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I've never witnessed this. I still do not own a smartphone. I am actually about to activate one for the first time but I have never needed a phone for anythin

I've never witnessed this. I still do not own a smartphone. I am actually about to activate one for the first time but I have never needed a phone for anything other than calling or texting someone. I admit that texting on my T9 keypad is a PITA but I rarely text. I had a couple throw-away phones with keypads that were nice but they are hard to find sidekick, etc... What specific services do you depend on that require a smart phone?

yerich 4y ago
Being able to call an Uber or Lyft when I need it has made it much easier to live without a vehicle. I have tried to call a cab company using the phone before, but even they have transitioned to using apps for dispatch now.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  Would add airports. If I’m not checking a bag, I can walk straight to security, do an iris scan at CLEAR and show my digital boarding pass to security and at the gate. That said, there are manual workarounds to almost everything requiring a smartphone. They’re simply less efficient.
  - asdff 4y ago
    OTOH it only takes you thirty seconds to transmute your confirmation number into a paper boarding pass at the check in stations, which are empty now that everyone uses apple/android wallet. Maybe that would actually be better even if you have a smartphone, if you are concerned about battery life or roaming charges.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      In the US--I can't speak to CLEAR--but even with TSA Pre you have to show your ID. (I'm not sure they've even looked at my boarding pass when I've flown recently. I assume the computers are correlating my ID with the flight reservation in the system.) If I can conveniently print out a boarding pass either at home or at the airport I tend to do so. That way I'm not fiddling with my phone when I don't need to. (I think I've seen it the other way around in London at least.)
  - messe 4y ago
    > I can walk straight to security, do an iris scan at CLEAR I'm sorry, what? Outside the US I just show my boarding card prior to going through security. I'm pretty sure my ID doesn't get checked until I board the plane, so hearing that you show biometrics is a bit jarring. I was in the US a few weeks ago, but I can't remember if I had to show ID when going through security on leaving. I tend to work on autopilot when navigating airports.
    - morpheuskafka 4y ago
      It's been a while since I have flown anywhere, but I don't think we check ID at the gate here? So it's not really any better or worse, it's just at a different point in the process.
      - messe 4y ago
        You might be right. I'll be honest, my approach to airports and flying is to have a few drinks once I get past security and then sleep my way as best I can through the flight. I can't remember if my passport was checked when I boarded on leaving Seattle.
ghaff 4y ago
Well, not something I use a lot but Uber/Lyft. I don't need to use my banking app but otherwise I'd have to drive to an ATM to deposit a check. Again, not essential, but there would be a lot more friction when traveling than otherwise. (And certainly there are a lot of things on the web that are hard to go without and I assume the typical case where someone doesn't have a smartphone doesn't have easy access to a computer either.)
- messe 4y ago
  > but otherwise I'd have to drive to an ATM to deposit a check Are cheques really that common in the US still? In Ireland, and as far as I'm aware, the rest of the EU, it's rare to see a cheque at all these days. Almost everything is paid either on cards or some other form of electronic transfer.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Yes, sadly they're pretty common. My wife's side business is almost always paid with a check. I regularly, but not frequently, receive doctors bills or similar without online payment options, so I have to write ~12 checks/year. My housekeeper doesn't accept Paypal/Venmo, so she's paid with a check as well. Sane for some random laborers (lawn, paint) who are working by word of mouth (and not employed by a larger firm). And it's pretty common for elderly people to use them to pay for groceries. I guess my counter-question is what does the rest of the world do for doctors bills or paying laborers who don't accept payment via Paypal/Venmo?
    - messe 4y ago
      > And it's pretty common for elderly people to use them to pay for groceries. Interesting. I'm not even sure a grocery store / supermarket would accept a cheque here. > My housekeeper doesn't accept Paypal/Venmo, so she's paid with a check as well Here it'd be either cash in hand, or a bank transfer (same as rent, really). All you need is their IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code), and most mobile banking apps will let you set up a monthly direct debit. You can sometimes run into issues if their bank account is in a different country to the bank you're transferring from—it's unlawful to discriminate between IBANs in different countries, although it tends to goes unpunished—but there's usually workarounds to that.
asdff 4y ago
For me its two factor authentication at work. The building was constructed in such a way that there is somehow no cell service at all in the building. I had a smartphone all this time but not the actual two factor app, I would have it call my phone and do a keypress but that only worked when I was working from home. When I go into the office, those calls don't go through, neither does texting a list of codes. There are other things in life that are certainly a lot more convenient with a smart phone. I rely on public transit, bussing and trains, and if I didn't have a smartphone that would make it a lot more difficult to navigate. Sure I could pull up a paper map of the bus routes and estimate what routing might be the most optimal to get to my destination by hand, and call up the transit agency operator line with my buss stop ID to ask when the next bus is slated to appear, but its infinitely easier to just use google maps and be done with it. When I am on the first bus and anticipating transferring to another bus, unless I knew that bus stop ID for the transfer point ahead of time I cannot call ahead and know when my transfer bus is arriving, for example.
- maxwell 4y ago
  > For me its two factor authentication at work. Why no physical authentication, e.g. YubiKeys?
soupfordummies 4y ago
Another example: parking. There are numerous streets that dont have meters now and just a sign to "pay on this parking app"
- AndrewUnmuted 4y ago
  Nashville's parking situation went from "annoying" to "impossible" thanks to this garbage.
- macintux 4y ago
  Yeah, I was thrilled when the parking app I signed up for to use once while I was visiting Chicago was hacked.
tengbretson 4y ago
Obviously not essential, but NFL tickets no longer have a paper option. It is app-only.
- tobias_smollett 4y ago
  The world cup in Qatar requires a specific app to manage your tickets. I really hope U.S. sports don't go down this route.
  - mccolin 4y ago
    US sports are already headed there. Proprietary apps help them control (eliminate) the secondary market in two ways: they broker transactions between people (app-to-app) and prevent scalpers from transacting paper tickets. MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL all do this with league-branded apps and/or partnerships with Ticketmaster, etc
    - tutorialmanager 4y ago
      With my current MLB tickets I can take a screen shot of the ticket and text it to somebody else. Much easier than a ticketmaster transfer. The world cup is using a time base code to prevent any transfer of tickets.
- PebblesRox 4y ago
  We went to an amusement park this summer and they no longer give out paper maps of the park. We had to squint at the online map on the tiny screens of our phones. It was a shame because I would have liked to give out maps to the kids so they could navigate/orient themselves. A few days afterward, I actually went to the trouble of printing nice legal-sized color versions of the map at Staples to give to the kids as mementos. Sure enough, they loved looking at and discussing those maps just like I did as a kid. Next time we go I'm printing maps ahead of time so we can have them while we're there.
intrepidhero 4y ago
Went to restaurant yesterday without paper menus. Just a QR code on the table that redirects to the website.
- tobias_smollett 4y ago
  I've also seen where you have make your order on the website and then they deliver it to your table. I'm not sure if there was even any other way to order and pay.
- ncpa-cpl 4y ago
  Some restaurants link to their non-optimized printing quality PDF. A few restaurants have made me download a 20 MB PDF, sometimes, while consuming my small and expensive roaming package.
  - messe 4y ago
    > while consuming my small and expensive roaming package. I'm curious. Do you get roaming charges having cross state-lines in the US, or do you have a nation-wide data package? Here in the EU, I'm on a plan that gives me unlimited data anywhere in europe, for around 30€ a month.
    - monocasa 4y ago
      Roaming isn't really correlated with political boundaries like state lines here in the US. It tends to be when you're in a rural area that only a competing service has bothered to put up towers in.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        I haven't seen this for quite a few years but I use one of the major carriers. I assume it may still happen with more budget options in the US.
      - scarface74 4y ago
        I go to rural areas all the time. I have yet to see roaming charges and I have T-mobile. I don’t have data roaming charges anywhere in the world - just slower data outside of North America.
chordalkeyboard 4y ago
I succumbed to the smartphone in 2019 because my university expected it, both formally (2 factor authentication for student email/canvas/registration account) and informally (professor deciding to use an online quiz game as a fun way to review material and give extra points). Additionally every bank has an app and some of them don't have branches in every city so they say "just deposit checks via mobile"
mixmastamyk 4y ago
Ticketmaster requires e-tickets that de facto require a smartphone. No longer can buy tickets anonymously. There were Sony hearing aids discussed here yesterday, requires an app to configure. Aunt's hottub/pool requires an app to configure. Many Universities require them.

yerich 4y ago

Being able to call an Uber or Lyft when I need it has made it much easier to live without a vehicle. I have tried to call a cab company using the phone before, but even they have transitioned to using apps for dispatch now.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
Would add airports. If I’m not checking a bag, I can walk straight to security, do an iris scan at CLEAR and show my digital boarding pass to security and at the gate. That said, there are manual workarounds to almost everything requiring a smartphone. They’re simply less efficient.
- asdff 4y ago
  OTOH it only takes you thirty seconds to transmute your confirmation number into a paper boarding pass at the check in stations, which are empty now that everyone uses apple/android wallet. Maybe that would actually be better even if you have a smartphone, if you are concerned about battery life or roaming charges.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    In the US--I can't speak to CLEAR--but even with TSA Pre you have to show your ID. (I'm not sure they've even looked at my boarding pass when I've flown recently. I assume the computers are correlating my ID with the flight reservation in the system.) If I can conveniently print out a boarding pass either at home or at the airport I tend to do so. That way I'm not fiddling with my phone when I don't need to. (I think I've seen it the other way around in London at least.)
- messe 4y ago
  > I can walk straight to security, do an iris scan at CLEAR I'm sorry, what? Outside the US I just show my boarding card prior to going through security. I'm pretty sure my ID doesn't get checked until I board the plane, so hearing that you show biometrics is a bit jarring. I was in the US a few weeks ago, but I can't remember if I had to show ID when going through security on leaving. I tend to work on autopilot when navigating airports.
  - morpheuskafka 4y ago
    It's been a while since I have flown anywhere, but I don't think we check ID at the gate here? So it's not really any better or worse, it's just at a different point in the process.
    - messe 4y ago
      You might be right. I'll be honest, my approach to airports and flying is to have a few drinks once I get past security and then sleep my way as best I can through the flight. I can't remember if my passport was checked when I boarded on leaving Seattle.

ghaff 4y ago

Well, not something I use a lot but Uber/Lyft. I don't need to use my banking app but otherwise I'd have to drive to an ATM to deposit a check. Again, not essential, but there would be a lot more friction when traveling than otherwise. (And certainly there are a lot of things on the web that are hard to go without and I assume the typical case where someone doesn't have a smartphone doesn't have easy access to a computer either.)

messe 4y ago
> but otherwise I'd have to drive to an ATM to deposit a check Are cheques really that common in the US still? In Ireland, and as far as I'm aware, the rest of the EU, it's rare to see a cheque at all these days. Almost everything is paid either on cards or some other form of electronic transfer.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- alistairSH 4y ago
  Yes, sadly they're pretty common. My wife's side business is almost always paid with a check. I regularly, but not frequently, receive doctors bills or similar without online payment options, so I have to write ~12 checks/year. My housekeeper doesn't accept Paypal/Venmo, so she's paid with a check as well. Sane for some random laborers (lawn, paint) who are working by word of mouth (and not employed by a larger firm). And it's pretty common for elderly people to use them to pay for groceries. I guess my counter-question is what does the rest of the world do for doctors bills or paying laborers who don't accept payment via Paypal/Venmo?
  - messe 4y ago
    > And it's pretty common for elderly people to use them to pay for groceries. Interesting. I'm not even sure a grocery store / supermarket would accept a cheque here. > My housekeeper doesn't accept Paypal/Venmo, so she's paid with a check as well Here it'd be either cash in hand, or a bank transfer (same as rent, really). All you need is their IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code), and most mobile banking apps will let you set up a monthly direct debit. You can sometimes run into issues if their bank account is in a different country to the bank you're transferring from—it's unlawful to discriminate between IBANs in different countries, although it tends to goes unpunished—but there's usually workarounds to that.

asdff 4y ago

For me its two factor authentication at work. The building was constructed in such a way that there is somehow no cell service at all in the building. I had a smartphone all this time but not the actual two factor app, I would have it call my phone and do a keypress but that only worked when I was working from home. When I go into the office, those calls don't go through, neither does texting a list of codes. There are other things in life that are certainly a lot more convenient with a smart phone. I rely on public transit, bussing and trains, and if I didn't have a smartphone that would make it a lot more difficult to navigate. Sure I could pull up a paper map of the bus routes and estimate what routing might be the most optimal to get to my destination by hand, and call up the transit agency operator line with my buss stop ID to ask when the next bus is slated to appear, but its infinitely easier to just use google maps and be done with it. When I am on the first bus and anticipating transferring to another bus, unless I knew that bus stop ID for the transfer point ahead of time I cannot call ahead and know when my transfer bus is arriving, for example.

maxwell 4y ago
> For me its two factor authentication at work. Why no physical authentication, e.g. YubiKeys?

soupfordummies 4y ago

Another example: parking. There are numerous streets that dont have meters now and just a sign to "pay on this parking app"

AndrewUnmuted 4y ago
Nashville's parking situation went from "annoying" to "impossible" thanks to this garbage.
macintux 4y ago
Yeah, I was thrilled when the parking app I signed up for to use once while I was visiting Chicago was hacked.

tengbretson 4y ago

Obviously not essential, but NFL tickets no longer have a paper option. It is app-only.

tobias_smollett 4y ago
The world cup in Qatar requires a specific app to manage your tickets. I really hope U.S. sports don't go down this route.
- mccolin 4y ago
  US sports are already headed there. Proprietary apps help them control (eliminate) the secondary market in two ways: they broker transactions between people (app-to-app) and prevent scalpers from transacting paper tickets. MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL all do this with league-branded apps and/or partnerships with Ticketmaster, etc
  - tutorialmanager 4y ago
    With my current MLB tickets I can take a screen shot of the ticket and text it to somebody else. Much easier than a ticketmaster transfer. The world cup is using a time base code to prevent any transfer of tickets.
PebblesRox 4y ago
We went to an amusement park this summer and they no longer give out paper maps of the park. We had to squint at the online map on the tiny screens of our phones. It was a shame because I would have liked to give out maps to the kids so they could navigate/orient themselves. A few days afterward, I actually went to the trouble of printing nice legal-sized color versions of the map at Staples to give to the kids as mementos. Sure enough, they loved looking at and discussing those maps just like I did as a kid. Next time we go I'm printing maps ahead of time so we can have them while we're there.

intrepidhero 4y ago

Went to restaurant yesterday without paper menus. Just a QR code on the table that redirects to the website.

tobias_smollett 4y ago
I've also seen where you have make your order on the website and then they deliver it to your table. I'm not sure if there was even any other way to order and pay.
ncpa-cpl 4y ago
Some restaurants link to their non-optimized printing quality PDF. A few restaurants have made me download a 20 MB PDF, sometimes, while consuming my small and expensive roaming package.
- messe 4y ago
  > while consuming my small and expensive roaming package. I'm curious. Do you get roaming charges having cross state-lines in the US, or do you have a nation-wide data package? Here in the EU, I'm on a plan that gives me unlimited data anywhere in europe, for around 30€ a month.
  - monocasa 4y ago
    Roaming isn't really correlated with political boundaries like state lines here in the US. It tends to be when you're in a rural area that only a competing service has bothered to put up towers in.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      I haven't seen this for quite a few years but I use one of the major carriers. I assume it may still happen with more budget options in the US.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      I go to rural areas all the time. I have yet to see roaming charges and I have T-mobile. I don’t have data roaming charges anywhere in the world - just slower data outside of North America.

chordalkeyboard 4y ago

I succumbed to the smartphone in 2019 because my university expected it, both formally (2 factor authentication for student email/canvas/registration account) and informally (professor deciding to use an online quiz game as a fun way to review material and give extra points). Additionally every bank has an app and some of them don't have branches in every city so they say "just deposit checks via mobile"

mixmastamyk 4y ago

Ticketmaster requires e-tickets that de facto require a smartphone. No longer can buy tickets anonymously. There were Sony hearing aids discussed here yesterday, requires an app to configure. Aunt's hottub/pool requires an app to configure. Many Universities require them.