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

#671

Post by steelframe »

crazygringo wrote: post #235
kxrm wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

And yet for me one time earlier this year said QR code on my Graphene OS phone scanned fine at the TSA checkpoint but refused to scan at the gate, leading to mayhem as the crew couldn't figure out for nearly an hour why the number of people sitting on the plane wasn't equal to the number of people who they registered as boarding.

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

#672

Post by steelframe »

crazygringo wrote: post #329
lenkite wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not effortless...and god forbid if your drop your smartphone and get it cracked. This headache is simply avoided with plain old paper reliability.

> and god forbid if your drop your smartphone and get it cracked Then you print a boarding pass at the kiosk? But I've cracked a phone once in ten years, it's not really something I'm worried about. And paper isn't reliable. For most people, you're much more likely to lose a random sheet of paper than for your phone to suddenly permanently stop working.

> Then you print a boarding pass at the kiosk?

Those kiosks are gone from many airports. You're going to have to wait in line to get anything printed. And if you fly Ryanair it will cost you over 50 euro.

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

#673

Post by mrandish »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #385
Henchman21 wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re a protected class I would assume yes. IANAL this is not legal advice and this is not a real situation anyway

That's my question, am I a protected class for not being able to operate a smartphone? I think many of a typical doctor's constituency fall into that category.

> a typical doctor's constituency fall into that category.

My 95 year-old mother can't use apps on her iphone because she can't figure out the navigation and various modes. Because of this her phone usage is limited to answering incoming calls, making calls to the six icons we've preset on her home screen, receiving texts and replying to the last text she received (because it's still on the screen). Anything else is iffy. And she's not cognitively impaired. She's actually quite sharp for her age and lives on her own within an assisted care community.

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

#674

Post by kiwijamo »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #289
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.

That's because they don't fly low coasters. It's often €50 now to print boarding pass at the counter in Europe.

That's a European thing. Here in Australia/New Zealand it's free to print boarding passes at the airport on LCCs like Jetstar and Air NZ.

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

#675

Post by kiwijamo »

steelframe wrote: post #670
kxrm wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. I think I held up an entire flight for nearly an hour because the QR code on my Graphene OS Android phone scanned fine at the TSA checkpoint but didn't scan at all at the gate. They ended up letting me on the flight without properly registering that I boarded in their system. That triggered some crazy security hold that prevented the crew…

When that happens (and note it happens to paper boarding passes as well) I've always seen gate agents simply type in the details off the boarding pass. E.g. name, sequence number, etc and do a manual entry that way. I've had this happen to me at least once, and the agent very quickly just typed in something in their terminal and it was all done with no fuss. Really surprised no one thought of doing this in your situation.

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

#676

Post by kiwijamo »

steelframe wrote: post #671
crazygringo wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> That's not a thing. They're literally just cameras looking for a QR code. And yet for me one time earlier this year said QR code on my Graphene OS phone scanned fine at the TSA checkpoint but refused to scan at the gate, leading to mayhem as the crew couldn't figure out for nearly an hour why the number of people sitting on the plane wasn't equal to the number of people who they registered as boarding.

I've had airline machines fail to scan the barcode on my poorly printed paper boarding passes (e.g. faded ink or unfortunate located gaps etc in the barcode area). The solution is simple, just type in the details off the BP into the terminal to look up my PNR and type the command to confirm I've boarded. I've seen this done for both paper and mobile boarding pass issues. Not a mobile issue but obviously poor staff training and problem solving which occurs with or without mobiles.

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

#677

Post by kiwijamo »

steelframe wrote: post #672
crazygringo wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and god forbid if your drop your smartphone and get it cracked Then you print a boarding pass at the kiosk? But I've cracked a phone once in ten years, it's not really something I'm worried about. And paper isn't reliable. For most people, you're much more likely to lose a random sheet of paper than for your phone to suddenly permanently stop working.

> Then you print a boarding pass at the kiosk? Those kiosks are gone from many airports. You're going to have to wait in line to get anything printed. And if you fly Ryanair it will cost you over 50 euro.

In Europe yes. Other parts of the world don't charge for printing boarding passes and it's easy to find a kiosk.

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

#678

Post by kiwijamo »

tdeck wrote: post #493
JustExAWS wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are referring to gate and time changes

And? These are available on google, on the airline's website, and on screens throughout the terminal. Many airlines will send them to you via SMS. There's no need to have a whole app just to check your gate assignment.

I can't remember the last time I received a gate change notification via SMS. App push notifications are more common in my experience.

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

#679

Post by quantified »

mrweasel wrote: post #426
ryandrake wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t people just print their boarding passes at home before they leave for the airport? Or worst case, use the kiosks at the airports which print passes? Very few of the passengers in line ahead of me are using their phones.

I don't trust apps, I don't mind using them for stuff that doesn't matter much, like parking og supermarket loyalty programs. For travel information, absolutly fucking not. I print everything. At the airport I mostly see people using their phones as boarding passes, I absolutely refuse to do that, I have zero trust that that will work as well as the paper boarding passes.

I really hate that the basic cost for participation has gone up, a smartphone and quality internet (in the USA) can be a significant cost.

But I've never had a problem with a screen capture of a boarding pass, and I've found the Apple wallet to work as well. The airport kiosks are good for printing out the pass when you check in, or even for just printing if you checked in on-line 24 hours prior.

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

#680

Post by AStonesThrow »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #577
jagged-chisel wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what should one do if the network is down? Stand there indefinitely hoping it comes back up? Recall the driver can’t continue without an address.

Better they can't continue than they do the last order wrong, amirite? There's some strong "Seeing Like a State" vibes here. I'm pretty sure these apps are intentionally designed as tools to force the users (here, drivers) into a specific flow, a flow that minimizes complexity for the vendor , reality be damned. Another way to look at it: the job of the driver side of a delivery (or taxi) app isn't to be useful to th…

It's dispute resolution in a low-trust environment.

When a customer shows up saying something went wrong with the delivery, the CSRs will need evidence and if the driver did their job then they can be exonerated.

The logistics are a bit more complex than a restaurant where customers are eating at tables in the same building.

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