ohnoitsabear said:
As somebody who doesn't own a smartphone (and doesn't plan to, because they're basically insanely expensive over-glorified toys), smartphone apps have only had a negative impact on my life. I don't care what you do on your own time, but when you're having a conversation with me, I would appreciate it if you weren't playing Words With Friends (or texting, or checking twitter, or whatever). Thankfully, this has gotten better since I've gotten out of high school, but it's still a problem, and it still pisses me off to no end.
This is the main reason it took this long for me to have one. I'll get up and walk away from someone if we're having a conversation and he decides he's going to text people or check facebook. And the people who look at
websites while they're
driving. Shit makes my head explode. Even knowing that I wouldn't do things like that, the way my mind works is I look at that madness and wonder what's making all the stupid and impolite happen and inappropriately make the wrong link to the phone itself. Now I make an effort to not be "that guy".
bearlotz said:
It's one device that fits in your pocket and holds a scientific calculator, all (or at least a good chunk) of your music/movies/media, a GPS unit, a word processor (a crappy one, but still), a calendar, an email client, a coding/development platform, an internet browser, and phone. And that's just what I could come up with off the top of my head.
Is it useful? Hells to the yes. Has it enriched my life? Eh, maybe. It certainly makes EVERYTHING more convenient. Also, try looking for a model with a slide-out full keyboard OP.
I'm going to try to trade in for one with an actual keyboard. I think back to the commercials of business people doing all of their work like it's replaced their computer, and I think "not with this touchscreen keyboard, you aren't". But you're right, it can probably make my breakfast if I look for the right app so it falls on me to decide to have it make my life easier.
Dags90 said:
I couldn't live without GPS. It makes me way more comfortable driving to new places. I use Google calendar on my phone to look at my mom's work travel schedule. And recently used my tablet to stream a 3D movie to my TV.
Grindr is obviously also very stimulating.
That's another point in its favor, and it makes having to have a dedicated GPS unit in your car rather obsolete. Even if I know where I'm going, it's cool to know the exact distance I have left to travel and such, and can work out the cost of gas for the trip.
Vhite said:
Somewhat. I use my phone for reading manga, browsing internet and navigation but other than that Im not using it very often and I play even less than I did on my old Nokia. With that phone I have become the master of Tetris. Now I have Dungeon Defenders, BIT.TRIP BEAT, Battle for Wesnoth and some amazing RPGs, yet compared to Tetris, they all suck because of terrible touchscreen controls. I really don't understand why tablet and smartphone gaming has become so popular, touchscreen is one of the worst ways to control a game ever.
Since I basically broke down and got one for emergencies, I picked a smartphone because of all these gaming possibilities. If the game isn't specifically designed to take advantage of the interface, I find it controls like ass. The FPS games and platformers don't work for me, I guess I need to feel the button push down so that I
know it was on me if I die. I've had similar success with the SNES emulator and such, same issues. I guess that's a good thing, as I'd rather use my Vita anyway (damn touchscreen is optional most of the time...), and I can relegate my phone to "important, organizational tasks". I feel like an old person when I ***** about the touchscreen. To be honest it makes navigating the OS quite nice (except for the keyboard), it just messes with my traditional game genres, which could be worse. Maybe it's because I'm quite tall and have huge hands/thumbs.
GangstaGeek said:
I don't know about that. I am extremely biased because I have an concentration in E-commerce in college, but my smart phone hasn't really enriched my life per say, but I can't beat having a PSone/SNES emulator to make commutes much faster, but the more I start entering the electronic business world, smart phone technology becomes more and more necessary for my job as keeping up to date on social media, news and information becomes a crucial part of my future job.
So I guess long story short is yes, hell yes it's a huge time waster. But its pretty awesome tool especially since you can do so much with it. But for me personally it's going to be really helpful for my future career (hopefully *crossing my fingers*).
That's a scenario where I can imagine having one of these would be quite useful. I guess I'll have to get used to it, and I could do some of the tasks you're describing. For example, I tried doing this post with my phone, and it was as useful and intuitive as ripping off my fingernails. Probably another knock on the touchscreen keyboard. I thought that there was a mobile version of this site for pub club people, but I get fed up looking for it on the phone itself and exited the browser. Anyway, I hope your career choice works out for you.
