Comment by kstenerud | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kstenerud | Hacker News Reader

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.

     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.

Agreed, I've owned my first smartphone (an HTC Trophy) for about a year now, the last six months having the data connection on (using prepaid data). It certainly makes the phone a whole different experience.

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.

Sure it's not as convenient to look for wifi, but when I did have a data plan, the actual number of times I'd look something up on the go was so low that it worked out to about $5 per thing looked up. That's just not a cost of convenience I can justify.

Once I cancelled the plan, I soon realized how little I actually NEEDED to look something up on the go. It's a lot like how I got rid of my car and all associated expenses after realizing how little I actually drove it. Now, if I need a car, I'll rent one. That's only happened once so far.

I remember when I had dialup, I couldn't see the big deal about broadband internet. After all, I was primarily downloading text and I could get online in less than 30 seconds.

It wasn't until I went to college and had a persistent pipe that I finally got how different always-on internet was compared to internet you had to bring up.

I suspect at least some of your lack of use for a smartphone is precisely because you don't have a data plan.

Humans are great at adapting to their surroundings. If you give them fancy gadgets, or a new way of doing something that is innovative, they'll forget how they did "x" before they had the new fancy "widget".

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