- Alarm Clock: Without my phone, I don't wake up on time.
- Weather Report: My phone dictates how I dress for the day.
- Calendar: Reminds me when I need to be somewhere
- Flashlight: Allows me to pick clothes without turning on lights in the bedroom, waking up my wife.
Once I get on the bus, I have other uses for my phone:
- Email: I get a jump on work-related topics before I get in, read personal email, delete SPAM...
- Kindle: or I will read a book to pass the time
- Social Media: What's life without Reddit, Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook, right?
- News Reader: Feedly to the rescue
- Camera: capturing moments of life...
Of course, the phone has its general phone-like features:
- Phone: Yep.. what it was designed for
- SMS: Although I don't use this too often these days.
While I'm working,
- PagerDuty Application: What emergencies have happened at work?
- Jira Browser: Looking at opened issues, etc.
When I'm driving,
- Maps or Waze: Show me how to get there
- 4Square: Tell me where to eat
When I'm running or biking,
- MyTracks: Where did I go?
- DailyMile: Log what I did
So when I look at the $500-600 price tag for a new smartphone, I start to think that maybe it's not such a bad deal. With a typical lifespan of 2 years, that's $1/day. Still, there are things my phone can't do:
- Deal with water
- Avoid fall damage
- Remind me not to leave it behind (unlikely as that might be)
- Play with my children
- Have a date with my wife
- Fix the front-steps of my house
- Mow the lawn
- Clean the pool
- Visit with family
- Practice my guitar (as horrible as I am with it)
- Run!
The all-in-one device is convenient, and maybe too much so. The last couple of days have been eye-opening; I spend too much time with my attention on the screen rather than the environment around me. It is too easy to grab for my phone when I need to look something up or need a distraction. Instant gratification is the rule instead of the exception. Time to change that.
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