3 ms·

Really glad to see this getting traction outside of our lil bubble here. I've tried twice to go without a smartphone in the last year or so (once due to stolen

Really glad to see this getting traction outside of our lil bubble here. I've tried twice to go without a smartphone in the last year or so (once due to stolen-phone-necessity, the other just a social experiment) and it was a GIANT PITA each time. Even just a Saturday night downtown... parking, restaurant, show ticket... each part more or less NOT doable without a smartphone

systems_glitch 3y ago
I finally got one this year (I'm 36, but realized this stuff was nonsense on an iPaq) just to do away with potatophone service and a landline that only worked some of the time. I still mostly use it as a phone. Maybe the pervasive need for vendor smartphone applications just hasn't reached anywhere I go, but I do travel for work a fair bit. Is this just, again, something that's prevalent outside the USA? EDIT: comment further down did remind me that I think someone in our group had to use some parking app last time we were in Cambridge, MA.
- soupfordummies 3y ago
  Yeah this was all in US. Parking apps, ticket apps, payment apps, etc etc
  - syndicatedjelly 3y ago
    Europe is way more tech-ified in this regards, they don't get to be off the hook this time
gwbas1c 3y ago
> I've tried twice to go without a smartphone in the last year or so... Go where? Airport? Somewhere else? I still prefer printing out tickets. I've just seen tech fail so often, or had to deal with bad tech so often, that I'd rather have a fallback for when (not if) it breaks.
- soupfordummies 3y ago
  by "go without" I meant, just not have/use a smartphone in the context of my daily life. I go to a lot of concerts and printing tickets is not even an option anymore for most of them.
- kwhitefoot 3y ago
  If you paid with a credit card then there is absolutely no need for a paper ticket; inspectors, etc., can just use a card reader to connect you to the record of you paying.

systems_glitch 3y ago

I finally got one this year (I'm 36, but realized this stuff was nonsense on an iPaq) just to do away with potatophone service and a landline that only worked some of the time. I still mostly use it as a phone. Maybe the pervasive need for vendor smartphone applications just hasn't reached anywhere I go, but I do travel for work a fair bit. Is this just, again, something that's prevalent outside the USA? EDIT: comment further down did remind me that I think someone in our group had to use some parking app last time we were in Cambridge, MA.

soupfordummies 3y ago
Yeah this was all in US. Parking apps, ticket apps, payment apps, etc etc
- syndicatedjelly 3y ago
  Europe is way more tech-ified in this regards, they don't get to be off the hook this time

gwbas1c 3y ago

> I've tried twice to go without a smartphone in the last year or so... Go where? Airport? Somewhere else? I still prefer printing out tickets. I've just seen tech fail so often, or had to deal with bad tech so often, that I'd rather have a fallback for when (not if) it breaks.

soupfordummies 3y ago
by "go without" I meant, just not have/use a smartphone in the context of my daily life. I go to a lot of concerts and printing tickets is not even an option anymore for most of them.
kwhitefoot 3y ago
If you paid with a credit card then there is absolutely no need for a paper ticket; inspectors, etc., can just use a card reader to connect you to the record of you paying.