5 ms·

Before smartphone, if you lose your passport everything goes wrong as well. (and noticing your phone is missing and finding it back is way easier than passport)

dataflow 4y ago
Everything? The only thing that goes wrong is being unable to travel internationally, but I think consulates often have a process for issuing emergency documents for even that case?
- bzxcvbn 4y ago
  Try to present a foreign ID without your visa to a US police agent and let me know how it goes.
  - 2-718-281-828 4y ago
    will provide for an exciting story to tell when you're back but should be resolvable in about 24h pretty much everywhere on the planet.
  - dataflow 4y ago
    It's not like this is a common thing to need to do when you're traveling...
discordance 4y ago
The worrying difference for me here is that when I travel, I pull my phone out of my pocket 50 times a day but I only use my passport once or twice a week and can store it safely in between.
- nicbou 4y ago
  I strapped mine to a motorcycle and subjected it to sun, rain and dust for a few months. The GPS interface was baked into the screen, but it kept going. It even flew off the bike at speed once. I never had a phone fail from abuse. But I had much dumber failures: - Walk on a log to get a better picture of a lake, slip, and drop the phone in freezing water. Took multiple weeks to regain access to everything. - The humidity presses buttons in my pocket. Too many passcode attempts, iPhone factory resets itself while abroad. Lost a bunch of unsynced photos that time.
  - discordance 4y ago
    That's cool, although I was referring mostly to the risk of loss or theft, not reliability. Phones are a more generally sought after commodity compared to passports.
- eternityforest 4y ago
  Yeah, but if you lose it you won't notice for a week and it has no GPS tracking, nor PIN lock, and it can be harder to replace. The phone number is scarier than the phone itself, since backup sim cards aren't a thing most people do, and replacement might be slow or impossible till you get back.
falcolas 4y ago
I live in the US. Passports are effectively irrelevant for me, even should I travel several thousand miles. Phones… not so much. And I’m not mentioning the US because its unique in this attribute.
- UncleEntity 4y ago
  It’s different if you’re a foreign national. In ‘05 I was traveling in the EU, across the open borders, and got checked by customs agents because of a bombing in, I believe, London. Thought it was weird but, whatever… Later on I pieced together what happened because even if they were only doing spot checks it’s not like I don’t perfectly blend in with Europeans. A bit of an aside, custom agents absolutely loved my customs stamp from Iraq back then. Well, aside from the Dutch.

dataflow 4y ago

Everything? The only thing that goes wrong is being unable to travel internationally, but I think consulates often have a process for issuing emergency documents for even that case?

bzxcvbn 4y ago
Try to present a foreign ID without your visa to a US police agent and let me know how it goes.
- 2-718-281-828 4y ago
  will provide for an exciting story to tell when you're back but should be resolvable in about 24h pretty much everywhere on the planet.
- dataflow 4y ago
  It's not like this is a common thing to need to do when you're traveling...

discordance 4y ago

The worrying difference for me here is that when I travel, I pull my phone out of my pocket 50 times a day but I only use my passport once or twice a week and can store it safely in between.

nicbou 4y ago
I strapped mine to a motorcycle and subjected it to sun, rain and dust for a few months. The GPS interface was baked into the screen, but it kept going. It even flew off the bike at speed once. I never had a phone fail from abuse. But I had much dumber failures: - Walk on a log to get a better picture of a lake, slip, and drop the phone in freezing water. Took multiple weeks to regain access to everything. - The humidity presses buttons in my pocket. Too many passcode attempts, iPhone factory resets itself while abroad. Lost a bunch of unsynced photos that time.
- discordance 4y ago
  That's cool, although I was referring mostly to the risk of loss or theft, not reliability. Phones are a more generally sought after commodity compared to passports.
eternityforest 4y ago
Yeah, but if you lose it you won't notice for a week and it has no GPS tracking, nor PIN lock, and it can be harder to replace. The phone number is scarier than the phone itself, since backup sim cards aren't a thing most people do, and replacement might be slow or impossible till you get back.

falcolas 4y ago

I live in the US. Passports are effectively irrelevant for me, even should I travel several thousand miles. Phones… not so much. And I’m not mentioning the US because its unique in this attribute.

UncleEntity 4y ago
It’s different if you’re a foreign national. In ‘05 I was traveling in the EU, across the open borders, and got checked by customs agents because of a bombing in, I believe, London. Thought it was weird but, whatever… Later on I pieced together what happened because even if they were only doing spot checks it’s not like I don’t perfectly blend in with Europeans. A bit of an aside, custom agents absolutely loved my customs stamp from Iraq back then. Well, aside from the Dutch.