Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

[ovrszd]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I consider it a tool. Less than 10% of my use is talking to someone.

Best Apps ever:

Latitude Longitude, quickly pinpoints your location with 911 mailing address and Latitude/Longitude numbers. I use it when calling Dig Rite to locate underground utilities.

Angle Meter Pro, has multiple selections of data reporting. I use it to determine slope of road banks. As a simple Level. Construction slopes such as roof.

Compass, self explanatory.

Google Maps, self explanatory.

Climate.com, use primarily as a rain gauge. I have a dozen locations pinpointed across a 10 mile area, including my homesite and my farm. Averages 80%+ accuracy. Good enough to save me a 6 mile trip to the farm just to find out it rained an inch.....

Unit converter, converts any measurement you can think of to something you understand. Great for old timers that refuse to learn the metric system.

Group Me, great for texting in groups larger than 10. Use it to group communicate with the offroad gang I hang out with.

I keep all these on my Home Screen for handy access.

My usage is usually in short spurts. Frequency dependent on how busy I am that day. Cell Phone was my families idea because I'm out alone at night pushing snow in the Winter, somewhere on 50 miles of sparsely populated rural roads.

 

[3930dave]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

Family emergencies come up so I can't toss the phone all together. I don't know what airplane mode does. I hate the #$%@&$! thing.

They have affected our sense of immediacy, quite a bit.

Airplane mode switches off the transmitter portion(s) of the phone. As we are covering here, many people use their phones more as a mobile computer interface, than for talking or even texting. The reason for that option was so that you could have your screen and local functions still work, but setting Airplane Mode On prevented you from potentially creating interference with the airplane's onboard electronics (fly by wire controls, Navigation....).

I like that my phone is booted up ready to go, but is saving power (transmitters Off) until I need to do something. Basic time mgmt courses used to teach setting aside 15 minutes at appropriate intervals to sit down and return business calls in a batch..... today, we seem to have devolved into a state of constant interruptions with phones.

That's the other thing I've come to like about Airplane Mode - I schedule when my interruptions occur on the phone.

I only recently realized that Airplane Mode has a nice option. If your phone is running normally, and you activate Airplane Mode, then all transmitters get turned Off. If you then turn your Wifi setting back On, it will come up, and your cell and other transmitters stay Off. Nice option, when I want to make use of the web, but want the cell network SILENT. (Some airlines now offer onboard Wifi).

^ My version of getting my phone to do What I Want, When I Want...... not perfect, but better than the default settings, for my needs....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I consider it a tool. Less than 10% of my use is talking to someone.

Best Apps ever:

Latitude Longitude, quickly pinpoints your location with 911 mailing address and Latitude/Longitude numbers. I use it when calling Dig Rite to locate underground utilities.

Angle Meter Pro, has multiple selections of data reporting. I use it to determine slope of road banks. As a simple Level. Construction slopes such as roof.

Compass, self explanatory.

Google Maps, self explanatory.

Climate.com, use primarily as a rain gauge. I have a dozen locations pinpointed across a 10 mile area, including my homesite and my farm. Averages 80%+ accuracy. Good enough to save me a 6 mile trip to the farm just to find out it rained an inch.....

Unit converter, converts any measurement you can think of to something you understand. Great for old timers that refuse to learn the metric system.

Group Me, great for texting in groups larger than 10. Use it to group communicate with the offroad gang I hang out with.

I keep all these on my Home Screen for handy access.

My usage is usually in short spurts. Frequency dependent on how busy I am that day. Cell Phone was my families idea because I'm out alone at night pushing snow in the Winter, somewhere on 50 miles of sparsely populated rural roads.

Lots of Apps to choose from, for most interests/needs....

As mobile computers, smart phones are convenient, and depending what you buy, somewhat ruggedized and water resistant.

For any kind of heavy (data wise) mobile computing needs I prefer a large screen, but I really don't want to be always lugging around a large smart phone.... for business, I prefer something like a Toughbook, or at lower cost, something like a water resistant Chromebook.

One of my favourite phone apps is WhatsApp - good all round performance (voice, text, images, video conference....) and can be PC client based. Like that is based on Signal, not comfortable with its present ownership.

Rgds, D.

 

[drssg]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

For me, it’s a blessing and not a curse. If I don’t want it to bother me, then I use airplane mode. With my smart phone there is a huge list of stuff that I always have with me.

- Calendar
- Contacts
- Calculator
- Camera
- Flashlight
- Misc notes/shopping list/to do list
- Alarm clock (better than my real alarm clock)
- View property network cameras from home or away.
- Google maps. Soooo much better when I don’t know where I’m going.
- Kindle
- Weather
- Voice memo for a quick note that I don’t want to write down
- And of course, TBN.

I don’t even use the phone and texting that much, but that’s also very convenient when I need it.

The most annoying thing is telemarketers, so I don’t answer it for any number not in my contact list.

 

[k0ua]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

For me, it’s a blessing and not a curse. If I don’t want it to bother me, then I use airplane mode. With my smart phone there is a huge list of stuff that I always have with me.

- Calendar
- Contacts
- Calculator
- Camera
- Flashlight
- Misc notes/shopping list/to do list
- Alarm clock (better than my real alarm clock)
- View property network cameras from home or away.
- Google maps. Soooo much better when I don’t know where I’m going.
- Kindle
- Weather
- Voice memo for a quick note that I don’t want to write down
- And of course, TBN.

I don’t even use the phone and texting that much, but that’s also very convenient when I need it.

The most annoying thing is telemarketers, so I don’t answer it for any number not in my contact list.

Shot timer for firearms competition.
Bingo game (I volunteer at a Senior Center as caller)
Notifications of DX stations (spotting network for Amateur Radio)
Endoscope display for cheap chinese edoscopes.
Oscilloscope display
Electronic reference and calculators.
Dozens of Adobe acrobat manuals loaded for all kinds of equipment. On board at your fingertips when ever you want them without needing internet access

Magnifier Glass (thru the camera app)
Insurance Rate Quote tools
Storm App
Decibel meter
Photographic light meter
Recorder (hours of audio recording if needed)
Miller Welding setting for all processes. MIG, GTAW, SMAW
Radio Frequency Scanneer for any city or area (for free no less)
Excell, Powerpoint, and Word platform.

AND thousands more. Thousands. Those are just a few apps on MY smartphone. \

I don't really understand the "hatred" of technology. But then again I am a technical kind of guy. If I fail to grasp how something works, I look it up.

 

[npalen]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I like the MeasureMap App. It's handy for quickly determining the square footage or acres of a field when doing custom work. Just pick points on the map to outline the field and it reports the perimeter and area as well as the distance between points. Even fields that follow a creek or whatever can be accurately determined by plotting a few points along the curves.

 

[Diggin It]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So, does anybody use them for ..... you know ..... calling people?

 

[Jstpssng]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So, does anybody use them for ..... you know ..... calling people?

They really don't work very well for that. I can go for two weeks and never see more than one bar on my phone.
>
What I don't understand about technology in general though is how I was able to open an email this AM with a time stamp of 7:33?
Note the time that I'm posting this.

 

[Diggin It]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

What I don't understand about technology in general though is how I was able to open an email this AM with a time stamp of 7:33?
Note the time that I'm posting this.

It's like they say about drinks after work ... 'it's always after five o'clock somewhere'.

 

[Oldoak]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So, does anybody use them for ..... you know ..... calling people?

Yep! That is the ONLY thing I use a cell phone for. Making and receiving calls.

I don't even communicate by text messaging. If I want something in print, I use my laptop and email.