There are plenty of electronic devices that are still valuable as a discrete object instead of an app that requires navigating your smartphone's ui to use (obvi

There are plenty of electronic devices that are still valuable as a discrete object instead of an app that requires navigating your smartphone's ui to use (obviously). The article gives one specific reason: "I've walked several miles in weather cold enough to become frost bitten in minutes, and I can't aford to take my gloves off to operate a touch screen." The article mentions GPS specifically as not an important part of a smart cane. Other features need to be easier to access, or more dependable than a phone which might die because of all the other things draining its battery.