Comment Re:A related concern (Score 1) 312
Jokes aside, I think what you describe has more to do with personality than the device.
I too held out until recently on getting a smartphone, and only made the leap because my literally 8YO flip phone wouldn't hold a charge for a full day and they stopped making new batteries for it in 2010.
And despite having a massively powerful, high resolution, always-online device in my pocket for sixteen hours a day, I find that I only do one thing with it that I didn't previously - Check my email (though I don't do it more often, just more conveniently). Other than for an incoming phone call, I have every other alert I can disable, disabled on it. I find web browsing almost unusable on it, not for speed or resolution, but simply due to screen size (hey, great, I can read Slashdot at "full size" on it... With a frickin' microscope!). I just can't imagine trying to seriously waste more than a few minutes using it to surf the web. Some cheesy games, I could maybe see, but the few I tried all drained the battery faster than a California reservoir - Thereby making it useless for its primary purpose, portably taking phone calls (and if I have it plugged in all the time, why the hell not just use a "real' computer?)
Actually, sorry, I lied - I do find it pretty convenient as a camera, too. But I don't see that as having much to do with its role as a phone/computer; rather, just one less device I need to carry around.
I too held out until recently on getting a smartphone, and only made the leap because my literally 8YO flip phone wouldn't hold a charge for a full day and they stopped making new batteries for it in 2010.
And despite having a massively powerful, high resolution, always-online device in my pocket for sixteen hours a day, I find that I only do one thing with it that I didn't previously - Check my email (though I don't do it more often, just more conveniently). Other than for an incoming phone call, I have every other alert I can disable, disabled on it. I find web browsing almost unusable on it, not for speed or resolution, but simply due to screen size (hey, great, I can read Slashdot at "full size" on it... With a frickin' microscope!). I just can't imagine trying to seriously waste more than a few minutes using it to surf the web. Some cheesy games, I could maybe see, but the few I tried all drained the battery faster than a California reservoir - Thereby making it useless for its primary purpose, portably taking phone calls (and if I have it plugged in all the time, why the hell not just use a "real' computer?)
Actually, sorry, I lied - I do find it pretty convenient as a camera, too. But I don't see that as having much to do with its role as a phone/computer; rather, just one less device I need to carry around.