The smartphone is one of the best things created in the last thirty years, technologically. It's incredibly empowering (selfies, for all their associated vanity, are also a valuable tool of...
Exemplary
They're the worst product/device ever devised
The smartphone is one of the best things created in the last thirty years, technologically. It's incredibly empowering (selfies, for all their associated vanity, are also a valuable tool of self-expression), brings lots of convenience (GPS + compass + maps + music + books + podcasts + health measurements + documents, in some cases – all in one small item that only needs charging every once in a while), and is generally highly-advanced, which may well be a point of pride for humanity.
It's the fact that it's been abused by malicious agents that makes using smartphone these days detrimental more often than not.
Nevermind that planned obsolescence is a problem prevalent in most personal and house apparati, not merely smartphones.
Nevermind as well that not being left alone started with personal comms – pagers, dumbphones – not smartphones.
I'm surprised this comment has been Exemplary'd, for its nearsightedness.
AdTech did that, and it was destined by the lack of regulation and enforcement we have around privacy. Whether phones were in the picture or not. What? The least durable element on the iPhone was...
Exemplary
They've destroyed the very notion of privacy and freedom.
AdTech did that, and it was destined by the lack of regulation and enforcement we have around privacy. Whether phones were in the picture or not.
They're not the least bit durable and literally designed to be disposable yet cost as much as things that should last a lifetime.
What? The least durable element on the iPhone was the Home button, which they got rid off specifically to improve its longevity. The only thing that has a really finite shelf-life is the battery, which is a limitation of battery technology.
They've taken away the ability to be left alone
Just turn off your notifications. If I don't feel like interacting with anyone, I just put on "do not disturb" and people only reach me by calling me, which is the only thing they could do before smart phones.
and for the mentally lazy they've allowed those people to be even more mentally lazy(why look something up on the device that gives you access to all the world's information when that same device lets you text someone and ask "how do I" or "do it for me").
This one I don't even understand. Your problem is with people communicating with each other to ask questions instead of going through the impossible to vet without expertise, adware loaded messes you were just complaining about above?
I mean I’m happy for you and your thinkpad but do you really assume the average person buying an Android Tablet or iPad is capable of running and troubleshooting a Linux installation on their...
I mean I’m happy for you and your thinkpad but do you really assume the average person buying an Android Tablet or iPad is capable of running and troubleshooting a Linux installation on their tablet? The convenience and usability is just nowhere near a dedicated mobile OS. When I get an iPad all I have to do is unbox it and I have the tools I need at hand. With your tablet you need to buy it, decide which linux version to put on, maybe fail while doing it (maybe it was very straightforward with your device, I had a laptop where I had a lot of problems installing Ubuntu). And if something does not work, well you have to do a l of research.
The smartphone is an amazing thing. It has empowered millions of people around the world by giving them a means of communication and access to information, knowledge and learning they could only...
The smartphone is an amazing thing. It has empowered millions of people around the world by giving them a means of communication and access to information, knowledge and learning they could only have dreamed about a few years ago. Your view is a particularly western one, where such things are taken for granted and viewed through a lens of cynicism and aloofness.
That is the fault of the companies putting trackers in the phones, not the phones themselves, which could run perfectly fine without them. And the freedom bit is really vague. Not a requirement...
They've destroyed the very notion of privacy and freedom.
That is the fault of the companies putting trackers in the phones, not the phones themselves, which could run perfectly fine without them. And the freedom bit is really vague.
They're not the least bit durable and literally designed to be disposable yet cost as much as things that should last a lifetime.
Not a requirement for phones either. My parent uses a 5 year old phone and the problems it has are mostly concerned with not having the specs to load webpages properly, mostly because phones were still in their infancy, which isn't the case anymore. Today phones can come with 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, 48 MP camera resolution and octa-core GPUs and can still last years into the future with some protection and a case. I think the problem is that OS manufacturers (Apple and Google with iOS and Android) think otherwise and usually drop OS support in 3 years and keep releasing new phones (and by the way this was one of the things the video talked about)
They've taken away the ability to be left alone
Turn off notifs for all apps or activate do not disturb mode.
For the mentally lazy they've allowed those people to be even more mentally lazy(why look something up on the device that gives you access to all the world's information when that same device lets you text someone and ask "how do I" or "do it for me")
"Why look something up on the Internet when you can use the same Internet to ask someone on a forum to help you do it"
Seriously the problem is the product manufacturers being unethical, not the products.
Android has always had very poor post-release software support, with most phones only getting security updates for 2-3 years (and actual feature updates even more rarely; on my Android phone a few...
Android has always had very poor post-release software support, with most phones only getting security updates for 2-3 years (and actual feature updates even more rarely; on my Android phone a few years ago, Motorola promised to update my phone two major Android revisions; after two years, they'd only pushed one a few months before ending support.) On the other hand, iOS 13 supports the iPhone 6s, a five-year-old phone with most of the new features and security fixes.
Despite all of Apple's issues, they do at least support their hardware for far longer than Android manufacturers, including Google.
As a note, this isn't actually a problem with Android or even necessarily the smartphone manufacturers and more of a problem with the SoC manufacturers. The SoC manufacturers provide the low-level...
As a note, this isn't actually a problem with Android or even necessarily the smartphone manufacturers and more of a problem with the SoC manufacturers. The SoC manufacturers provide the low-level software needed to run their chips as binary blobs, so each chip is stuck on whatever version of the Linux kernel was new right before the chip went to market.
Apple makes their own chips and therefore has the full source on everything to do updates as they please. In the meanwhile, both Samsung and Huawei make phones with their own chips as well, so sometimes it actually is the handset manufacturer's fault.
Because of the Android market which limits the phone manufacturers on the software side and since Apple is going on the services way, in the last year or two we saw just few fails on the hardware...
Because of the Android market which limits the phone manufacturers on the software side and since Apple is going on the services way, in the last year or two we saw just few fails on the hardware part like the foldable phone(sandwich smartphones) nothing revolutionary.
The smartphone is one of the best things created in the last thirty years, technologically. It's incredibly empowering (selfies, for all their associated vanity, are also a valuable tool of self-expression), brings lots of convenience (GPS + compass + maps + music + books + podcasts + health measurements + documents, in some cases – all in one small item that only needs charging every once in a while), and is generally highly-advanced, which may well be a point of pride for humanity.
It's the fact that it's been abused by malicious agents that makes using smartphone these days detrimental more often than not.
Nevermind that planned obsolescence is a problem prevalent in most personal and house apparati, not merely smartphones.
Nevermind as well that not being left alone started with personal comms – pagers, dumbphones – not smartphones.
I'm surprised this comment has been Exemplary'd, for its nearsightedness.
AdTech did that, and it was destined by the lack of regulation and enforcement we have around privacy. Whether phones were in the picture or not.
What? The least durable element on the iPhone was the Home button, which they got rid off specifically to improve its longevity. The only thing that has a really finite shelf-life is the battery, which is a limitation of battery technology.
Just turn off your notifications. If I don't feel like interacting with anyone, I just put on "do not disturb" and people only reach me by calling me, which is the only thing they could do before smart phones.
This one I don't even understand. Your problem is with people communicating with each other to ask questions instead of going through the impossible to vet without expertise, adware loaded messes you were just complaining about above?
I mean I’m happy for you and your thinkpad but do you really assume the average person buying an Android Tablet or iPad is capable of running and troubleshooting a Linux installation on their tablet? The convenience and usability is just nowhere near a dedicated mobile OS. When I get an iPad all I have to do is unbox it and I have the tools I need at hand. With your tablet you need to buy it, decide which linux version to put on, maybe fail while doing it (maybe it was very straightforward with your device, I had a laptop where I had a lot of problems installing Ubuntu). And if something does not work, well you have to do a l of research.
The smartphone is an amazing thing. It has empowered millions of people around the world by giving them a means of communication and access to information, knowledge and learning they could only have dreamed about a few years ago. Your view is a particularly western one, where such things are taken for granted and viewed through a lens of cynicism and aloofness.
I'm constantly amazed at how addicted people are to their smart phones.
(I'm addicted to my big laptop screen, so I can't really judge.)
That is the fault of the companies putting trackers in the phones, not the phones themselves, which could run perfectly fine without them. And the freedom bit is really vague.
Not a requirement for phones either. My parent uses a 5 year old phone and the problems it has are mostly concerned with not having the specs to load webpages properly, mostly because phones were still in their infancy, which isn't the case anymore. Today phones can come with 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, 48 MP camera resolution and octa-core GPUs and can still last years into the future with some protection and a case. I think the problem is that OS manufacturers (Apple and Google with iOS and Android) think otherwise and usually drop OS support in 3 years and keep releasing new phones (and by the way this was one of the things the video talked about)
Turn off notifs for all apps or activate do not disturb mode.
"Why look something up on the Internet when you can use the same Internet to ask someone on a forum to help you do it"
Seriously the problem is the product manufacturers being unethical, not the products.
Android has always had very poor post-release software support, with most phones only getting security updates for 2-3 years (and actual feature updates even more rarely; on my Android phone a few years ago, Motorola promised to update my phone two major Android revisions; after two years, they'd only pushed one a few months before ending support.) On the other hand, iOS 13 supports the iPhone 6s, a five-year-old phone with most of the new features and security fixes.
Despite all of Apple's issues, they do at least support their hardware for far longer than Android manufacturers, including Google.
As a note, this isn't actually a problem with Android or even necessarily the smartphone manufacturers and more of a problem with the SoC manufacturers. The SoC manufacturers provide the low-level software needed to run their chips as binary blobs, so each chip is stuck on whatever version of the Linux kernel was new right before the chip went to market.
Apple makes their own chips and therefore has the full source on everything to do updates as they please. In the meanwhile, both Samsung and Huawei make phones with their own chips as well, so sometimes it actually is the handset manufacturer's fault.
And of course, if you don't believe how difficult it can be to support these SoCs without manufacturer support, just take a look at how many devices have full support from community effort PostmarketOS. The only one with close to full support is the PinePhone, and that has a chip that was released in 2004.
Bring buttons back and make them highly configurable. Done!
Because of the Android market which limits the phone manufacturers on the software side and since Apple is going on the services way, in the last year or two we saw just few fails on the hardware part like the foldable phone(sandwich smartphones) nothing revolutionary.