What are some portable devices that smart phones haven't replaced?
I've been very stressed lately and have been doing some window shopping to calm down. I'm interested in gadgets, but a lot of things can just be replaced with apps. I realize a phone won't replace very large appliances like refrigerators or washing machines so I'm trying to scope my question to portable devices. So what are some portable devices or gadgets that their specialization hasn't been replaced by smart phone apps? Extra points if they're super useful and reliable.
149
Comments197
Cameras. You can take pictures with your phone, but despite Apple's advertisements, a phone camera will never produce anywhere near the same quality a dedicated digital camera with interchangeable lenses. And neither are as good as film.
It's not, really. Most of the variables are quantifiable: granularity (or resolution, what have you), dynamic range, speed. A small, disposable, fixed-lens film camera may not match a 3/4 Fuji X model, but compare similar size frames and don't try to sabotage film by getting the cheapest no-name brand, and the measurable qualifiers are always superior on film. There are very few, if any, digital cameras available at even the professional level that can match the dynamic range and granularity of large format film.
Edit
I'm just going to put this here, because there are clearly lot of folks with opinions about this backed by ... opinions.
The Wikipedia article, while not authoritative, provides a good summary across a variety of factors. Aside from convenience factors, the one area where digital has a clear lead over film is noise and grain for color photography, and even so, long-exposure time photos require doing things like cooling the sensor - the not doing of which increases noise in digital photographs.
When it comes to dynamic range, it seems modern digital cameras have finally caught up with film. HDR is described only for digital, and ignores the fact that multiple shots-at-different-exposures-combined-at-print-time has been used in film for nearly as long as we've had film cameras. It's just now easier to do in digital cameras.
There's a distressing amount of assertions with [citation needed] in the article. There's also odd assertion that digital is capable of better low light performance right before the admission that digital speeds at lower than ISO 100 are rarely available, whereas it's easy to find ISO 20 and 25 film - and you can ISO 0.8 film commercially.
@Blue_Morpho responded about how film is so bad that Kubrik choose digital, and there are certainly some directors who agree with him. Then there are directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino who think film's better.
TL;DR All of this is wildly off-topic
The question was what devices are better as specialized devices vs apps on phones. My answer was: cameras. Not many directors are going to be shooting major films on cell phones. All of the controversy has been around film vs digital, and I'll grant that digital has finally caught up to film in some areas, although I wonder if we throw price in as a factor how this would look.
This is sadly not correct
Film is so bad in low light that Kubrick had to obtain 3 of the 10 NASA lenses to film Barry Lyndon. Any modern digital can take better low light pictures than the best film.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Zeiss_Planar_50mm_f/0.7
But film is way better when it comes to highlights.
Multi shot for HDR in film is restricted to still life because film is very slow compared to digital. There's no film camera that will automatically change the stops to make that feasible. So it's take a shot, adjust settings, take another, adjust settings. At the low and high end you'd need to swap film stock between shots.
??? I said to achieve low light performance on FILM, Kubrick needed a lens that was (and is) so special that only 10 exist in the world. What was possible for Kubrick using extraordinarily rare and expensive equipment is achieved by anyone with a common digital camera today.
So while you can find references to film that matches digital, it is so extreme that it isn't valid. It would be like someone using the cryogenic cooled sensor in the $10B Webb telescope for their argument.
I apologize for the phrasing - my only excuse is that I use Lemmy mostly in an app, and unless it's the comment I'm directly responding to, I have to memorize stuff from other comments. It's usually all I can do to remember who made the comment; trying for an exact quote is beyond me.
So: I'm sorry for a bad paraphrasing.
Actually, some movies have started popping up where they film substantial chunks on iPhones. Odds are this trend will continue and the "professional camera purists" will be considered archaic like the 35mm purists are now.
It's impossible to get a film look with digital, you can get close but there is just something about film that feels like a capture of an actual moment
Similar argument is vinyl vs digital, some people just refuse to believe vinyl is unbeatable
They haven’t completely replaced them. But for 99% of people they’ve replaced them for 99% of their photography needs.
Man, that 1% are buying a shitload of cameras.
That’s long after the reign of smart phones started. https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/15524/worldwide-camera-shipments/
On a similar note, action cameras, which can be even more portable than a smartphone.
Excellent point, especially as they're still quite common. GoPro, for instance.
I would add that even though you can slap a filter on a pic you won't get the same quality of lighting as utilizing reflectors, diffusers, lamps, etc.
And cameras will never replace a good painting!
Jk, I still use my handheld camera, a shame it takes 30 seconds to boot it
Yowsa. That's an old camera!
I have a point-and-shoot Canon from around the mid-2010s that's still perfectly functional. It starts faster than I can get to the phone app on my phone, and takes pictures faster. The video is worse.
My Fuji T-10 takes a couple of seconds to start from cold, but less than a second if it's in stand-by.
The only digital camera I ever owned that took double-digit seconds to start was my very first - I don't even recall the brand, but it was before smart phones and the resolution was pathetic, like 800x600 or something. And it was so. Slow. Starting, and snapping.
Maybe I'm overly dramatic and it actually takes less than 10 seconds, but it feels like an eternity...
I wonder why you "can't" have a camera that is ready instantly.
Flashlights. Again, in an emergency, you can use your phone. But it's not as good as a real flashlight, and I always carry and use a flashlight.
Can confirm. In many situations, it is far more convenient to go get a flashlight worth $2 to $5 that can easily fit exactly where you need it to be rather than holding your main communication device in an awkward angle where it doesn't quite do the job and also a wrong move could destroy your $200 to $1k device.
Spend $20-$30 and you can have a rock and roll light.
This is my latest, of, uh, many lights. I'm a bit of an addict.
I've heard the "flashlight rabbit hole" goes deep.
I’ve bought myself exactly one “nice” flashlight and it was a big shock seeing how good the tech has gotten since phones took that over in my life. Some Acebeam model with a ridiculous bulb and a convenient rechargeable AAA battery with a USB C port. It’s tiny and super neat.
While I haven’t bought multiple, I did buy more of the same model for family members to carry around. For what it’s worth I don’t really keep it on me, but if you carry a purse or whatever, a powerful finger-sized flashlight could definitely come in handy without being bulky.
I’ve actually written a bit about my gripes with the EDC subculture online, which is how I learned about the flashlight in the first place. TLDR is that there is a weird disconnect that can’t be ignored between a rational interest in preparedness and the phenomenon of online communities of users goading each other into buying more and more widgets, sometimes with financial incentives to make others buy things.
It’s not just flashlights, it’s a whole bunch of things. EDC is a rabbit hole of rabbit holes and while I do appreciate having a lot of options and reviews for said options I genuinely think it’s a consumerist disappointment if you zoom back out.
Would you mind letting me know the model of that Acebeam? Really like the sound of it. Though the OClip mentioned elsewhere is nice too.
I just looked up my orders, it’s the H16. Looking more closely at the receipts it seems like there’s different models with different max brightness but whatever ,they’re all blindingly bright, for me at least, a non flashlight person.
They’re also nominally waterproof, they’ve got a strong magnet at the base so you can stick it places while you work, and comes with a headband attachment and a belt clip.
The bulb is angled which was weird to me at first. I also had to learn the controls over time since there’s one button but several brightness settings.
I hate how promotion-heavy the internet has gotten because it feels like even writing out any endorsement feels like shilling. But it’s a cool little thing. I’m sure there’s more models out there that might appeal to you by other manufacturers but I’m happy with this one.
Any recommendation as far as something that's convenient to carry but still worthwhile? Most seem too bulky to justify their occasional use when the phone will do in a pinch.
I know the rabbit hole is pretty deep and it seems like it would take someone with experience to recognize that niche between inconvenience of having another thing to carry/charge vs how often a phone is good enough or a larger/dedicated working is worth keeping where it's needed.
I use my bike light if I need something fairly bright. Does make me wish I went for the most powerful light available though. Think mine is only like 700 lumems, but the price was climbing up at that point and it is still pretty good.
A second one could be useful if I ever wanted a long night trip though because unfortunately it uses a build on lithium battery so would have to leave it charging in a bag from another battery pack when it's flat rather than just sticking a fresh battery in and charging the empty one when I get home.
Already joined us?
https://old.lemmy.world/c/flashlight
Of course!
Also somebody had a bright idea to disable the flashlight in Android after battery drops to low percentages. I was very angry one day, when I walked through forest, and I needed to do it in complete darkness.
I see what you did there
Depends though, you need to buy a pretty good one. My phone has a better than average phone torch, CatB40. It's better than most cheap torches so you would need a decent torch to do better than the phone.
A Vibrator.
Have I got an app for you!
:-D ~~~~~RrrrrRrrrrrRrrrr~~~RRRRRRRR
Is that the same though? I don’t have the right parts to know, and the procedure to find out makes it easier to ask.
Men can, well you know...
But depending on the size of your phone it takes more bravery.
Never had an older Nokia?
I can't vape weed with my phone yet.
Not with that attitude
Would you believe me if I said there is even a phone vape now?
I would need to see it to believe it.
Welp https://youtu.be/p_N0eTvxNEM
I'm posting these separately so people can argue about specific devices.
A calculator is still better than a phone in a lot of cases. I haven't yet met a financial advisor who uses their phone instead of a calculator. It's often the same issue as with keyboards: touch screens are simply vastly inferior to tactile keys. Few people are willing to carry keyboards around with them, but for those who use calculators a lot, for many it's worth having a portable, dedicated device.
Yeah definitely, I use an HP-49 emulator on my phone for like whenever I want to do just some quick calculation or only have my phone, but I always have an actual HP-49 in my bag because just having real buttons is so much nicer even if everything else is the same
RPN gang taking over
Technically the 49 is algebraic by default but I don't think I've done a single operation in that mode
I did machining inspection for a while and would be dealing constantly with hundreds of data points. Using the table functions on my TI-84 was a godsend. Everyone was writing answers down and transcribing when I joined.
Physical controls are a necessity for retro games. Get a Miyoo Mini Plus or equivalent. They make retro games playable.
Sbcgaming or whatever its called is a good sub for that, handheld gaming has taken off, its gotten solid, you could also android phone with any of the controller cases, I just dont game as much or id be into them
You can get a controller for any smartphone out there. Also RPG's play fine with touch controls, that's how I played Pokémon games with no issues.
I know that iPhone supports pretty much any Bluetooth controller.
Joycons, PS4/5 controller, and Xbox controllers all work great on it.
Be careful with Xbox controllers if you’re using Bluetooth. Microsoft only started including Bluetooth in their controllers in the last few years. The Xbox consoles all the way from the 360 actually use 2.4GHz (same band as WiFi) instead.
That’s part of why Xbox controllers are so much bigger and heavier than things like the PlayStation controllers; The 2.4GHz circuitry and antenna takes a lot more space than Bluetooth does.
If you’re going to get an Xbox controller for Bluetooth, at least look up how to identify which models have Bluetooth built in.
There are also fan run repositories of games hosted through Myrient and the Internet Archive if you just want some specific titles or need a particular version for patching.
For emulation, personally I like RetroArch over individual emulators for simplicity. Can recommend SameBoy & Gambatte for GB+GBC, mGBA for GBA, melonDS DS for NDS, & Snes9x for SNES. All are accurate (so not likely to make a game bug out) & run fine on my midrange phone.
The touch controls work fine for games where timing/precision matters less, and for the rest I just use a BT controller. Xbox & PS ones are compatible, I believe, & there are some great quality 3rd party ones (like 8bitDo) out there.
I have a bluetooth controller with a phone mount on it. There's a gadget for OP to explore!
RetroArch is a good one, and is the go-to for most people. It covers just about every console you could want. But it also suffers from some bloat due to having so many features, and config can be kind of a pain if you’ve never done it before. If you’re just looking for a more basic “just fucking boot it up and play” emulator, maybe an app like Delta (Nintendo consoles) or Gamma (PSX) would be less bloated (and potentially run smoother.)
You could probably use RetroArch for nearly every system out there, including MAME core which could itself probably even emulate your smart fridge in the future, given enough time for developers.
That's why I bought a 3DS :)
I think a ds lite is still the best value in gaming although the prices have gone up in the past few years. You can get a decent bundle with games and accessories for $50 plus theres those sd card cartdridges for it and you can play gba cartdriges. Battery life is unfathomable and they're pretty durable
If you’re willing to get a flashcart for your NDS, you might as well just get a 3DS and load up some custom firmware instead. It’s stupid easy to hack with the SD card slot, and you can play whatever games you want for free. No need to fiddle with flashcarts when you can just use the 3DS’ built in SD card slot instead.
My old passcard died, and I can't find a replacement?? Any ideas?
Now when I think about it, it was maybe the flashcard (like the gba linker) that died, gotta dig that up and check...
I have modded by 3DS, so I can play any GBA, DS, 3DS games or any emulator for old systems (like GB/GBC, NES). The worst though is that the scaling of DS games sucks on 3DS screens, so I might actually get a DS Lite or DSi XL in the future just because of this.
Have you seen trimui, abernic, etc. products
Yeah, I had one of these cheap retro handhelds, but I lost it somehow. I have been thinking about getting another one, but for now I am either using 3DS or RetroArch on my smartphone.
Early in the mobile gaming world, it was looking like mobile games would catch up with consoles within a few years, but then Angry Birds made more money than anyone ever imagined with half thr effort, and then Clash of Clans did the same thing again, and suddenly the idea of working hard and making a good mobile game seemed like a silly waste of time.
Totally agree. The only game I play on my phone is Balatro.
![email protected]
Agreed. I play Scopa sometimes. That's it.
I just emulate things nowadays. I have pretty much the entire NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, N64, NDS, and PSX libraries on my phone ready to go. And it works perfectly fine with any Bluetooth controller, because touchscreen controls are… Well… Complete fucking garbage.
I’m currently playing through the NDS version of Chrono Trigger in my free time. And since all of the games are stored locally, it doesn’t use any data at all. I recently went camping for a week, and my iPad lasted like 7 or 8 hours of playtime (on low brightness because I was in a tent at night) off of a single charge.
RetroArch is the go-to for most people, because it can emulate just about anything. But first time setup can be kind of a pain if you’ve never done it before; The UI for settings can be unintuitive, you need to dig for what you want, and it’s easy to forget to save your settings because the save option is in an entirely separate page. It also suffers from some software bloat, because it has so many features that it can get bogged down when emulating more intensive systems.
For Nintendo I tend to use Delta. It’s simple, has cloud saves via Google Drive, and runs everything flawlessly. For PSX, I tend to use Gamma. Again, it has a simple interface and syncs via Google Drive.
Electric Toothbrush. Keeping up with Dental Hygiene is important too!
Own one. Definitely recommend it and ribbon floss.
Would love to have one, but my neurologist said even slight vibrations in my mouth can fuck with my epilepsy. That means a migraine because my medicine prevents seizures. Going to the dentist is an affair that wrecks me for the whole day.
It's OK. My dentist thinks electric toothbrushes are too harsh on your teeth and shames anyone who even brings up the subject. So at least 1 dentist thinks it's junk. He prefers soft bristles that you softly glide across your teeth by hand.
Soft bristles are pretty much the only thing anyone should use, regardless of whether or not it’s electric. Hard bristles are too harsh on your gums.
Radiation detectors. Such as the Radiacode or the Open Gamma Detector.
Binoculars are quite portable, very useful, and phones don't do a good job at zooming in like that.
Smart watches integrate with phones but the phones by themselves are not so good at measuring the heart rate and other parameters directly.
Mini projectors. UV flashlights. Tools in general... There is so much actually. What type of gadgets are you looking for?
https://www.wired.com/2012/05/softbank-unveils-worlds-first-phone-with-radiation-detection/
Your other points are valid.
Ooh, cool! 😁 That detector seems to be working only in "Geiger mode", which means that it can count the number of X-rays/Gamma particles but it does not estimate their energy. So, the dedicated devices are still better in that they allow you to identify the source of the radiation by measuring the counts and the energy distribution simultaneously.
It probably would not be too difficult to build the open gamma detector into something like a pinephone. I don't think that has been done yet.
Samsung S2x Ultra has 10x optical zoom. That's pretty much a <100€ binocular right there.
My experience with phone zoom has been underwhelming so far, but I would like to check out the Samsung S2x's 10x zoom when I have the chance!
Still, I really like using binoculars because they transport me next to what I am looking at and do so in very high definition. I do have >100€ binoculars though, colors look very nice through them. I think it will be difficult to replicate via a screen.
Well the phone is a bit of a "jack of trades master of none". You pretty much always will have a better time with a dedicated device, but the fact that the phone is always in your pocket is just so damn convenient.
Not comparable for viewing purposes, don't bother. But it's good for capturing a memory of it.
The light isn't enough, there's ai artefacts, lower refresh rate makes it obvious the movements aren't real time. Not a monocular replacement.
Can phones "detect" really high radiation on the camera if it's high enough or is that film only?
Cleverly, even low levels can be detected. I love how creative early smartphone developers could be.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rdklein.radioactivity
What do you mean? Early apps was all stuff like this that nobody used. Nowadays apps are useful fintech services and photo filter apps that cost less than a coffee per month and fun free games that everyone can play, isn’t that much better?
/s
Yes. The camera pixels generate a current in response to light. You can add some filters to block certain wavelengths of light (like UV) from getting to the camera sensor, and tune the pixels so that they respond more to to specific colors. But X-rays and gamma rays can just pass through the filter. Often they will pass through sensor as well, but, in the cases that they do get absorbed by the sensor, they can also produce a current that to the camera's readout electronics looks like other light would.
The gamma detectors I mentioned are very very sensitive. They respond to single X-ray/Gamma ray particles. These detectors can count how many individual particles collide with a small crystal cube every second. These crystals are special in that they produce a very tiny flash of light when an X-ray or gamma particle collides with them. As an added bonus, these sensors can directly measure the energy of the particles by measuring the strength of the flash, and from this information they can construct not only the total counts but also a spectrum. With this extreme sensitivity these detectors can measure small quantities of radiation that come from space, from rocks, and from other materials.
I looked for a video of a phone going through an X-ray machine, and found these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8iSoPhtY3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1YaroH6lHA
The white specks that you can see near second 25 (first video) and second 34 (second video) could be a result of the X-rays. I am not sure, but it seems reasonable to me. On contrast, when I put my radiacode through the X-ray machine in the airport the radiacode reacts very strongly and becomes saturated.
I believe they can.
There were a couple projector phones. Samsung Galaxy Beam 1 & 2
Please send pics of "Knife Phone".
Edit:
Fuck yeah! Knife Phone and Fuck You Phone!
I was just thinking this morning that it's kinda odd that there's no cell phone that also doubles as a multi-meter for measuring electronic current. I guess it's because in theory you'd need to also carry around a set of probes with you?
I think you are on to something, add a basic o-scope and it's pretty much magic.
You invented the tricorder. Nice.
One of my favorite apps (not updated, doesnt work very well anymore), but I still have it installed:
https://freewarelovers.com/android/apps/tricorder
We already have that, and a function generator.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sbaudio.oscope
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keuwl.functiongenerator
Hi-fi audio recorders with builtin microphones. As a bass player, I deeply resent phone mics and speakers.
Phones suck for anything audio related in general.
They've been bad for calling people in my experience for years.
You underestimate my ability to find and download new music to my player. It's not that I can't, it's just that I forget to.
CB radios are still widely used by truck drivers. Listening to the CB on long trips can sometimes be very entertaining.
Caveat to this: If you use these radios on amateur bands without licenses, you should expect legal problems. Operating them on FRS, MURS, GMRS, or PLMRS bands is far less likely to upset anyone.
Non-hams might not be aware, but amateur radio requires you to identify yourself with your callsign at the beginning of every transmission, and every 10 minutes after that. Failure to do so is conspicuous. The other bands mentioned don't have (or don't enforce) this identification requirement, so you aren't immediately outing yourself with every transmission.
This is funny, just yesterday I randomly found phones with built-in VHF/UHF radios on Aliexpress. To be fair, they look super clunky and are very expensive for off-brand Chinese phones ($800+), but they do exist. I wonder who buys them.
I had a Nokia phone (6070?) that had some kind of walkie-talkie-like function, but I never figured out what it did.
Edit: Apparently it's called Push-to-Talk, and it uses PTT service, whatever that is.
I have never used the RFinder but the guy who developed it is local so I'm aware of it. https://rfinder.shop/product/rfinder-m6-dual-band-dmr-4g-lte/ it looks awesome but is more expensive than a really good HF base station so ymmv
I remember seeing a product demo in Australia by Huawei about a mobile phone with an inbuilt 2way radio marketed for mines.
Another light-emitting device: laser pointer. I don't know of a phone that comes with an LED laser; it's probably only a matter of time, but even then it'll probably be - like a lot of other things - a handy-to-have-in-an-emergency app, but not a practical substitute for a real laser.
AGM Glory G1S
Thermal camera?? Yeah, Ok, you may have something there.
What's an LED laser?
A laser where the light is generated by an LED, as opposed to the more historical synthetic ruby or (argon or other) gas laser.
Original lasers were a tube with a fully reflective mirror on one end and a partially reflective mirror on the other. Some single-wavelength light emitter was inside - synthetic ruby, or a (noble? Not sure if they were always noble gases) gas. Electricity excited the light emitter, and it'd bounce around and back and forth between the mirrors, one of which was set up to allow light of only one polarity to pass. Then there'd usually be a focusing lens to account for spread you couldn't completely control with the mirrors, and that's how you'd get Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
We still do this for big lasers, but for small applications LEDs can be used to generate the coherent light, and you still need a lens because the LED is still basically just a kind of LED flashlight; the lens focuses it into a beam.
Thank you, I did a quick google but all I was seeing was articles explaining difference between an LED and a laser, none were saying you could use LEDs to make a laser.
Vibrator
We had Dildroid like 16 minutes after the initial Android release.... 😂🤷
And yet I own more vibrators than I do smartphones
Nokia 3310 would disagree,
It is a 'gadget'
In these responses I tend to omit obvious items that have no digital component unless there's an app that can function as the non-digital item. So, no knives or multi-tools.
Along with the mirror, tape measures fall into this category. I've tried several digital length-measuring apps, but none provide and accuracy that I'd rely on. I do, however, own a laser measure about the size of a Bic lighter that is extremely accurate; it's digital, portable, and accurate, so I think it counts.
Even that laser measure isn't good enough to replace a real, physical measure for detail work, but apps can replace neither except in an emergency, and even then are useless except for coarse-grained measurements.
how bout car keys
Excellent one! I have a car I used to be able to unlock with an app on my phone; I almost never used it because it was worse that having the key in my pocket.
Great one!
Shank
The galaxy notes solved that... when thay were around.
Paper and pencil: an analog data storage medium immune to power outages, data costs, EMPs, and remote surveillance.
bro, they can litterally listen to your pencil strokes through the walls man.
Most people don't need to worry about the NSA listening to them write down stuff.
Nice try fbi guy
What about the CIA though?
They can listen to your thoughts man
Even if I pull out all my teeth?
Checkmate CIA!
While it's not an electronic device, my wife says makeup mirrors. Yes, you can reverse the camera and use your phone as a mirror, but she says it's not as good as a real mirror.
Phone cameras are kind of useless for makeup. It's just good for checking if your hair and lipstick are in place, also if you have food on your chin.
I don't care if the smartphone can be used to take notes, to read and has an extra precise clock. I much prefer my analog tools. They don't require upgrade, they don't need recharging, no one will ever try to stole them (my watch is not fancy at all, it's just mechanical ;) and, well, I prefer using those.
I'd argue phones are actually better pocket books. Assuming looking at a screen does not bother you:
Requiring a battery is a downside but most reading apps consume very little power compared to other apps.
It's obviously a matter of personal preferences, which is absolutely fine.
As far as I'm concerned, I prefer print for these reasons, and for context I have been reading ebooks since I have owned a Palm Pilot PDA in the early 00s, so not reading them is a decision and a choice, it is not an allergy to them or to the tech:
There is no tracking and no spying on my reading habits. That's also why I read print newspapers and magazines as much as I can.
Like Amazon and Microsoft already did. They refunded customers but that's not how private property is supposed to work: I pay for a good, I own it its previous owner taht sold it to me can't decide to enter my home to take it back, even if they were to leave some cash on the table.
No matter if one book or one word in it suddenly becomes unpopular or offensive to anyone.
Try to beat day light and at night, or when the sun plays hide 'n seek, well, I have access to this revolutionary piece of high-tech called 'lamps' that are lying around absolutely everywhere in our home and, as far as I can tell, are also everywhere I may find myself wanting to read a book.
The same with my watch, btw: no battery, just a spring I rewind every morning after I shower and when I put it to my wrist. It has been working wonder for years and its manufacturer has yet to send my a message telling my watch is tool old and I need to purchase a new model to get updates... because there are none ;)
BTW, I seldom need to quickly look up a word either. When I don't know a word and if I can't figure out its meaning by using the context it is used in, aka surrounding sentences, I write it down in my pocket notebook (which also requires no battery, no upgrade, doesn't track me either, etc.) and look it back at home in one of my... paper dictionaries (which don't push ads into my face, don't track me, and so on)
This is the one advantage I find to ebooks in general (the reader is in charge of the display... depending the app used) but getting that freedom you also instantly lose access to the excellent page layout many publishers work hard on. Sure there are a few dickheads in the field but a majority are not at least those whose catalog I enjoy reading.
And, most ebook page layout is, well, what word did you use? Terrible? You would be right.
There are (I would say I can fit most poetry books and many plays in my jeans back pocket but I don't really), the idea is that those small books are easy to carry and are cheap (at least back in then they were supposed to be). It also depends a lot what one reads.
Edit:
I don't need to carry that. On my desk I have dozens of books and references volumes opened at once (that would be expensive to do the same with multiple phones, right? ;) but I only carry with me a single pocket book so I can read on the go. I do not need my entire library, not even a couple 800, or even 1600 pages books ;)
Edit: if you're willing to read more of my reasoning to stop using ebooks (I should say ebooks sold by Gafam, as I will still by self-published ebooks when there are DRM-free and there is no print available) and refocus my reading on print instead, I've published a couple blog post. Link in my profile.
About half of those issues are solved by drm-free ebooks (or piracy). True, a phone comes with extra work (charging, updating, upgrading every few years) so if you're not already maintaining one you obviously won't do it just to read books.
The rest is up to use case. I do need to look up words a lot (usually in other languages) and a bus stop after dark will never have enough light for reading. If you read at home I guess these aren't issues, but pocket books are meant to be read on the road.
About the formatting there are some books which should absolutely not be read as ebooks cause you'll miss out on things. But most books are a block of text split in chapters and paragraphs. A phone can absolutely support that.
Anyway, it's mostly up to use case and preference as you say.
My iPhone or Kindle will still track my reading habits when I read a drm-free or pirated book (which I tend to avoid as I want to support authors and publishers and I can afford to). For years, I have been using a Kindle that I disconnected from the Web after activation, it was working fine but then I realized we should not have to fight that situation to begin with: our privacy should be respected out of the box. Since I decided to not compromise anymore on that, well, I quit using those device. Like I said, it's just a personal choice in favor of my privacy (not an allergy to tech itself, just to the way it has been hijacked to become a spying tool)
So do I (be it in my native French and in the few others I pretend to speak). But like I said, I also never need to get instant access to a dictionary either. So it can wait I get back home.
I would say (pocket) books are meant to be read and would not have any expectation on where and when people are supposed to be reading them. Then, I don't read when I'm moving (I get sick). I will read at a bus stop or waiting in a line anywhere if there is enough light. If there is not enough, I will either write stuff in my notebook (even dim light is enough to jot down quick notes), or I will think about stuff.
Typography and page layout was once a thing. It was considered kind of an art form even. I feel a bit sad to see it boiled down to some 'block of text split in chapters' but it could also just be a sign that I'm getting old and out of touch. Which is to be expected too ;)
Thx for the discussion, it was interesting.
After seeing the edits, it seems we have wildly different use cases/priorities. I'll check the blog too, it seems interesting, thanks.
Honestly I'd love to see that because it feels pretty rare right now.
I carry a jailbroken Kobo with wifi disabled. That solves most of the issues you have described here. I sideload DRM-free ebooks. I can't stand reading text on my phone's LCD screen (and OLED is worse), but eink screens are totally different, my eyes like them.
That's exactly what external light means. If you need to sit near a lamp to read your book, then you are relying on external light.
Btw, I agree with the point in general you're trying to make. Physical books and physical note taking still have a place and are often gone forgotten and underutilized. They can promote greater information retention, due to the tactile experience being mixed into the reading/writing experience.
I used to that with a Kindle. See my answer to the other comment why I decided I did not want to do it anymore.
The idea was that I do not need an extra light because, well, there are plenty all around but, you're right, that's what an extra light means. They're just already there ;)
The biggest counterpoint I have is simply that I enjoy camping. Good luck finding a desk lamp when you’re 5 miles into the woods. And I’m not wasting my flashlight’s precious battery life on reading.
Nothing to answer there :P
Honestly most of the non digital functions of a phone are still inferior to it's dedicated counterparts, but I would argue that a phone is good enough for 99% of people.
So get a pocket multitool thingy, I always carry one in my bag and it has helped me quite a few time in my life.
Which multi tool? I carry a Benchmade bugout knockoff and a genuine Leatherman skeletool, ifixit Minnow screwdriver set and a generic basic screwdriver with small/large Philips and flathead in my work bag. Oh and a small adjustable wrench.. Covers 95% of my work.
Yeah, the issue with multi tools is the same issue with phones; They’re mediocre at a lot of different things. A dedicated multi-bit screwdriver will almost always be better than a multitool. A solid pair of pliers will almost always be better than a multitool. Et cetera, et cetera…
But in a pinch, a multitool is better than nothing. And a multitool is a hell of a lot easier to carry as a “just in case” thing than an entire toolbox of individual tools. As a freelancer I habitually keep a lot of tools in my trunk, but I don’t want to walk all the way out to my car just to tighten one screw. So I also keep a multitool around as a “good enough” solution.
Jeez, nice!
I have this thing from victorinox:
My stuff is pretty basic. I'd carry something like that if I owned one already, over the years I've pretty much shed anything I don't use enough on a regular basis. My whole kit is probably $80, mostly cause of the Leatherman. The bugout is a knockoff from AliExpress and I LOVE it. $15 is a steal for that style/size/design for a pocket knife.
I'll answer my own question, "Fans". You can absolutely buy a small fan or even one you can wear, but a smart phone can't blow air to cool a person down.
I stand corrected.
I had a very compact fan that plugged right into the lightning port on iPhones. I got a new phone and it stopped working, unfortunately
Pagers for Hospitals.
To be clear: Hospitals use pagers because they use a longer (and much lower bandwidth) wavelength, which is affected less by things like thick fire-resistant walls. Hospitals are built like bunkers so that things like fires don’t require the entire building to be evacuated. Pagers can still reliably get signal even in the basement of a hospital, when behind multiple fire-resistant walls and solid concrete floors. Texting has effectively replaced pagers for 99% of the population. But hospitals still use them because reliability is prioritized in the medical world; No hospital wants to lose a patient because a doctor was in the basement and didn’t get a text.
Also they don't mess with radiology and it lets doctors have a way of being contacted that doesn't give patients their number.
There was a good episode of Planet Money which went into this. I addition to what you said, when doctors would get texts, they were more likely to dismiss the message and not respond immediately which was more dangerous.
Laptops! I have a gaming desktop computer and also a gaming laptop that I use if I'm going to be somewhere other than my house for more than a day. Mobile games pail in comparison to what can be played on a decent gaming laptop. I wouldn't even think about trying to run even a rudimentary 3D game on my 3~ish year old smartphone which has 3-5 seconds of input lag for everything LMAO
Almost any gadget to some degree.
Mobile phone has a lot of features for sure, you can have anything from cameras to navigation, flashlight, MP3 player etc but none of those features can really match to a purpose built device.
Mobile phones get especially crippled when you're days out without a chance to charge.
For some reason, US options for large-battery smartphones are limited, but there are a number of manufacturers in China that make very-large-battery smartphones. These are sometimes described as "ruggedized" and also have a large, durable case. There's a class of "ruggedized" laptops, like the Toughbook, that fill a similar role for laptops (though those are pretty pricey).
https://www.amazon.com/DOOGEE-MAX-Smartphone-22000mAh-Unlocked/dp/B0BRQ3KKQK
https://chinagadgetsreviews.com/oukitel-wp100-titan-rugged-smartphone-with-built-in-projector.html
These have batteries maybe four or more times the capacity of a typical smartphone.
It's also possible to carry a USB powerstation. That's a little obnoxious for day-to-day carry, but if you're going to be away from electricity for days on end, you're probably going to be carrying some kind of gear anyway, and there aren't any limits on how much capacity you haul that way.
Sidenote: Last time I tried a Doogee phone there was a Spyware baked into the rom... I can't trust them now.
Knife/multitool. There is a plethora of options. I enjoy the classic swiss army knife. Scissors, pincet, knife, saw, bottle opener, pliers... You can get it all in one small package.
Headphones/earphones can't be an app.
Cup/bottle/thermos/liquid container. Drink more water, enjoy hot coffee.
A skill. Spend time getting good at some random non virtual things, penspinning, coin tricks, cardistry, calligraphy...
Wilderness beacon. Rarely any signal out there. Yes you can an arm and a leg for special service though
I know some phones are starting to work with satellite comms,
so these may be replaced by cell phones in the near futureheh, maybe not. See the comment below. At least currently, I have several friends who still have wilderness beacons.They'll never replace PLB/EPIRBs unless they bake in 406Mhz and 121.5Mhz communication. Satellite devices aren't reliable enough for SAR. I'd even argue that they won't replace Satellite Communicators - battery life isn't good enough and the connection stability isn't good enough
Professional work tools come to mind. Laser measures, camera gear, flashlights, 3D scanners, calculators, synthesisers, etc. Sure, there are apps that offer the same functions, but they usually lack the precision and reliability expected from professional tools. There are also some great gaming devices (such as the Analogue Pocket) that probably offer a better experience over gaming on a smartphone.
A steam deck (OLED if you have the extra money). Best purchase I've made in freaking ages. It's the most used device I have in my house. Worth every single penny.
My poor steam deck has been following me everywhere I go since release. Still holding strong that guy.
Stun guns
Actual guns
Best way to calm down would be to look into minimalism.
I carry a spare usb stick and some low-capacity microsd cards, because sometimes its just easier to hand someone a file the old fashioned way.
Sometimes I do play games on my phone, but whenever possible I use a usb or bluetooth gamepad, because touchscreens aren't supplanting buttons any time soon.
And of course the Steam Deck is my favorite gizmo, not just because it can run every PC and emulator game, but also because it doesn't have any bullshit preventing me from installing mods. If phone modding was easy and accessible i'd be willing to spend more on a phone.
If you're looking for an outlet, why not project shop with the aim of making something?
This gives you the opportunity geek out on the gadgets you'll need to pull off whatever you want to make. More importantly, the journey will continue post purchase as chase the thing you want to make.
You can make both digital and physical stuff. With things like CAD, Arduino/Raspberry PI, and IoT you can also blend the two pretty easily.
A very low key example might be a small garden. I've put a bit of time/effort into my seed stating setup, including designing and printing parts for my lighting rig. It seems like the setup iterates a bit every year. In addition, every year I spend a decent amount of time thinking about what I want to grow this year and then diving seed catalogues to find some new-to-me verity of something I've grown before.
You can also design from-scratch speakers and go as far down that rabbit hole as you want to - buy vs build (kit) vs design the amplifier, ditto for the actual speaker, etc.
/a person who likes making things
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter
Haha, the one where I make a bunch of things and fail numerous times along the way or the one where I keep a running list of "this would be a neat thing to try at some point in the future"?
Yes
It looks like I might have a good place to do that, so yay. I'll try to get something up in a day or three.
Good suggestion! Unfortunately I have a Mountain of Shame of unbuilt and unpainted Warhammer models. I need to process those first before picking up another hobby I'll neglect.
Books.
The kindle app might be convenient but it's shit compared to an actual book.
Lord of the Rings
Just bought the hard cover copy a couple of days ago
Yeah physical kicks ass
I inherited my mum’s first edition copies. She worked in publishing and had some great stories. She met Tolkien and Ian Fleming through her job.
So, no, kindle, you cannot compete with that.
She met those two? Plus first editions?
Damn that’s awesome
Sidenote, a huge thank you to the lady at Barnes & Noble who pointed this book out to me. I had no idea it even existed. I knew about Lord of the rings. I just didn’t know about this exact edition.
Books are my fondest indulgence as I age. I'm an absolute Aztec history dork and a screen doesn't do any Mesoamerican codex justice.
I buy more odd art books than I should.
Do you have any recommendations ?
Art books or Aztec history?
Both please !
Vicegrips. Wirestrippers. A light screwdriver with common bits carried on its handle like a Sidewinder. Rake lockpick. SDR. Elevator key. Punch. File. Multimeter. Multitool with good pliers. Crank radio. Survival guide. Poncho. Silver exposure blanket. Fire starters. Multihammer thing. MREs. Good flashlight. Beater laptop like an old x200. Serial console adapter. Flares. Camping stove. Throw it all in a bugout bag after you learn how to use them.
Not electronic, but definitely a (set of) gadgets: a compact set of tools. Specifically, I carry a Wera Tool Check, but most any multi-tool with bits and adapters will do, e.g. the old Gerber Diesel with the bit set and carrier.
Regarding useful and reliable, it's Wera, so high quality, and I've saved so much bacon (including my own) with this kit.
My hands.
Not to minimize your distress but surely there are less wasteful ways of letting off steam than buying a gadget that you didn't know you needed.
Window shopping means I'm not buying anything.
Yes I know but it seems odd to ask the question if you don't in fact want anything.
If I don't know if something exists I won't know if I'll ever want it. I live without a lot of commercials and ads compared to the average American. So when I want to know if anything has come to the market that could add value or joy I do it on my own terms. When I window shop it relaxes me probably for the same reason I like hanging out in museums. I will admit anything actually worth purchasing is a rare occurrence.
Interesting. Actively seeking out FOMO. I prefer the inverse of that: amistics
Fucking Lemmy.
"Hey guys, what are some cool things out there?"
"Let me tell you why you are living your life wrong."
Actually, I asked them to consider whether, all things considered, there might not perhaps be a better way to imagine living their life. Big difference. ;)
Noble and I support the notion.
Think of this in an exercise of "missing out". See what is being offered. If you don't find treasure move on. If you find treasure is it worth it? Price and a metaphorical weight should be put in the calculation.
The best belt I ever owned was Amish made.
Life is short and it's also a balance. It's ok to buy yourself something fun from time to time. :) The key to anything is moderation.
Oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and spectrometers.
Scissors
But from your description maybe you need a gadget related hobby. How about home automation? It’s not just multiple gadgets but having fun with what they can do together. You can do anything from dip your toes in to going all out
Security cameras. Smart sensors. Basically anything you can make based on a $2 ESP32.