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I've been working in tech for 25 years, and I'm sure I hardly use any of the new features. Camera? Click, maybe crop it or turn it into a loop if it's funny. I

I've been working in tech for 25 years, and I'm sure I hardly use any of the new features. Camera? Click, maybe crop it or turn it into a loop if it's funny. I play some games on it. I browse some social crap on it. I occasionally tell Siri to set a reminder. That's... about it. I'm really not sure what else I'm supposed to be doing.

adrr 2y ago
I use mine to measure things, replaced my measuring tape. It is also my flashlight. I use it to find my wallet and keys as they have air tags in them. Its my wallet, credit cards, hotel room key, subway/metro pass. I have an app that implements OpenAIs CLIP on my phone and can instantly search my photos thats better any other image search out there and it runs on the device.
- xvector 2y ago
  What app are you using for measurement and local image search? For measurement I found Apple's app disappointing, even on the Pro models it isn't accurate to the scales I typically work with (centimeters.)
  - adrr 2y ago
    I just use the apple measure tool. Not dealing with that level of precision, just to measure things in the house to see if furniture will fit or not. For the image search, i use this https://github.com/mazzzystar/Queryable https://github.com/mazzzystar/Queryable
creakingstairs 2y ago
I’m on the same boat as you. I do most of my productive work on my computer. But I started teaching kids recently and realised that kids do EVERYTHING on their phone these days. Write essays, edit videos, play games, make musics etc. A lot of them can’t type well on their keyboards and it’s the main source of frustration for kids when learning coding.
jodrellblank 2y ago
You don’t use maps for looking around? For navigation while driving? You’re allowed to have in-car satnav or not drive. You don’t use the camera for QR codes? Fine you don’t want to scan things for information. You don’t use the image recognition in the camera app to select people and copy them out of the background? That’s fine you don’t participate selfies and party photos. To do OCR on text in photos? It’s fine that you never want it. To select e.g. plants and search for what they are on Google? It’s fine that you know what everything is/don’t care/don’t photograph plants. To search your photo library by text for things and people recognised in the pictures? Fine that you know where all your pictures are. To describe photos by voice? Fine that you have good eyesight. You don’t use the builtin daily steps tracker, or any third party running or cycling or exercise mapping / route trackers, or any Garmin style route planners? Fine that you don’t have other devices for that kind of thing or don’t go out. You don’t use the weather app, or a third party one? Fine that you don’t want to. You don’t use any remote terminal, Remote Desktop, programming, Jupyter, anything? Fine that you have a laptop which does everything you need. Kindle, any ebook reader, any podcast app? Fine that you have paper and don’t listen to posts. Any music player? Fine that you don’t listen to music. Any Netflix style video or TV show app, BBC iPlayer? Fine that you don’t even own a TV. Any third party camera app such as night eyes or webcam stacking, or use the phone as a wireless webcam on another computer? Fine that you aren’t interested in photo novelties. No Evernote or OneNote cloud synced notebooks or todo lists? Calendar? Email? Fine that you only ever write plain text in a plain text file and you don’t have meetings or appointments. No local train, tram, bus, library, cinema, schedule app? Fine that you drive everywhere or go nowhere. No educational apps? Fine that you learn things in other ways. No Chatgpt? Fine that you don’t ask LLMs things. No Google or phind or kagi search? Also fine. Look, 25 years in tech, am I really writing out a list of “things people do on phones” as if I genuinely believe that you’ve never heard of any of this stuff while also adding how it’s fine because I’m totally expecting you to do the “too cool for school” dismissal of everything? Has your 25 years in tech been Bronze Age tech? You must be 40 ish, and lived through the era of dumb phones being new and everyone talking about nothing but what contract texts and minutes they had, the time when everyone had Blackberries, the time when features were things like a compass, clock, snake game, custom ringtones, FM radio, and people were doing endless comparisons of their new phone to their old one, the first camera phones, when data went from WAP to GPRS to 2G and web browsers, when “location based services” were called out on TV adverts, and all through the smartphone years nobody ever showed you the cool app they just found, when translating foreign signs was coded in assembly on a 3GS to being just a built in thing in Google camera, when Evernote was a tech darling as people realised the cloud sync convenience, when “no Wi-Fi less space than a nomad” gave way to “all previous gadgets are now one” and the rise of smart tv and smart homes and appliances with their own apps and streaming, every app launched on “show HN” or linked, you missed everything for fifteen years and “don’t really know what people do with phones anyway?” That’s got to be a troll comment where you know very well what people do and are pretending not to because you look cooler if you’re disaffected and uninvolved… Right? Why else would you have no interest in phones but be in an iPhone 16 launch thread? and think your comment on how you don’t even use a phone anyway is a good comment worth posting? Or you have main character syndrome and think the only things which exist should be for you to use need nothing else matters? Assume good faith… are you … hoping someone can share a list of “things phones can do?” then here is another partial one.

adrr 2y ago

I use mine to measure things, replaced my measuring tape. It is also my flashlight. I use it to find my wallet and keys as they have air tags in them. Its my wallet, credit cards, hotel room key, subway/metro pass. I have an app that implements OpenAIs CLIP on my phone and can instantly search my photos thats better any other image search out there and it runs on the device.

xvector 2y ago
What app are you using for measurement and local image search? For measurement I found Apple's app disappointing, even on the Pro models it isn't accurate to the scales I typically work with (centimeters.)
- adrr 2y ago
  I just use the apple measure tool. Not dealing with that level of precision, just to measure things in the house to see if furniture will fit or not. For the image search, i use this https://github.com/mazzzystar/Queryable https://github.com/mazzzystar/Queryable

creakingstairs 2y ago

I’m on the same boat as you. I do most of my productive work on my computer. But I started teaching kids recently and realised that kids do EVERYTHING on their phone these days. Write essays, edit videos, play games, make musics etc. A lot of them can’t type well on their keyboards and it’s the main source of frustration for kids when learning coding.

jodrellblank 2y ago

You don’t use maps for looking around? For navigation while driving? You’re allowed to have in-car satnav or not drive. You don’t use the camera for QR codes? Fine you don’t want to scan things for information. You don’t use the image recognition in the camera app to select people and copy them out of the background? That’s fine you don’t participate selfies and party photos. To do OCR on text in photos? It’s fine that you never want it. To select e.g. plants and search for what they are on Google? It’s fine that you know what everything is/don’t care/don’t photograph plants. To search your photo library by text for things and people recognised in the pictures? Fine that you know where all your pictures are. To describe photos by voice? Fine that you have good eyesight. You don’t use the builtin daily steps tracker, or any third party running or cycling or exercise mapping / route trackers, or any Garmin style route planners? Fine that you don’t have other devices for that kind of thing or don’t go out. You don’t use the weather app, or a third party one? Fine that you don’t want to. You don’t use any remote terminal, Remote Desktop, programming, Jupyter, anything? Fine that you have a laptop which does everything you need. Kindle, any ebook reader, any podcast app? Fine that you have paper and don’t listen to posts. Any music player? Fine that you don’t listen to music. Any Netflix style video or TV show app, BBC iPlayer? Fine that you don’t even own a TV. Any third party camera app such as night eyes or webcam stacking, or use the phone as a wireless webcam on another computer? Fine that you aren’t interested in photo novelties. No Evernote or OneNote cloud synced notebooks or todo lists? Calendar? Email? Fine that you only ever write plain text in a plain text file and you don’t have meetings or appointments. No local train, tram, bus, library, cinema, schedule app? Fine that you drive everywhere or go nowhere. No educational apps? Fine that you learn things in other ways. No Chatgpt? Fine that you don’t ask LLMs things. No Google or phind or kagi search? Also fine. Look, 25 years in tech, am I really writing out a list of “things people do on phones” as if I genuinely believe that you’ve never heard of any of this stuff while also adding how it’s fine because I’m totally expecting you to do the “too cool for school” dismissal of everything? Has your 25 years in tech been Bronze Age tech? You must be 40 ish, and lived through the era of dumb phones being new and everyone talking about nothing but what contract texts and minutes they had, the time when everyone had Blackberries, the time when features were things like a compass, clock, snake game, custom ringtones, FM radio, and people were doing endless comparisons of their new phone to their old one, the first camera phones, when data went from WAP to GPRS to 2G and web browsers, when “location based services” were called out on TV adverts, and all through the smartphone years nobody ever showed you the cool app they just found, when translating foreign signs was coded in assembly on a 3GS to being just a built in thing in Google camera, when Evernote was a tech darling as people realised the cloud sync convenience, when “no Wi-Fi less space than a nomad” gave way to “all previous gadgets are now one” and the rise of smart tv and smart homes and appliances with their own apps and streaming, every app launched on “show HN” or linked, you missed everything for fifteen years and “don’t really know what people do with phones anyway?” That’s got to be a troll comment where you know very well what people do and are pretending not to because you look cooler if you’re disaffected and uninvolved… Right? Why else would you have no interest in phones but be in an iPhone 16 launch thread? and think your comment on how you don’t even use a phone anyway is a good comment worth posting? Or you have main character syndrome and think the only things which exist should be for you to use need nothing else matters? Assume good faith… are you … hoping someone can share a list of “things phones can do?” then here is another partial one.