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Or ditch the smartphone entirely, get some variety of robust dumbphone, and work that out in your life. I have a Sonim XP3+, running Android 11 Go, I think, bu

by Syonyk 2y ago

Or ditch the smartphone entirely, get some variety of robust dumbphone, and work that out in your life. I have a Sonim XP3+, running Android 11 Go, I think, but it's just a rugged dumbphone. Waterproof, drop resistant up to some very reasonable distance, and "generally indestructible" for most reasonable and quite a few unreasonable values of that term. It's good for calls, and texting. And the occasional hotspot use. I carry a decade old laptop for other stuff I need, and use the car's GPS if needed, though since giving up on smartphone maps some while ago, my internal navigation is way better than it used to be. Irritatingly, US carriers all went to VoLTE at about the same time, turning quite a few perfectly good older devices into ewaste, but I'm hopeful VoLTE works for a long while, and I have a decade or so before I have to think about a cell phone again. And, yes, I know that "I couldn't possibly do that for..." reason lists are long. Try it. If nobody resists "having a modern smartphone and being willing to install any random app someplace demands you install," that will be the future we get. I can't even scan QR codes. Life is good!

babypuncher 2y ago
I've never met an in-car GPS navigation system that was half as good as what I get with Google or Apple Maps through CarPlay. And these days car manufacturers are starting to charge a subscription service for it. GM is even going as far as to take CarPlay out of their new cars just to push customers to that subscription.
- Syonyk 2y ago
  I honestly don't really care. I don't use it much. I'm far more likely to bring a (paper) notebook with directions, and that's been working well for me with overview maps beforehand. Yes, it's exercising mental stuff I hadn't used in a while, but it's been worth the effort and occasional "... wait, where am I?" to regain those skills, I think. I've considered pretty hard picking up a standalone TomTom unit to have newer maps on - the car's maps are a decade old and this is at least occasionally a problem finding newer subdivisions, but I can get close to where I need to be and follow my hand-written directions the rest of the way. New cars are... a problem. I don't want (rather, "won't buy") a "connected car" sort of thing unless I can disable the cell modem entirely before I leave the lot. I do not want a cell phone on wheels, and this is unfortunately what the automakers seem to have decided to ship, complete with "Buggy? Don't worry, we'll patch it later!" I'm probably good for about a decade on the current fleet before this becomes a pressing issue, and at that point, hopefully either the absurdity will have subsided, or I'll just do my own work on older vehicles or an EV conversion on some classic chassis. Toyota, at least, seems to have a path for "Seriously, turn off the cell modem..." and a few other cars have a fuse you can pull to kill the cell modem and a few other things. I don't mind if I kill Bluetooth, as long as there's an aux-in I can hook something up to (even if that's a little standalone BT receiver as I have in the car now).
  - babypuncher 2y ago
    So what do you do when your plans change mid-trip, and you need to go somewhere else you've never been to and didn't know to look up directions for ahead of time?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Marsymars 2y ago
> And, yes, I know that "I couldn't possibly do that for..." reason lists are long. Try it. I've tried it for a burner phone for international travel, and it turns out that even though I'm a very light user of phone messaging, I find T9 texting exceptionally unpleasant to use. (I never used T9 in its heyday, and find smartphone virtual keyboards unpleasant in the best of cases.) I already do 99% of my messaging at my PC, but sometimes need to message someone on the go. Now I've just been using my previous primary phone for international travel. Though I'd probably be okay with a dumb phone with a slider keyboard.

by Syonyk 2y ago

babypuncher 2y ago

I've never met an in-car GPS navigation system that was half as good as what I get with Google or Apple Maps through CarPlay. And these days car manufacturers are starting to charge a subscription service for it. GM is even going as far as to take CarPlay out of their new cars just to push customers to that subscription.

Syonyk 2y ago
I honestly don't really care. I don't use it much. I'm far more likely to bring a (paper) notebook with directions, and that's been working well for me with overview maps beforehand. Yes, it's exercising mental stuff I hadn't used in a while, but it's been worth the effort and occasional "... wait, where am I?" to regain those skills, I think. I've considered pretty hard picking up a standalone TomTom unit to have newer maps on - the car's maps are a decade old and this is at least occasionally a problem finding newer subdivisions, but I can get close to where I need to be and follow my hand-written directions the rest of the way. New cars are... a problem. I don't want (rather, "won't buy") a "connected car" sort of thing unless I can disable the cell modem entirely before I leave the lot. I do not want a cell phone on wheels, and this is unfortunately what the automakers seem to have decided to ship, complete with "Buggy? Don't worry, we'll patch it later!" I'm probably good for about a decade on the current fleet before this becomes a pressing issue, and at that point, hopefully either the absurdity will have subsided, or I'll just do my own work on older vehicles or an EV conversion on some classic chassis. Toyota, at least, seems to have a path for "Seriously, turn off the cell modem..." and a few other cars have a fuse you can pull to kill the cell modem and a few other things. I don't mind if I kill Bluetooth, as long as there's an aux-in I can hook something up to (even if that's a little standalone BT receiver as I have in the car now).
- babypuncher 2y ago
  So what do you do when your plans change mid-trip, and you need to go somewhere else you've never been to and didn't know to look up directions for ahead of time?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

Marsymars 2y ago

> And, yes, I know that "I couldn't possibly do that for..." reason lists are long. Try it. I've tried it for a burner phone for international travel, and it turns out that even though I'm a very light user of phone messaging, I find T9 texting exceptionally unpleasant to use. (I never used T9 in its heyday, and find smartphone virtual keyboards unpleasant in the best of cases.) I already do 99% of my messaging at my PC, but sometimes need to message someone on the go. Now I've just been using my previous primary phone for international travel. Though I'd probably be okay with a dumb phone with a slider keyboard.