Anyone else getting sick of smartphones?

Sh1tbag OToole · 24-07-2016 08:50PM #1

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 · 24-07-2016 08:59PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:03PM

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! · 24-07-2016 09:03PM

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

Alf Veedersane · 24-07-2016 09:08PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:09PM

This post has been deleted.

Hande hoche! · 24-07-2016 09:10PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:11PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:11PM

Agree completely.

Sent from my iPhone

Your Face · 24-07-2016 09:11PM

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

Alf Veedersane · 24-07-2016 09:17PM

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Rotary dials, that takes me back.

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

Tombi! · 24-07-2016 09:25PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:26PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:28PM

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

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

L.Jenkins · 24-07-2016 09:30PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:33PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:35PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:38PM

This post has been deleted.

mansize · 24-07-2016 09:39PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:40PM

Smartphones no.

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

Sh1tbag OToole · 24-07-2016 09:41PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:43PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:44PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:45PM

This post has been deleted.

LunarSea · 24-07-2016 09:47PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:48PM

This post has been deleted.

Ave Sodalis · 24-07-2016 09:52PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:53PM

Patww79 wrote: »

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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 · 24-07-2016 09:54PM

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 · 24-07-2016 09:54PM

I think Smart Phones are a real boon.

(Largely because I love using that word

)

24-07-2016 09:55PM

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

Anyone else getting sick of smartphones?

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