
I Hate My Smartphone - adbge
http://rs.io/2011/10/19/i-hate-my-smartphone.html
======
potatolicious
I'm amazed at my smartphone constantly, because it does things that my
laptop/desktop cannot ever hope to do that _are_ productive and important to
me.

I have, more times than I can remember, looked up restaurant recommendations,
reached consensus with other people wirelessly, and then made a reservation,
all without leaving my smartphone, while standing on the sidewalk somewhere.

I have also walked up to a restaurant only to find it closed, and found a
delicious alternative within seconds thanks to Yelp, Urbanspoon, et al.

I have taken pictures, uploaded them to [social network] and received
responses within minutes, if not seconds. I have met up with friends because
the GPS told us we were near each other.

My smartphone is great for consuming the day's news (especially on a high-ppi
screen, reading is a joy) while on the train to work. Laptop or even tablet?
Don't be ridiculous, I need one hand hanging onto a railing.

My smartphone is also my light meter, when I'm out and about playing with
vintage cameras that pre-date my birth. Not a very typical use case, but one
where a laptop or even a tablet would be utterly useless.

I love my smartphone.

~~~
qjz
I have a love/hate relationship with my smartphone, but I'm still amazed at
some of the things I can do with it. Adding to your list:

When my car's GPS took me miles down a road that was washed out on a trip
hundreds of miles from my home, Google Navigation on my smartphone suggested a
different route that got me safely to my destination.

It's a flexible and reliable alarm and kitchen timer.

I can read novels comfortably in bed on my smartphone (none of my several
laptops are very ergonomic for this purpose).

I can map my bike rides and get stats on min/max/average speed, elevation,
etc. (all the while using it as a music player).

It lets me easily maintain multiple shopping lists.

I can tune my guitar with it.

It functions as a real flashlight (my phone has a very bright LED).

My smartphone is no replacement for a computer, but it's better at these tasks
than any computer I own.

~~~
bambax
> _I can read novels comfortably in bed on my smartphone_

Really? I tried with an iPod Touch and an iPad, and really hated both. Then I
bought a Kindle and found it extraordinary. The Kindle is the best device I've
ever owned.

~~~
idiopathic
I bought the Kindle when it first out and loved it but never carried it with
me, and found it difficult to read at night - so as soon as reader version
came out for my Android, I used that and never looked back.

Reading in bed with a smartphone is great because the light does not bother my
partner, and after two minutes of my falling asleep, the phone switches off
its screen as well. Any bed lamp I use keeps me awake rather than allowing me
to fall asleep.

(I know I am the exception as I have been reading on Palm Pilot screens since
the late 90s - it was the only way to make sure I could get enough reading
time in medical school.)

~~~
bambax
My Kindle case has a lamp that is very effective and yet not too bright. It's
perfect for reading in bed.

(And you can't use a smartphone to read on the beach or any place under direct
sunlight...)

~~~
gbog
> use a smartphone to read on the beach

Not only that. To the GP: I read also on my phone (Nexus one) but I feel the
backlight is not very gentle for my eyes, even when using FBreader in night
mode. Also, characters are too small. To me, a (real B&W e-ink) Kindle is
better, or a paper book.

------
dools
I hate touch screen keyboards. The author owned an iPhone then an android
phone. If you've never coded on a Nokia e63 keyboard using vim over s2putty
you've never lived.

I recently gave into the powers that be and got a new phone with a touch
screen keyboard (a galaxy s2).

There are heaps of benefits to this phone over my e72 (although I my last true
love was the e63) - not least of which is a vastly superior web browsing and
email experience but gosh the keyboard is a frustrating piece of shit.

I would gladly trade the bottom 2 inches of my screen for a permanent hardware
keyboard and no screen rotation.

Am I doomed to languish at 10wpm for the rest of my days?!

I'm so pissed off with Nokia for ditching Symbian. They were so close to being
good for so many years, then they ditched it because they wanted to be like
the iPhone.

Don't they realise that I actively chose NOT to purchase an iPhone? The point
of difference is that they're not the same as the iPhone, a single minded
unproductive useless piece of eye candy.

Even the multi-tasking on Android doesn't hold a candle to Symbian (for
example I can't switch to my SSH client whilst a web page loads in the
background).

Nokia, I will hate you for ever. But not as much as I hate this piece of shit
touch screen you've relegated me to.

~~~
nradov
I agree with you on the keyboard. There are a few decent Android models out
with slider hardware keyboards. The Samsung Epic is fairly good.

~~~
ansible
I've had two Android phones with great keyboards: the HTC G1 and the Samsung
Sidekick 4G. In fact I'm typing this comment on the SK4G while lying in bed.

What makes both keyboards great is the spacing around each key. Other phones
like the original Motorola Droid crammed the keyboard into the smallest space
possible, and there was no space between the keys.

With these two keyboards, I can hit about 30wpm without the use of any
accelerators. I typed in each character of this comment.

Unfortunately with the SK4G, it does not include the tilde and backtick with
the stock keymap, but that is fixed relatively easily thanks to folks on xda-
developers.com.

~~~
jarek
> What makes both keyboards great is the spacing around each key. Other phones
> like the original Motorola Droid crammed the keyboard into the smallest
> space possible, and there was no space between the keys.

Hm, in my experience it's just the overall size of the keyboard or perhaps
size of the keys including any spacing. My previous phone was a Blackberry
Pearl 8100, which had a half-QWERTY keyboard with keys large even by
Blackberry standards ([http://ecx.images-
amazon.com/images/I/41Obn3GQp-L._AA280_.jp...](http://ecx.images-
amazon.com/images/I/41Obn3GQp-L._AA280_.jpg), phone width is 50 mm / 2 in).
The keys have no spacing between them other than the ridges formed by separate
buttons, but were pretty easy to feel out under my thumbs due to their shape
and size. I rarely missed a key.

------
kstenerud
I'm mostly in agreement, but maybe it's just because I don't have much use for
a smart phone.

I don't text. I don't IM except at work, and emails can wait till I get home.
It is handy to have a web browser for when you absolutely must look up
something on the go, but honestly that doesn't happen often enough to warrant
a hefty data plan. Yeah, I don't have a data plan. I look for free WIFI if I
need internet.

So what else is there? Reading books? I do read books on it (while on the go),
but it's generally an unpleasant experience because the screen's so small that
it renders everything at the subpixel (read: blurry) level and I spend all my
time either squinting or doing zoom-in-and-pan.

Tablet? No, thanks. If I wanted to lug something big around, I'd take my
laptop with me. It's far more versatile.

Games? Meh. I still haven't found any really compelling smartphone games. And
really, if I wanted to play games, I'd just play them on my laptop or desktop,
which have better specs and bigger screens and better input systems.

Camera? Well, I've taken some photos with it, but I don't use it often. I
suppose it could come in handy for that one time when i REALLY need to take a
picture.

The things I DO like are:

* note taking * voice recording * learning apps * Being able to transfer stuff onto and off the phone without too much hassle

Aside from that, there's not much I find compelling.

~~~
kylec

         Yeah, I don't have a data plan. I look for free WIFI if I need internet.
    

Not to say that this doesn't work for you, but having a data plan is
completely different. Being able to count on the fact that, most of the time,
you're able to pull your device out of your pocket and access the internet,
whether it's for email, maps, or looking something up is extremely valuable.

It may not be worth the cost for some people, but I will say that before I got
my iPhone there were many times where my strategy of "open laptop and see if
there's free wifi" failed to work, and occasionally involved driving to the
nearest McDonald's trying to pick up their wifi from my car. Not fun.

~~~
henrikschroder
I was a bit late to the whole smartphone thing, but got my boyfriend's old 3G
when he got a new iPhone4. I thought I wouldn't need unlimited data, so I got
a plan with cheap data instead. It took two weeks, and then I switched to
unlimited data.

Having your phone always on and always connected is a very similar transition
as when going from dialup to broadband. No more "I'll look it up on my
computer when I get home", instead you can just look it up right now,
anywhere.

------
bradleyland
The reactions here are pretty interesting. A lot of people are vocalizing
disagreement with the authors _experience_. That's like disagreeing with my
distates for tomatoes. I don't like 'em. Sorry, I just don't. That's not
something to be disagreed with. It's my experience.

Likewise, the author doesn't find enjoyment in engaging in many of the
activities that make a smartphone useful for many people. You could argue that
his views aren't particularly apropos from a market perspective, but his
experience is his own.

The article doesn't really get around to making any assertions until the very
end, when it points out:

1) You're generally unable to seamlessly transition between smartphone/laptop
while working on... something(?)

2) Desktops are dead; the laptop's days are numbered

3) Laptops will become carrier shells for smartphones; à la Motorla Atrix

4) Android and iOS should be working harder at providing means to "create
meaningful works" on the devices

Some of these are problems to be solved (1&4) and others are conjecture
(conjecture because you have to factor in that his experience with smartphones
isn't reflective of the general market [1]). In general, I don't think the
author is _wrong_ , but some of his insights aren't particularly relevant if
you're trying to develop for the broader market.

1 - Users of Apple devices rated their satisfaction at 811 out of 1,000
points: <http://gizmodo.com/5377572/the-jd-power-smartphone-…>

------
Cl4rity
A few nights ago I was walking around Manhattan and decided to find a nearby
restaurant, so I pulled out my MacBook Air and it was amazing. Right out of my
pocket. When I finally found the restaurant, I used Google Maps in my Chrome
browser for walking directions. I held my laptop in one hand, and my date in
the other hand. Afterwards, we headed to a bar and I used a payphone to see if
any of my friends were nearby and wanted to join us. One person answered!
Except he couldn't make it. On the way home, I saw some really cool street
performers playing with fire, so I opened up my MacBook Air, fired up Photo
Booth, and used the built-in iSight camera to snap a few candid photos.

In the end, everything else was far more useful than a smartphone.

~~~
Raphael
Are you for real? This is cracking me up.

~~~
gbog
I guess GP is being sarcastic: All what he describe is a pain with a laptop
and easy with a smartphone.

------
shinratdr
Writing off iOS because you used a 3G during the iOS 3 era is like writing off
Android because you didn't like your G1 with 1.5. When using my old iPhone 3G
or the Android tablets I tested, I would frequently drop them and grab my
laptop instead. That happens much less often with my 4 simply because of how
responsive it is all the time.

I find the author's perspective is shared more often than not by those who
drive. I think people who take public transit or walk frequently would be hard
pressed to say that they hate their smartphone. People who are always at a
destination use their phones as portable computers less, because they
typically have a full power machine at their destination.

The main point I take issue with though is the assertion that you can't work
on a smartphone. I just don't buy that. I've handled tech support calls while
accessing a server via remote desktop to solve the problem that the call was
about, all from one device. On a crowded TTC bus.

A good rule of thumb is that if you've never sent a call to the background on
your phone while you did something else, then you're still a little
intimidated by it. You need to consciously plug it into your workflow at
first, but once you truly grasp that much of what you jump on a laptop or
desktop to do can be done from the device in your pocket, you'll start to like
it more.

------
athst
I don't agree with this at all. The main points seem to boil down to: "I want
my smartphone to be a desktop computer." If you try to use your smartphone for
the same purposes as a laptop, yeah, then you'll probably hate it, but if you
approach it as a different device and explore new and different uses, the
phone becomes a lot more powerful.

------
scott_s
My smartphone means I have instant access to a map that will have a shiny blue
dot that means "you are _here_ " at all times. And then I can ask "How do I
get _there_?" and it can tell me. And if I get somewhere and realize I forgot
to write something down, I can Google it. Or look up the email that had the
information. Or I can text the person I'm meeting that I will be late, or
maybe they can tell me where they are and I can meet them at the new location.

Basically, my smartphone gives me easy access to information at all times.
That it's not useful for work is besides the point - it's useful when I'm
doing things other than work.

------
yesimahuman
I made the exact same switch from a 3G to an Atrix. I dislike my Atrix quite a
bit, and Android in general is not what I had hoped it would be. I wonder if
you are having the same experience. Some of it could really be hardware
related (my friends say they can't hear me when I hold the phone with my
shoulder up to my ear!)

My friends love their 4S's. I hope making the switch back to apple will make
me love my smartphone again.

------
winternett
Smart phones are on rails, they're not truly open ended. They don't use screen
space well, and remote desktop is not possible to get larger-scale work done.
I think they need to go back to using trackballs and styluses, because
precision can't be achieved using fingers or by using the focus method in
apps... The best use case i can think of for my phone these days is Angry
Birds. Also, what ever happened to solar power? we're powering small cars off
of solar cells, why in 2011 can't we power cell phones off of solar energy?
The phones being ultra-thin, and thus having tiny batteries that only last for
30 minutes of work, does not make the phones smart, it limits them greatly.
I'd rather have a thicker phone with a bigger battery.

------
fpgeek
_Imagine if you could just resume your browsing session on your laptop or
desktop from your phone._

You can. Firefox Sync will sync almost everything in your browsing session
(including tabs, if you want). I've had no trouble moving browsing sessions
from my phone to one (or more) of my laptops or to my Android tablet and back
again. You do have to explicitly choose to open tabs from another Firefox, but
I think that's necessary. You don't always want to pick up everything in
another browsing session.

~~~
bad_user
I'm also using Firefox Mobile on Android with Sync enabled -- it's awesome.

It will also sync saved passwords and even cookies.

Too bad that it uses too much memory. I hope they'll fix it.

------
njharman
I don't hate mine. I just see very little point to it ever since I got iPad
(which I use for everything except talking on the phone). I've been seriously
considering getting smaller / cheaper basic flipphone if I ever need to
replace it. Phone is just tween size I find useless. laptop too big / heavy,
7" tablet too small. iPad just right. The next smallest form factor I want is
thing that wraps around ear (or in ear) that makes phone calls and whispers
reminders and the like.

------
jsz0
_empowering users, providing the means to create meaningful works on these
devices._

If you limit your view of meaningful works to things that require thousands of
keystrokes then yes -- SmartPhones are very limiting. If you expand on that to
include audio, video, photos, art and shorter form writing they are not so
limiting anymore.

Apps like Brushes on iOS have produced professional quality artwork for The
New Yorker.

Some musicians are starting to use SmartPhones (or tablets) as instruments in
the studio and on the road. There are lots of very high quality audio apps
these days. The Flaming Lips are using the iPad extensively on their upcoming
project.

Expressing yourself short form through Twitter or FaceBook can be very
meaningful to people. With high quality voice dictation it's quite possible
we'll start seeing SmartPhones be more useful for longer form writing too.

------
rapind
I'm with the OP, sort of. I ditched my iPhone a couple months ago and
surprisingly I barely miss it. Email, browser, and maps were the most useful
applications for me, but I never cared for much else.

Now I own a Motorola F3 (FONE). It's about as simple as it gets while being
incredibly durable, crazy long battery (e-ink), and amazing reception. It's
also pretty slim and light, but it sucks for texting and the character display
is a little painful. Worth it for me.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_FONE>

Oh and my phone bill went from over $100 / month down to $25 / month, yet
somehow I have way more talk time included in the plan (unlimited within the
province).

I'm a software developer if you're wondering. Maybe I'd find smart phones a
necessity in another profession...

------
saturdaysaint
Teenagers have written novels on dumbphones and recorded albums on primitive
tape decks. Complaining about imperfect tools and circumstances is the refrain
of the wannabe.

If you don't like the screen, download an Audible book or buy an $80 Kindle.

~~~
fastfinner
This. I am continually amazed at how few people use Audible. It is an amazing
and rich source for books recorded in very high quality (read by voice
talents, no stops during audio). I finish a book every 2-3 weeks just by
listening on my way to and from class.

Grooveshark is another service I use my phone almost daily for. Play virtually
any song on your phone.

Myfitnesspal is yet another. Record daily caloric intake and exercise easily
(since you always have a phone around and since you don't know all the
calories in the food you eat, but a search-enabled website does).

I also play backgammon while waiting for the bus.

I never take maps to unknown destinations any more. I still remember the times
we printed maps before going to tourist destinations in nyc.

I check my email.

I check my calendar.

I talk on skype (via skype mobile). I do international calls without being
charged international rates.

I check the weather (mostly the temperature) to know how heavy to wear.

I occasionally take photos when I need to record something (on a blackboard,
for example) but don't want to write it down.

~~~
viraptor
I got some free credit on audible, downloaded a book, discovered it's drm'd
and none of my: laptop, mobile, tablet can play it. They just wasted my time -
worse than useless.

I definitely take photos of whiteboards though and call via my sip provider.

------
dendory
I agree with some of the points, but it's all about user experience. If I want
to use Twitter, my smartphone is great. Even replying it's great, because it's
a short message. If I click on a link to a web page that has a mobile version,
it's also great. Even though the screen is small, the site is designed so the
clutter is gone and it's still easy to read.

Where my smartphone isn't so great is when the user experience breaks. I click
a link and I end up on a site that isn't mobile friendly, is filled with junk
and I need to pinch and zoom all over the place, I hate that. Or if I want to
type in more than a sentence, I really hate the onscreen keyboard, or any
small keyboard. Trying to do more involved things can be frustrating as well
because it's never as fast as my desktop.

So really I think it's an evolving issue. Some things work great on it, many
others not so much, but it's just a matter of time for many of these things to
get better. When all sites have seamless mobile versions, when speech
recognition is good enough that we won't need to type anything, we'll see
smartphones be much better.

~~~
hollerith
>when speech recognition is good enough that we won't need to type anything

I dread the coming of that day because using public transportation will become
an even more unpleasant experience because there will be more people speaking
into their phones and that speech will be even more unnatural than ordinary
cell-phone conversations.

------
dannyr
I kind of feel sorry for this guy. "Hate" is such a strong word though he
probably didn't really mean it.

He just picked out all the negative things about a smartphone and nothing
else.

Would he rather carry a laptop for driving navigation? How about a standalone
digital camera to take a picture?

This reminded me of this video:

Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk>

~~~
antrover
In my case, I have a Garmin for GPS, which is much more reliable than any
phone GPS I've used.

If you compare the quality of a point and shoot digital camera vs a smart
phone, the digital camera will blow it out of the water. For me, it's about
the quality of the photo, not the convenience.

We're lucky to have choices. That's the beauty of it.

~~~
mbreese
> If you compare the quality of a point and shoot digital camera vs a smart
> phone

My rule of thumb is that the best camera is the one you have with you. Seeing
as I always have my iPhone with me, it's been the camera I go to most. I don't
even know where my digital point and shoot is anymore.

~~~
antrover
Well, like I said, it's good to have choices. I carry around a point and shoot
all the time. There's always one in the car. There's also one in my laptop
bag. I routinely have a DSLR near me 90% of the time... then again, I'm a bit
of a photography nut. That might explain it :)

I guess I'm an "audiophile" when it comes to photos.

I also have a hard time dealing with 192kbps mp3s. That damn cymbal
compression sound is like nails on a chalk board.

~~~
majorlazer
If you can tell the difference between 192kbps and 320kbps in a blind test, I
would say that is impressive.

I'm a musician and I have a few "audiophile" friends that say they can tell
the difference, but when we conducted a blind test, they were basically just
guessing.

I am not saying it's impossible, but there aren't many people that can hear
the difference, I know I can't. Even with my Grado cans.

------
sqrt17
I didn't want a smartphone that couldn't do the job of a computer in a pinch,
and I got a Nokia N900.

Smartphone use is definitely ok, with a smartphone (non-realistic-calfskin)
contacts app and messages/phone apps that are well-integrated, and several
third-party apps that I use regularly (CloudGPS, FBReader). And the browser is
as good as most others.

It has also got a (small) keyboard that you can use to enter text. Not
fullsize, so you wouldn't do any programming on it (unless using a Bluetooth
keyboard), but entering text and URLs definitely works. Where its computer
qualities shine is when you need to scp a file from one place to the other, or
if you have a bit of Python or Java code you want to run (because it has
OpenJDK and Python).

I've never been tempted by the possibility to run (ARM-crosscompiled) real
desktop applications, though - it's only smartphone stuff plus occasional
console tasks, never ever Windows/Icons/Mouse/Pointing.

------
joebadmo
I wonder how the author feels about tablets. Because this seems related to
recent discussions about consumption:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3113192>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3047786>

------
ddw
A few weeks ago I was in a shore town that I had never been to before for a
wedding.

Before driving to the rehearsal dinner I had to pick up some supplies, so I
Yelped for the nearest grocery store. One more touch pulled up turn-by-turn
directions.

I didn't know exactly how to get to the rehearsal dinner location, but someone
had texted me the address and I could just plug that in on my phone and it
could navigate me.

I didn't have anything to listen to in the car, so I just downloaded a podcast
and listened to it while I drove.

My girlfriend called me along the way to see when I would be at the location.
The call paused the podcast; when I ended the call it resumed it immediately.
Since I could talk to her on speakerphone I wasn't really distracted from
driving.

I got to the rehearsal dinner early so I checked some HN articles in Google
Reader before everyone else showed up.

As other people have said here, a smartphone is incredibly useful when you get
out of your house.

------
sardonicbryan
> "the screen is too small to do any useful reading."

This is where I disagree. I love my smartphone (Galaxy S2!) because it lets me
read my Google Reader and Kindle on the go. But if you don't like the
experience of reading on the screen, I can see how its perceived usefulness
will diminish.

Smartphone utility is probably also strongly correlated with time spent away
from a laptop. I rarely use my smartphone at work or at home, but I tend to
spend most of my time out and about on the weekends, so access to email, IM
and Maps while out of the house is worth the price of admission. You are never
out of touch, you can find the address/directions to anything, from anywhere,
anytime.

Then add on camera, Facebook, Yelp for finding restaurants, Yahoo Fantasy
Football app, Evernote for keeping workout logs and saving commonly run
queries and I'm pretty much in love. But as always, YMMV.

------
noveltyaccount
This is why I'm excited about Windows 8. I can potentially have a pocket-
sized/e-reader-sized device that is a real computer. When on the go, use it in
its slate mode. Then plug a keyboard into its USB port and a display into its
mini HDMI port and it's a full blown computer. No compromise.

------
InclinedPlane
I will add only this: if you desire to do a lot of typing (writing, emailing,
etc.) with a smartphone and you do not have a device with a physical keyboard
then you need to go out and buy one (droid 2/3, mytouch slide, g2, etc.)
before you continue complaining. It's a solvable problem.

------
glhaynes
I dunno... I compose a _ton_ of emails on mine... some of my "best". I read
all the time: books (not a lot), emails, social networks, and web pages and
I'm still, years later, a little shocked at how rarely I get up off the couch
for a bigger device. It seems unlikely to me that we'll ever plug our phones
into our laptops because... nearly nobody really would like that. So... what's
left of this article for me? Smartphones should move toward letting people do
something "meaningful"? There seem to be apps for doing nearly anything I can
imagine [that makes sense on a ~4" screen] and tons of things (more every day)
that I wouldn't.

------
ajslater
His chief criticism is that its not his general purpose computer with a full
sized keyboard and he doesn't like the popular, social uses for mobile
technology. I don't think anyone can help him with that.

------
mladenkovacevic
I think I understand where this guy is coming from. But I also sorta
understand his definition of the word "useful".

Yes looking up reviews, finding directions, connecting with people are all
cool, time-saving things... but in and of themselves they are not useful.
You're not creating anything or enjoying anything. You're just doing small
chores in order to get about your daily life.

So I guess a smartphone is useful in that they sort of speed up your existence
and make your routine more manageable.. but they are not made for creating or
even meaningfully consuming content.

~~~
shinratdr
The things you list as average things done with a smartphone are the average
things people do with regular computers, the so-called content creation
devices in this discussion.

The vast majority of people are not content creators, and just because a
device is good at creating content doesn't automatically imply that it's good
at consuming content.

I also am curious as to what your threshold for useful is. I'm being able to
perform tech support on the go via the phone functions and various remote
desktop apps, does that count as useful? I can solve problems with my home
network on the bus on the way home instead of wasting that time staring out
the window and then wasting more time solving the problems once I return.
That's useful to me.

I feel like many of the people here complaining about the novelty of
smartphones use them in a very superficial way and rarely harness any real
potential. Surprising considering that it's HN, but it really does seem that
way.

------
leandrod
For sharing sessions between my N900, my Debian and my Mac, Firefox Sync.

------
skizm
Desktops aren't going anywhere until laptops catch up to desktop performance
on video games and graphics in general. The only reason I have a desktop is
for gaming. I imagine most people who buy new desktops now only get them for
gaming. I mean honestly, who would choose a desktop over a laptop for anything
unless they need to interact with graphics heavily. I suppose you can get a
more powerful desktop for cheaper than an equivalent laptop but I think this
is a minority case.

(Just my thoughts, no data whatsoever to back this up).

~~~
Wilya
I would choose the desktop anytime. It's just a matter of use case, but a
desktop plus a netbook will likely be around the same order of prices as a
laptop alone.

~~~
hollerith
True but then you have to sync data between the two devices. Although this
might change in the future, there is currently probably not a hassle-free way
to sync all of one's persistent data without an expensive mobile data plan for
the netbook.

------
chris_dcosta
I rather think this is written to be provocative rather than creating a
discussion. The writer speaks as if these things have been around since the
beginning of time, but in fact we're only a few years down the line.

It's too early to tell what will happen, or what is possible on a smart
"device" of any kind. I can see myself using Siri with Xcode on the iPhone in
the not too distant future, if you permit me to let my mind wander. Then it
would be useful, in the writer's context.

------
ghempton
I agree with this.

At my house there are constantly three things on the coffee table: an Android
smartphone, an iPad 2, and a Thinkpad. The iPad 2 was novel at first, but now
everyone reaches for the Thinkpad first when they are sitting on the couch.

Also, (shameless plug) I wrote about my own experience without a phone here:
<http://codebrief.com/2011/06/living-untethered/>, and came up with a similar
conclusion.

------
herval
"I hate my smartphine because I can't code on it or move what I'm doing from
the computer immediately into it"? Really?

You should probably hate books (even the kindle) because they're worthless -
you can't even play a video or worse, do ssh from them! And how about those
pesky microwave ovens?

All microwaves should be computers. And still fit my pocket, make calls and
have a big keyboard. I'm sure everyone thinks like me, so That's where the
industry should be heading...

------
angryasian
with most of your points I do agree. I think for most people its about just
browsing facebook/twitter, taking pictures, reading a few news sites, checking
email/calendar, and call/text. I hardly think most of HN is representative of
general population.

For movement between phone and desktop I use ChromeToPhone and dropbox.
ChromeToPhone is probably the most seamless way.

~~~
plessthanpoint5
"Imagine if you could just resume your browsing session on your laptop or
desktop from your phone."

my first thought exactly --> i use chromeToPhone all the time.

~~~
nl
_Imagine if you could just resume your browsing session on your laptop or
desktop from your phone._

Firefox on Android can sync your tabs with your desktop browser (and vice-
versa).

I _think_ the default Android browser on Android 3.0 and above can do this too
(it certainly syncs bookmarks fine)

------
tintin
I hate phones in general. Thats why I don't use a mobile (smart)phone. But I
develop for them and follow the latest news about them. Maybe sound silly but
I think mobile phones are the invention of this age that make people less
social while being connected to others all day.

------
dillon
I believe Firefox mobile does allow you to resume and visit your currently
opened tabs and bookmarks.

------
defconred
I don't hate my smartphone, but I do think I've become horribly codependant
with it.

Maybe it's time for a 30 day smartphone fast:
[http://www.addictionandsubtraction.com/30-day-smartphone-
fas...](http://www.addictionandsubtraction.com/30-day-smartphone-fast/)

~~~
angryasian
well, just switch to a dumb phone, and I think you'll probably still be
alright. Limit yourself to calls and text and for most people you'll realize
how little your life has changed.

------
zobzu
"Imagine if you could just resume your browsing session on your laptop or
desktop from your phone."

But you can. It's called Firefox sync ;-) And it has instant sync of tabs.

------
tjmc
I miss speed dial. Other than that, my iPhone is a limb.

------
chrisrhoden
Chrome To Phone? Seriously. Imagining being able to bring your browsing
session from your desktop to your phone hasn't been necessary for over a year.

------
Mordor
Simple solution - ditch your PC and connect your phone to a monitor and a
wireless keyboard. Ideally a WiFi connection to the monitor.

------
thornkin
Sounds like what he really wants is Windows 8.

------
georgieporgie
My old Palm IIIx was a much more useful productivity tool than this LG Android
phone I'm using now. It was snappy, had a built-in suite of organization apps
which worked extremely well, and I could input characters extremely quickly
without even looking.

The thing that makes this smartphone superior is something which can disappear
at any moment: connectivity. Using Google Navigation was pretty slick until I
got to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, where there is no signal for
hours. Luckily, Navigation caches map data, but if you switch to another app,
it drops all theroute data on the floor.

Input is the worst aspect of smartphones. Keyboards aren't the solution. It's
2011, why do I still have to contorted my body to fit machines? Where is my
skull implant, or brain wave sensing headband? This is the reason Siri will be
awesome.

------
funkah
I like my smartphone. It really makes some things in my life much easier. I
can't get lost anymore! That is an amazing thing to me. It's so much nicer to
use than a desktop computer. The display resolution is so high that it looks
more like a shiny piece of paper than a screen. And it's a really nice
physical artifact.

------
pazimzadeh
Have you tried an iPad?

------
lyime
How do you get a two letter .io domain?

------
d5tryr
I wonder if there is a correlation between IQ points and the number of item in
the 'no. of things I can do on a smartphone' lists that linkbait authors
write.

"You can call people, browse the web, take photos, send text messages, and
play Angry Birds."

5? Surely the author wouldn't be able to tie his own shoelaces with an IQ of
5...

------
goodweeds
My smartphone means I can no longer make reliable phonecalls to anybody, ever,
even if I'm standing below the cell tower. My smartphone has comparable voice
quality of two tin cans and some thin wire. I tested. (to be fair, the
smartphone has better range and it's network is more scaleable). My
smartphone, whether verizon, sprint or at&t (I've gone through all three in
five years) always manages to cost about $130 per month because they force me
to pay $30/month for data and $20/month for texting. I never managed to go
over on my minutes though, see my first point. My smartphone meant any hope at
privacy or anonymity I might still harbor would be destroyed. My smartphone
can be turned on remotely and tapped if the DHS decides to investigate my
pakistani roommate from 11 years ago because he wrote "this policy is unfair"
and then posted a cat stevens video on facebook. True story. My smartphone
means I feel the urge to obsessively check facebook, twitter, linkedin, and my
8 email accounts every 3 seconds or else the world will end. My smartphone
breaks the moment I drop it from 6 inches above a surface and costs $600 to
replace. My smartphone(s) are smashed into pieces and disconnected. My
smartphone has driven me to attempt to live without a mobile phone. My
smartphone liberated me through frustration.

I now have a landline I rarely pick-up.

~~~
viraptor
Lots of words, not sure what's the point. If you got bad reception, maybe it's
a broken handset - have you tried repairing? Smartphones seem to work pretty
well for other people so you're really the random bad case here.

The plan has nothing to do with he smartphone itself. I can have mine on
around $6 per month prepaid in total (not in the us though). Regarding the
true story... Well choose a phone which cannot be. If you don't want to be
constantly connected to facebook et al. Just don't configure that account -
use it via website, or not at all.

Your phone doesn't force you to do anything - you can use it however you want.

