Six technologies endangered by smartphones

[Viseguy]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

dude whenever I hear or read comments like yours that you "need" these things I tag that person as food in the wild or when the lights go out...most would die without a Starbucks on 3 of 4 corners at every other intersection if one thinks they NEED a GPS to drive somewhere that is on a map.

Dude yourself -- and read what I actually wrote. I never said that I or anyone else "needs" a GPS to get around. I said it provides certain "amenities". There's a difference, you see?

As for comments by others along the lines of "I drove for x years without a GPS and did just fine": Yes, I know; x= 42 for me. It's just better with GPS than without, I find; YMMV.

I think I'll grab a Starbucks now.

P.S. I did just fine without an e-book reader for 60 years. Now I've ordered a Kindle. We shall see.....

[Dylrob]

One device to rule them all - or not.

[Lo Zeno]

No device will ever die completely. But it's foolish to think that their sells won't be affected by the new smartphones.

It all comes down to what is good enough for the average buyer. Is a smartphone's camera enough for your holiday pictures? For mine, it is. I just spent 2 weeks in Barcelona, Spain, and I used only my HTC Desire's built-in cameras to take pictures, and they have a pretty decent quality. They're pictures taken on vacation, so who cares if I haven't zoomed into that tiny microscopical detail of that plate on La Pedrera's wall? Or who cares if the lens wasn't polarized enough and the colours are "not precisely perfect"?
So, a smartphone's built-in camera is enough for me. And speaking of photography, I am your typical average-man, so you can take me as an example. My girlfriend's father, instead, who works as a photographer, will never, ever take a photo using a smartphone. Ever. He is somewhat an artist, and has his amazing (and costly) devices, both digital and film, and he can't conceive the idea of using something that makes pictures with lesser quality.

Speaking of reading devices, instead, I am not an average-man. I have precise needs and precise requests, like LONG battery life (I want my e-reader to last at least five full days without recharging, because in september for example I usually spend 5 days in the mountains living in a tent in the woods, with no electricity at all).
But the average man doesn't read as much as I, or you, do. He reads casually, and rarely. The average man will say "How cool! I can read books on my phone", and will use it once or twice to read The adventures of Huck Finn, but he is not someone who will ever feel the need to buy a Kindle or similar device.

Speaking of GPS devices: I have one. I use it. I love it. I have never gotten lost before buying one, but at the same time I have spent YEARS reading on paper and have never had one single problem. But now I use an e-reader, and do you know why? Because it makes my life easier, carrying many books with less weight for example. The same goes for my GPS: it makes my life easier allowing me not to bring with me many maps in my car, it SPEAKS so I don't have to look at the map all the time, and since I keep its maps updated it has failed me only ONCE.
Just FYI, the old paper maps were updated even less frequently than the digital GPS maps.

GPS devices are just maps that read themselves aloud, nothing more, nothing less. I have gone without them for years, sure, but now that they exist, and now that they are getting more and more precise and less faulty, I don't see a reason not to use them when I need to go to a place that I don't know, or to quickly find a cinema/ATM/restaurant in an area that I don't know.
I also lived perfectly well for years before buying my first PC, or before buying my first internet connection, but that doesn't mean that I have to continue living that way if the new technology makes my life easier.

[Viseguy]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

... I have spent YEARS reading on paper and have never had one single problem. But now I use an e-reader, and do you know why? Because it makes my life easier, carrying many books with less weight for example. The same goes for my GPS: it makes my life easier ...

My point, exactly. You put it better.

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

GPS devices are just maps that read themselves aloud, nothing more, nothing less.

I'd say that GPS is a little more. A paper map can't calculate a route for you (or customize it -- omit or include Interstates, toll roads, car pool lanes, etc.). It can't estimate your arrival time, tell you the distance to destination, or provide lane guidance or traffic updates. All of which I find really convenient -- well, my current unit doesn't do traffic, but my next one will, even if it is a smartphone.

But the "reading aloud" part is definitely the best.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Stumbled across this article this morning that shines another light on gadgets. One thing I've noticed when driving, if I see a boneheaded manuever, it's almost guaranteed it's committed by someone with a cellphone jammed to her/his ear.

[Crowl]

Stupid people do stupid things when driving isn't really a shocker, if it isn't a cellphone then they just find any number of other things to do instead of paying attention in the car.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Stumbled across this article this morning that shines another light on gadgets. One thing I've noticed when driving, if I see a boneheaded manuever, it's almost guaranteed it's committed by someone with a cellphone jammed to her/his ear.

Is that not a crime in your country? It's been illegal for many years here.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is that not a crime in your country? It's been illegal for many years here.

Nope, not most places. (Although I think some states have their own laws.)

More's the pity.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is that not a crime in your country? It's been illegal for many years here.

illegal, true - not that you'd believe it !!!!

[kjk]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is that not a crime in your country? It's been illegal for many years here.

It is in California. But its certainly not universal: http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/l...hone_laws.html

Only 30 states ban texting while driving for all drivers. lol.

[saoir]

The trouble with GPS devices is this ... and I discovered it through discussing it with some friends over the last year.

Remember when we were young and our father/month used to drive around town to places with us in the car and point places out and tell us street names and routes etc etc ? Did ANYONE ever remember what we were being told ? nope .. not until we started to drive ourselves.

With GPS now .. it's kinda similar. It's great for finding our way to places but people are not remembering how they got their. So they have to use the GPS for each subsequent trip and don't learn the geography of locations like they did when they had to learn it for themselves and navigate by signs, etc..

[Viseguy]

Originally Posted by saoir

The trouble with GPS devices is this ... It's great for finding our way to places but people are not remembering how they got their. So they have to use the GPS for each subsequent trip and don't learn the geography of locations like they did when they had to learn it for themselves and navigate by signs, etc..

I agree this is a concern. With a GPS, you're often focused not on the big picture, but on relating the spoken instruction to the scene immediately in front of you. There's an element of passivity to the process that could lead one to become excessively dependent on the little robot.

OTOH, I don't think this is the only possible outcome. You can use software such as Tyre to plan an itinerary in advance (and write it to your GPS device). Planning is an active process, and later you do have the bigger picture in mind as you're driving with the GPS.

I, for one, have learned a lot of new geography since getting my GPS, both in my home town and in other places. I was just on vacation in an area that I visit maybe once a year and don't know very well. The GPS encouraged me to take side trips that I might not otherwise have bothered with because of the hassle of getting lost. Now, when I look at a map of the area, I can relate those side trips to the places I already know. I've learned something.

But you raise an interesting question. As someone on this board (maybe in this thread) put it: Do we own our gadgets, or do our gadgets own us? How are those gadgets changing the way we relate to the world? It's the old debate about calculators in the classroom, writ large. The problem is especially acute with kids, who become immersed in technology at the expense of "analog" (real-life) experience. I've been reading that students who text all the time are not developing age-appropriate social skills. This is very worrisome. I can see where some gadget-free survival training would do these young people good.

And it's not just kids, either. Did you see "Technology Leads More Park Visitors Into Trouble" the other day in the NY Times? It's scary.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by kjk

It is in California. But its certainly not universal: http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/l...hone_laws.html

Only 30 states ban texting while driving for all drivers. lol.

In CA, it's illegal to use hand held devices. Non-hand held phones are legal. I drive a fair amount in CA and I still see as many people holding cell phones to their ears as I did before the ban.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Viseguy

Did you see "Technology Leads More Park Visitors Into Trouble" the other day in the NY Times? It's scary.

Yes. I linked it earlier. And yes, it is scary.

[kjk]

The NY Times article was debunked here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2264778?nav=wp

Search-and-rescue operations conducted between 1992 and 2009 actually peaked at 5,761 in 1998, according to the NPS. Over that same period, the average number of annual search-and-rescue missions was 4,027, which means that the figure the Times ended up ballyhooing ("topped 3,500") is below the 18-year average.
In other words, there has been no dramatic increase in the number of NPS search-and-rescue operations in the era of the mobile phone, the satellite phone, GPS, and the emergency beacon. Technology isn't leading more park visitors into trouble.