Anyone else getting sick of smartphones?

Sh1tbag OToole

They were a great novelty when they came out first. You could be the feen on the scene by googling an answer to something the rest of the folk at the table were having a squibble about and they'd be all "wow!"

Now people just spend the whole day on them, half the time they're not even interacting with real people anymore, just some server in the US of A (or Amazon AWS) owned by a bunch of hipster JavaScript-writing tech dudes in Silicon Valley trying to get them to click on as many ads as possible.

F*ck all effort goes into designing phones these days, they all look the bloody same. Rectangular, massive screen, no keyboard, probably Android. Tons of crappy apps that try to make money off you or spy on you. Then after about 12 months the interface gets slow and jumpy and it's time to part with another couple hundred quid.

The designs just aren't interesting anymore. Just like the designs of new off-the-shelf desktop office PC's aren't interesting anymore. There were some great unusual phone designs 10 years ago. The Xelibri 4, Nokia 6810, 7600, 9500/E90 to name but a few. Now sameness and boring blandness have taken over completely

monkeysnapper

I can keep up with news and sport without buying a newspaper.

I can message my sisters who both live in different country's straight away and send them videos and Skype of kids.

Listen to music and radio as I go through my daily routines .
Check my bank transactions and transfer money without taking time off work to go to the bank .

Photo and sell things on done deal in seconds .

And I could go on and on

I'm I sick of smart phones.. ....... No . they have made my life way easier

tomwaterford

I'm fair sick of not being about to actually make phonecalls on mine without hitting onto cheekbones and putting calls on hold

:mad:

Hande hoche!

Still have a feature phone. Expect to be called a luddite.

Alf Veedersane

No.

I remember having to dial 0 on the phone and waiting for what felt like 17 minutes for the dial to return so I can dial the next number.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Hande hoche!

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

No.

I remember having to dial 0 on the phone and waiting for what felt like 17 minutes for the dial to return so I can dial the next number.

Rotary dials, that takes me back.

Aongus Von Bismarck

My employer recently decided that our internal apps and mail/calendering/file storage services would only be supported on the iPhone. So I was forced to move from an android device. It's an absolutely horrible and retrograde experience. The only benefit is that it presented an opportunity to carry out a 'digital detox'. I haven't installed many of the apps that were on my old handset. Gone are the completely unnecessary services such as twitter, instagram, facebook, facebook messenger etc. Limiting the time spent staring gormlessly into your smartphone is something you should consider.

Basq

Agree completely.

Sent from my iPhone

Your Face

Not sick of smartphones
Not sick of people complaining about smartphones.
Yay!

Alf Veedersane

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Rotary dials, that takes me back.

They were fine but your heart sank when you saw a 0.

Tombi!

I'm a huge fan of them simply for the internet on the go and the fact I can put books on the phone.
But in general, people use them far too much.

satguy

That 5.5 inch full HD screen attached to a mini computer that sits in your pocket, No I never get tired of it,,,It has changed our world,, It has made us smarter.

mansize

If you don't like them, don't get one.

I think they're great! Better than sugar coated flakes of corn!

L.Jenkins

I've used smartphones and now I have a Nokia C3. Being without a smartphone is a pain in the hole. Being without has it's benefits, but for someone like, who is a Software Engineer, a smartphone would make my life much easier again.

Mr_Muffin

I really love them but i use mine far to much and i think it has started to impact my life for the worse.

For example i now find it hard to sit down and watch a movie - within 10 minutes i'll be looking for my phone to Google some random question that popped into my head or check the score in a match etc. The solution seems simple - just stop looking at it! but like any addiction it just isn't that easy.

Sh1tbag OToole

mansize wrote: »

If you don't like them, don't get one.

I think they're great! Better than sugar coated flakes of corn!

There is f*ck all else out there now. Its either Android or iPhone, or if you look hard an alternative operating system (link) is about as exciting as it gets. There's a couple of Nokia dumbphones still being produced but they're 2G only and probably about to be discontinued.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

mansize

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

There is f*ck all else out there now. Its either Android or iPhone, or if you look hard an alternative operating system (link) is about as exciting as it gets. There's a couple of Nokia dumbphones still being produced but they're 2G only and probably about to be discontinued.

My dad still manages to get the basic mobile phones.

bop1977

Smartphones no.

Idiots walking out in front of me at traffic lights oblivious to what's going on around them yes.

Sh1tbag OToole

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Cheap smartphones are the worst. Slow laggy interfaces to make sure it's a punishment to use

Its not the extra features that bother me, it's what they have taken away. No more quirky designs, no more innovation. Just the same touch screen slabs with slightly better hardware

dr.fuzzenstein

My OPO is my alarm in the morning, on the way to work I make phonecalls (on Skype because Three are robbin' bastids for phonecalls but have a good data plan), during the day I can have a sneaky peek at my emails (and chat to the GF on Facebook Messenger), check my bank balance (broke again ), on the way home, if I need to drop into a shop and I don't know where it is, I use Google Maps and to escape the horrendous drudgery and awfulness that is all Irish radio, I have 30 gig of mp3's.
It's also a decent camera, it can diagnose error codes on my car, it has books on it (the entire H.P. Lovecraft for example), YouTube (stick on a music playlist on the way home if I do get bored of my thousands of mp3s), it's a torch (you wouldn't believe how often I use that feature), works as a remote for my telly, it can keep me up to date with open tickets from my support job and one of the best things in my book, it can function as a decent WiFi hotspot when my home internet craps out (again).
Sometimes I even make phonecalls on it! And it works as a sound recorder and decibel meter.
Am I sick of it? I couldn't live without it.

thebaz

I'm actually get sick of the internet - I was an early user , and hanker back to simpler times - Italia '90 , people actually talkln in pubs instead of plugged into phones or laptops , everyone glued to a phone as they career down the street - one day there will be backlash against technology

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

LunarSea

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

They were a great novelty when they came out first. You could be the feen on the scene by googling an answer to something the rest of the folk at the table were having a squibble about and they'd be all "wow!"

Now people just spend the whole day on them, half the time they're not even interacting with real people anymore, just some server in the US of A (or Amazon AWS) owned by a bunch of hipster JavaScript-writing tech dudes in Silicon Valley trying to get them to click on as many ads as possible.

F*ck all effort goes into designing phones these days, they all look the bloody same. Rectangular, massive screen, no keyboard, probably Android. Tons of crappy apps that try to make money off you or spy on you. Then after about 12 months the interface gets slow and jumpy and it's time to part with another couple hundred quid.

The designs just aren't interesting anymore. Just like the designs of new off-the-shelf desktop office PC's aren't interesting anymore. There were some great unusual phone designs 10 years ago. The Xelibri 4, Nokia 6810, 7600, 9500/E90 to name but a few. Now sameness and boring blandness have taken over completely

A lot of your post reeks of bullsheet.

Tonnes of effort goes into designing them these days. The tech in them, heat dissipation, structural integrity, cramming all that tech in, etc. The interesting thing isn't the physical phone (which is basically now a big screen to facilitate where the design does happen - the continiously evolving OS).

All apps tell you your permissions - stop installing ones you have to pay for and you're not comfortable with. If the phone is running slowly after a time, as above, stop installing shít apps.

Sure, people used it as a way of avoiding social interaction. But in the past books, newspapers, personal audio was used to do the same. Phones aren't killing conversation. Dullards are. And a dullard will always be a dullard, regardless of what tech they do or don't have in their hands.

I've a map, GPS, fitness tracker, library of books and music, can look up anything on the internet, old video game console emulators, a real time translator, a 20 mega-pixel camera, can ring friends living abroad for next to no data usage blah blah blah in my pocket. I don't sit glued to the thing all day - that's a choice I make (as I have self restraint and other **** too be doing anyway), but it's pretty handy thing to have in my pocket.

Fúcking luddites.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Ave Sodalis

Sh1tbag OToole wrote:

Now people just spend the whole day on them, half the time they're not even interacting with real people anymore

You say that as though there would be any hope of me interacting with real people if I didn't have my phone.

beks101

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

That's the thing though, isn't it. We avoid each other now. We don't listen to or see each other.

We sit at restaurant tables checking in on facebook instead of interacting with our actual friends, we walk down the street staring at our phones instead of making eye contact with strangers, we record rather than experience moments of awe and wonder in our lives and then sit at home watching the 'likes' roll in, we watch global news unfold in real-time on our phones all day every day instead of on the 6 o'clock news after which we can get on with our lives until tomorrow's broadcast, we can barely survive an hour or two without our phones connecting us to the world and yet we're about as disconnected as humans can be to each other. We are robots.

I used to be guilty as charged but in the last few months it's really starting to fcuk me off. Sitting across from friends or colleagues at a pub or bar and watching them turn to stare into their phone screens mid-conversation as they light up with a new text or tweet every 2 minutes. My 67-year-old mother asking for the wifi password five minutes after we've sat down in a restaurant so she can check her whatsapp messages. Randomers on the bus or train making duck faces as they snap #tubeselfies completely oblivious and apathetic to other passers-by.

Smart phones are making us rude, and boring, and totally detached from the real un-hashtagged world.

FortySeven

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

No.

I remember having to dial 0 on the phone and waiting for what felt like 17 minutes for the dial to return so I can dial the next number.

I never understood 999 for emergencies. I had to dial it twice on a rotary phone. Took ages. 111 would have made more sense.

mansize

I think Smart Phones are a real boon.

(Largely because I love using that word )

Oh those mandatory smartphones the govt force upon you are dreadful ya

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

LunarSea

Well if ye all sit in a pub on your smartphones ignoring each other, then you need new friends, not retro phones.

CountingCrows

FortySeven wrote: »

I never understood 999 for emergencies. I had to dial it twice on a rotary phone. Took ages. 111 would have made more sense.

The emergency services here horse drawn back when rotary phones were all the rage so don't think that extra 15 seconds were critical.

maudgonner

Smartphones are great.

But they have completely ruined table quizzes. :mad:

Sh1tbag OToole

LunarSea wrote: »

A lot of your post reeks of bullsheet.

Tonnes of effort goes into designing them these days. The tech in them, heat dissipation, structural integrity, cramming all that tech in, etc. The interesting thing isn't the physical phone (which is basically now a big screen to facilitate where the design does happen - the continiously evolving OS).

All apps tell you your permissions - stop installing ones you have to pay for and you're not comfortable with. If the phone is running slowly after a time, as above, stop installing shít apps.

Sure, people used it as a way of avoiding social interaction. But in the past books, newspapers, personal audio was used to do the same. Phones aren't killing conversation. Dullards are. And a dullard will always be a dullard, regardless of what tech they do or don't have in their hands.

I've a map, GPS, fitness tracker, library of books and music, can look up anything on the internet, old video game console emulators, a real time translator, a 20 mega-pixel camera, can ring friends living abroad for next to no data usage blah blah blah in my pocket. I don't sit glued to the thing all day - that's a choice I make (as I have self restraint and other **** too be doing anyway), but it's pretty handy thing to have in my pocket.

Fúcking luddites.

Same chipset goes into loads of phones, then they horse standard android onto it. Put it into a rectangular case and off to China land for mass production. Then you have the turd that is android, tis like Windows XP used to be. 99% of free apps are basically spyware (the stuff we used to run scanners for to identify and remove) because the f*ckers writing it all want to become billionaires from selling ads.

Sh1tbag OToole

FortySeven wrote: »

I never understood 999 for emergencies. I had to dial it twice on a rotary phone. Took ages. 111 would have made more sense.

I suppose that's why it's 112 in most countries. 111 is probably the speaking clock or something

Ireland probably brought in telephone emergency services when everyone already had touch tone dialing

evolving_doors

Ya you're right Op, just read this thread on my smartphone and then vomited into my G&T.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

beks101

beks101 wrote: »

That's the thing though, isn't it. We avoid each other now. We don't listen to or see each other.

We sit at restaurant tables checking in on facebook instead of interacting with our actual friends, we walk down the street staring at our phones instead of making eye contact with strangers, we record rather than experience moments of awe and wonder in our lives and then sit at home watching the 'likes' roll in, we watch global news unfold in real-time on our phones all day every day instead of on the 6 o'clock news after which we can get on with our lives until tomorrow's broadcast, we can barely survive an hour or two without our phones connecting us to the world and yet we're about as disconnected as humans can be to each other. We are robots.

I used to be guilty as charged but in the last few months it's really starting to fcuk me off. Sitting across from friends or colleagues at a pub or bar and watching them turn to stare into their phone screens mid-conversation as they light up with a new text or tweet every 2 minutes. My 67-year-old mother asking for the wifi password five minutes after we've sat down in a restaurant so she can check her whatsapp messages. Randomers on the bus or train making duck faces as they snap #tubeselfies completely oblivious and apathetic to other passers-by.

Smart phones are making us rude, and boring, and totally detached from the real un-hashtagged world.

This generation's version of "always on the gameboy" which was only that generation's version of "always has that walkman on him" which was just that generation's "always has her nose in a book" I mean sorry that nobody's mind is blown but Jesus dont you think this is a pretty boring sentiment? I'm sure if you go far back enough two auld cavemen could be witnessed shaking their tiny skulls and grunting about the kids always playing with those slightly pointier rocks you get nowadays.

Smartphones connect to an incredible world of knowledge, entertainment and interaction. If that sometimes seems more enticing to a lot of people than the company that geographical or societal constraint has you sat beside that's hardly an astonishment, surely? And imo each successive generation gets, if anything, more communicative and more socially adept than mine.

And the world moves on, again.

Sh1tbag OToole

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

They just changed the definition of what spyware is. Anything that just sends a bit of harmless user data it collects on you is considered harmless these days. Back in the day it was considered outrageous. Now everything phones home

GalwayKiefer

I'd be lost without mine but I really wish batteries would catch up with the demands smartphones put on them. Mine seems to go from the charger at home, to the charger in the car etc.

eeguy

beks101 wrote: »

That's the thing though, isn't it. We avoid each other now. We don't listen to or see each other.

We sit at restaurant tables checking in on facebook instead of interacting with our actual friends, we walk down the street staring at our phones instead of making eye contact with strangers,

Remember the days of having to arrange to meet hours in advance, at a predetermined location, and if you were late, your friends were gone. Or if you got lost during a gig, you went home by yourself, cause there was no way to contact anyone.

beks101 wrote: »

we record rather than experience moments of awe and wonder in our lives and then sit at home watching the 'likes' roll in,

Think of how many wonderful moments are captured and shared around the world. The number of smiles you have each day looking at humerous pictures and videos, the number of parents and grandparents who can watch the kids grow up, no matter where they are in the world.

beks101 wrote: »

we watch global news unfold in real-time on our phones all day every day instead of on the 6 o'clock news after which we can get on with our lives until tomorrow's broadcast,

Now we have news delivered to us instead of having to be at home, in front of the telly at a particular time. You know the bus or train is delayed, you know there's an accident and a particular route is to be avoided, you are much more informed about the world around you and not limited by the information that could be fitted into a 30 minute TV slot, or a local paper

beks101 wrote: »

we can barely survive an hour or two without our phones connecting us to the world and yet we're about as disconnected as humans can be to each other. We are robots.

No different that years back. People think that we were all super social animals and we've lost that in recent years.
Nope. Instead of looking out the bus window in silence, now we're keeping up with our friends, or learnign new things, or interacting and spreading new ideas on boards.ie

beks101 wrote: »

I used to be guilty as charged but in the last few months it's really starting to fcuk me off. Sitting across from friends or colleagues at a pub or bar and watching them turn to stare into their phone screens mid-conversation as they light up with a new text or tweet every 2 minutes. My 67-year-old mother asking for the wifi password five minutes after we've sat down in a restaurant so she can check her whatsapp messages.

Thats the fault of your friends or mother. Not smartphones.

beks101 wrote: »

Randomers on the bus or train making duck faces as they snap #tubeselfies completely oblivious and apathetic to other passers-by.

Why should they care what passers by think. They're just having fun and not hurting anyone.

riclad

I use the music app. radio app.thats about it .
You don,t have to download apps.
My phone works fine.
The iphone is for apple fanboys or people showing off .
i,m a poser.
you can still buy basic phones .non smartphones .
Install an adblocker to block ads .Did everyone have the wit and wisdom of
oscar wilde before smartphones came along.
People mostly talked about tv,sport ,gossip etc
Even before smartphones people would download ringtones ,
and play basic games on a nokia phone .Smart people can still talk, dull people are still dull .
Smartphones are good in that they allow anyone to acess the web
even someone who cant afford a pc.
i,ve never seen anyone using a laptop in a pub, maybe in a cafe .
All phones have a grid of apps ,which you tap or swipe.
it works .
Theres no point in reinventing the wheel.
Every new invention is criticised .
people use them for work,email,to text a friend.
Smartphones will be around for another 20 years at least.

LunarSea

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Same chipset goes into loads of phones, then they horse standard android onto it. Put it into a rectangular case and off to China land for mass production. Then you have the turd that is android, tis like Windows XP used to be. 99% of free apps are basically spyware (the stuff we used to run scanners for to identify and remove) because the f*ckers writing it all want to become billionaires from selling ads.

Ahahaha, there's so much wrong with that post I don't even know where to begin.

Android is like Windows XP? So Android is like Microsoft's best OS to date? K... Android isn't perfect, but it's the best out of the three by miles. And you can root the **** out of it.

Would you prefer if the phone was shaped like a decahedron? That'd be some craic. All phones are basically rectangular. No need to reinvent the wheel and whatnot.

"Made in China" doesn't mean the same thing it did in the 80s. Pretty much all the electrnics in your home were probably manufactured there. I've an Xperia Z3 - if that's the build quality of stuff coming out of China then here's to more of it...

Sh1tbag OToole

eeguy wrote: »

Remember the days of having to arrange to meet hours in advance, at a predetermined location, and if you were late, your friends were gone. Or if you got lost during a gig, you went home by yourself, cause there was no way to contact anyone.

Think of how many wonderful moments are captured and shared around the world. The number of smiles you have each day looking at humerous pictures and videos, the number of parents and grandparents who can watch the kids grow up, no matter where they are in the world.

Now we have news delivered to us instead of having to be at home, in front of the telly at a particular time. You know the bus or train is delayed, you know there's an accident and a particular route is to be avoided, you are much more informed about the world around you and not limited by the information that could be fitted into a 30 minute TV slot, or a local paper

No different that years back. People think that we were all super social animals and we've lost that in recent years.
Nope. Instead of looking out the bus window in silence, now we're keeping up with our friends, or learnign new things, or interacting and spreading new ideas on boards.ie

Thats the fault of your friends or mother. Not smartphones.

Why should they care what passers by think. They're just having fun and not hurting anyone.

Now its far too easy to cancel because everyone has phones. So if 1 or 2 people think they prefer to spend the evening making fingerpuppets from old socks in bed they'll cancel at a moments notice. Back that time people actually showed up

Think of how many hours people waste 'sharing' useless sh1t nobody wants to see

The news is actually just depressing and life improves when you stop paying attention to it.

I notice people are a fair bit less social than they used to be. Don't know if its because of phones or something else. I suppose cheap phone calls might have opened the floodgates for some people to be bombarded with unwanted communication and now put a fair bit of effort into fending people off

eeguy

LunarSea wrote: »

"Made in China" doesn't mean the same thing it did in the 80s. Pretty much all the electrnics in your home were probably manufactured there. I've an Xperia Z3 - if that's the build quality of stuff coming out of China then here's to more of it...

The best stuff in the world is made in China. The best production engineers in the world are working there.

LunarSea

Skilaufen wrote: »

Because it gives you a connection to other people. It gives you a connection to the present moment, it's tgis lack of connection to the orrsent moment that has do many people suffereing from depression.

And as someone that has experienced anxiety having loads of passer bys constantly making eye contact would leave me with sweat rolling down my brow.

So lack of eye contact strangers is a root cause of depression? Do tell us more...

LunarSea

eeguy wrote: »

The best stuff in the world is made in China. The best production engineers in the world are working there.

Yeah that was my point.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Sh1tbag OToole

LunarSea wrote: »

Ahahaha, there's so much wrong with that post I don't even know where to begin.

Android is like Windows XP? So Android is like Microsoft's best OS to date? K... Android isn't perfect, but it's the best out of the three by miles. And you can root the **** out of it.

Would you prefer if the phone was shaped like a decahedron? That'd be some craic. All phones are basically rectangular. No need to reinvent the wheel and whatnot.

"Made in China" doesn't mean the same thing it did in the 80s. Pretty much all the electrnics in your home were probably manufactured there. I've an Xperia Z3 - if that's the build quality of stuff coming out of China then here's to more of it...

A different shape would be something. Phones last a lot shorter than they did before. 1 year in you'll be getting reminded in the form of the thing subtly starting to fall apart that its time for a new one. Android is messy, iOS is very locked down and restricted, not much in between.

A decahedron would be a welcome change from the usual