Interesting Take on Smartphones

By Jake • October 20th, 2011 • 15 Comments

As I read this tantalizingly titled post, I found myself nodding like an idiot. I work from home, so at least no one saw me silently agreeing with what I was reading.

I Hate My Smartphone

The main point is highly applicable to me and to many of you and is pretty much the same one I made about my tablet, touchscreens suck for content creation.

Yeah, they’re awesome for entertainment, quick communication and consuming content, but I avoid any tasks that require more than a few sentences of keyboard poking. I’m betting you do too.

It’s just too much of a pain to do real work.

Some people even apologize for their brevity (and typos) in their smartphone email signatures.

So, if you write code (even assuming you could on a smartphone or tablet), documents, blog posts, anything, you’re likely in the same boat; you don’t on a smartphone because of the enormous effort required.

Similar problem if you design anything; you’ll quickly find the finger is a terrible pointing device for pixel-perfection. Sure, this is more a tablet use case, but I’m sure there are people out there who’ve tried it on a phone.

The inputs aren’t good enough; it’s that simple.

This makes smartphones substandard computing devices really, but I’d argue they make up for that by providing convenience.

And that alone is worth the investment and annoyance. The ability to tap into the intertubes while you’re on the go is something magical, like Knight Rider’s operations trailer. Having information at your command like that is incredibly useful.

So, while the limitations of smartphones are a bit maddening at times, they make up for it with convenience. I’m not in love with my phone anymore, but I definitely wouldn’t want to be without it.

What do you think? Do love or hate your smartphone?

Find the comments.


Possibly Related Posts

  • Gary

    Bad for written content creation but good for unedited photos, video and audio. Transcribing audio could make the ifference

  • http://twitter.com/rmanalan rmanalan

    I love my iPhone 4s.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Care to elaborate on what’s so awesome, especially wrt to the Droid X you used to carry?

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Sure, but for everyone who needs to create content, smartphones are just convenience tools at least wrt to getting work done.

  • Jon Spriggs

    Personally, I have made sure that every phone I’ve had since they got “smart” has had a keyboard. P910i, HTC Kaiser, Wizard(? the T-Mobile Vario 3, whatever that was), G1, X10 Mini Pro and lastly Desire Z.

    Mostly, this has been so I can SSH without fear of mistyping my password (which is somewhat long and vaguely complicated), but I have been known to edit content in databases and even knock up the occasional remote HTML file.

    I’d not be without my keyboard, and it’s very frustrating that it looks like when my Desire Z packs in, the next thing I get will either look like a Blackberry and have 1/3rd the screen estate I’m used to… or just have to put up with an on-screen keyboard. Bleugh.

    It’s that, or buy a bluetooth keyboard for my phone. *shudder*

  • http://twitter.com/rmanalan rmanalan

    It just works… no need to tinker (no opportunity to tinker). It’s beautiful (hardware and software). And it’s super fast.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    I’m w you on adding a keyboard to a smartphone, icky. You make an interesting point about the physical vs. soft keypad. When I briefly had an original Droid, I found the keypad to be infuriating, so I’ve never given it another thought. I suppose if you’re practiced, you could get stuff done.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Yeah well, you haven’t had a Nexus phone yet. It’s a much better experience wo all the crapware. I’ve avoided tinkering too, which has worked out well.

    I don’t think I’ll go back to an iPhone unless it’s free (as if) and has a major wow feature. I don’t see the 4S having a wow feature. Plus, there’s the whole lack of LTE thing too.

  • http://blogs.oracle.com/userassistance/ uvox

    Can’t say I love it. Do love my MacBook Pros, iPhones and Nexus S, Blackberry, etc, no. Probably smart phones are much like the rest of the wardrobe, and it’s hard to be passionate about something you thought you always had. Now I use it without thinking its from Apple or an Android. Won’t stop me going after the next Samsung on Ice Cream Sandwich or iPhone 5 though. Laptops, well, if you’ve ever used Windows, you’ll know how to hate it for ever and to love the Mac.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Yeah, I have that pull toward the MBP bc it (just) works better than the alternatives. I can be productive. That’s my biggest hurdle for the smartphone; it’s tough to be really productive on it. I find myself falling back on the phone when I get annoyed tapping out an email.

    Sad. Probably a generational thing too.

  • maybe x 2

    My Motorola Droid 3 physical keyboard is pretty sweet. I use it to code all the time, although mostly simple edits or tweaks. It makes it easier to edit and to enter key combos. It’s also nice to be able to see the entire screen without the virtual keyboard taking up all that space. Perhaps someone needs to invent a tablet with a keyboard…

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Wow, amazed your huge hands can actually hit those tiny keys w any accuracy. Thinking of Homer mashing the phone when he got morbidly obese.

    Why the crapware? I don’t get that.

  • maybe x 2

    I guess all that practice on the original Moto Droid is really paying off cuz the Droid 3 keyboard’s basically ideal. I mean, it could get better, but it is very satisfying.

    The crapware on Moto’s products? Because they’re fing aholes! Root has been achieved though.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    I still can’t image banging out code on a tiny keypad, like building something from scratch, not just editing. Never mind the compiler issues.

    My biggest quarrel w Android, too much hacking is required to get it right, unless you go Nexus, which is what I did. I love the community, but it’s too much work. I have a daughter now, no time for that.

  • 2569025360