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Your cellphone

Texting... Calendar... And mostly a music player. Have 500+ of my songs on my phone, plus Slacker, plus Pandora... Plus 3 radio apps.

I like my music.
 
MaggieD said:
What features do you find particularly useful on your cellphone?

Mine audibly announces who is calling with either a contact name or a phone number. When people leave a voicemail, my phone creates a text of their message so I can just click and read it. I rarely call my voicemail. Both of these features are very convenient.

What app or feature do you find particularly useful?
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#1 Looking stuff up. When will John Oliver's next show air? How many miles is it from home to work? Where's the closest sushi restaurant? How much is a flight from DEN to SBP? Where's the nearest Lowe's with a matching medicine cabinet in stock?

#2 Distraction. Never bored in a waiting room ever again.

#3 In case of emergency. Best if it never has to be used in this way, but when it is, it's pretty damn handy.
 
MaggieD said:
What features do you find particularly useful on your cellphone?

Mine audibly announces who is calling with either a contact name or a phone number. When people leave a voicemail, my phone creates a text of their message so I can just click and read it. I rarely call my voicemail. Both of these features are very convenient.

What app or feature do you find particularly useful?
Click to expand...



Like television, I found the cell phone to be too much of a leash. For 25 years plus in news gathering, another dozen in sales and management....always wired to the office either through a pager or cell phone...my first was the Motorola 8000X which barely fit into a brief case.

In those days anyone who had one was thought to be important. Perhaps, but it was more like gentle slavery....and it was the beginning of an era where everyone could be called by the boss 24/7/365.

I threw my television off a three story balcony in 1992 and have never missed it, am told I am more up to date than the average person. But I don't know anyone in the magazines at the check out in my supermarket, and haven't for thirty years.

And, 7 years ago I had a life changing accident and went into early retirement. I gave up the cell phone as a cost measure....

However, today I see three important and positive life changing events. 1) I got sober, 2) I fired television, and 3) tore up my credit cards and trashed the cell. I have a land line and a message machine, I only listen to commercial-free radio....

I have never been happier

An "App" for me means some zzzzz in the afternoon
 
Voice to text. It is very entertaining trying to figure out what the heck they were trying to say.
 
I use my phone to talk to people and occasionally text with people who apparently have constant laryngitis. There are plenty of things that I'll use it for now and then, like GPS, but I really primarily use it for the function it is intended for.
 
<alt>doxygen said:
I once had a Palm Pilot. LOL...
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I actually found my Palm in a drawer and threw it away a year ago while getting ready to move. Also threw away an old pager.
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
Texting... Calendar... And mostly a music player. Have 500+ of my songs on my phone, plus Slacker, plus Pandora... Plus 3 radio apps.

I like my music.
Click to expand...

Same. I have tons of music on my phone, plus the Sirius/XM app and the Amazon Prime music app.
 
Superfly said:
Same. I have tons of music on my phone, plus the Sirius/XM app and the Amazon Prime music app.
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I have XM in my car. I had the app on my phone, but seldom used it so i uninstalled it. I like XM but i have so many other options on my phone I found I seldom used XM.
 
Almost forgot Stitcher. It lets you listen to podcasts, and download them for listening offline.
My favorite is "Wait, wait, don't tell me!"
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
I have XM in my car. I had the app on my phone, but seldom used it so i uninstalled it. I like XM but i have so many other options on my phone I found I seldom used XM.
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I am the exact opposite. I don't have XM in my car. I wanted to put in a really nice bluetooth/XM/stereo in my car but my dash is small and I don't have the room. Plus I rent cars when I travel, and they charge $5.99 a day or $25 a month just for the rental car. For $20 a month, I have it on my phone, and can use it through the bluetooth in the car or in the rental, plus I have it at home, too. I used it alot when I was on a news blackout when I visited with my son LOL. He refuses to watch the news, and I was jonesing to find out what was going on.
 
<alt>doxygen said:
Other than the normal features, I use Shazam, Yelp, WeatherBug, ESPN, WifiAnalyzer and Waze. I used to use Pandora a lot but that was when I belonged to a gym that had free wifi.
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Thanks for reminding me about Waze!!!
 
Probably in 2002, family and friends did an intervention and forced me to discuss my lack of a cell phone. I finally realized the selfishness to being able to reach "them" when I wanted but "they" could not reach me when they wanted. I began carrying a "minimal service beyond unlimited minutes" flip phone. As texting became too mainstay to not notice and my life evolved into "life-threatening" romance and a chase for my current wife, two things changed in a hurry - a new unlimited texting plan and replacing the flip phone with something more tech savvy! Eventually, we married. She currently carries an Iphone 6S+ and has her eye on replacing it with the Iphone X. She bitches about the extra cost of data capacity. Meanwhile I carry a run of the mill Samsung, use a very affordable Boost Mobile plan and never have data capacity problems... relying on the wife and her phone for the important Apps. On our real estate deals, I mark up a hard copy document, she shoots it with her I phone and sends them via pdf files. On auto road trips, she uses Spotify and I-tunes to play music we like.

As a sailor and hiker, I fancied myself as disdainful of cyber-technology. My anti-cyber protests went nowhere in a hurry! The world laughed at me. Now I play "catch-up". The wife has the micro dish. I have the bunny rabbit ears with tinfoil attachments.
 
MaggieD said:
What features do you find particularly useful on your cellphone?

Mine audibly announces who is calling with either a contact name or a phone number. When people leave a voicemail, my phone creates a text of their message so I can just click and read it. I rarely call my voicemail. Both of these features are very convenient.

What app or feature do you find particularly useful?
Click to expand...

What I find usefull, has a web browser, can make phone calls, and send text messages, that is pretty much it.
 
having a good camera readily available at all times is awesome
myfitnesspal for keeping track of my meals
GPS, because i could probably get lost in a few city blocks. don't judge.
nearly constant internet access for random news and other searches
google hangouts to talk to my wife throughout the day

that's just a few. basically, a device the size of my high school calculator can do thousands of cool other things.

fun fact : i also still have my high school calculator and use it almost daily at work because i dig it.
 
Helix said:
having a good camera readily available at all times is awesome
myfitnesspal for keeping track of my meals
GPS, because i could probably get lost in a few city blocks. don't judge.
nearly constant internet access for random news and other searches
google hangouts to talk to my wife throughout the day

that's just a few. basically, a device the size of my high school calculator can do thousands of cool other things.

fun fact : i also still have my high school calculator and use it almost daily at work because i dig it.
Click to expand...

Wife? You got married? Congratulations!! I guess a lot can happen in a couple of years. :D
 
Trippy Trekker said:
Probably in 2002, family and friends did an intervention and forced me to discuss my lack of a cell phone. I finally realized the selfishness to being able to reach "them" when I wanted but "they" could not reach me when they wanted. I began carrying a "minimal service beyond unlimited minutes" flip phone. As texting became too mainstay to not notice and my life evolved into "life-threatening" romance and a chase for my current wife, two things changed in a hurry - a new unlimited texting plan and replacing the flip phone with something more tech savvy! Eventually, we married. She currently carries an Iphone 6S+ and has her eye on replacing it with the Iphone X. She bitches about the extra cost of data capacity. Meanwhile I carry a run of the mill Samsung, use a very affordable Boost Mobile plan and never have data capacity problems... relying on the wife and her phone for the important Apps. On our real estate deals, I mark up a hard copy document, she shoots it with her I phone and sends them via pdf files. On auto road trips, she uses Spotify and I-tunes to play music we like.

As a sailor and hiker, I fancied myself as disdainful of cyber-technology. My anti-cyber protests went nowhere in a hurry! The world laughed at me. Now I play "catch-up". The wife has the micro dish. I have the bunny rabbit ears with tinfoil attachments.
Click to expand...

:lol: It happens to the best of us. My husband was the same way. He would have rather had two tin cans with string than a cell. "Why do I need one of those things? Anybody that knows me knows how to get me." Then he got an iPhone. Now he is worse than me. He always has to have the newest phone, with all the gadgets and goodies on it. Seriously - had a biopsy last year? Was on his phone the entire time. The medical staff allowed it because he was nervous.
 
1. I like having a computer in my pocket that is more powerful than the 3 desktops I built and used back in 2000.

2. I do most of the things others have already mentioned, but I also have a couple of useless time-wasting games installed. Good for when I'm standing in line.

3. I walk...a lot...it's a recovery thing for my congestive heart failure almost 2 years ago. I've always used Runkeeper but it can't monitor my heart rate. A week ago, I got the Huawei Band 2 Pro...$75 which included shipping...It constantly monitors my heart rate even if I'm not walking. When I walk, it also logs all the usual stats. It's connected to my phone by bluetooth.

4. I don't call people much, but if they need to get a hold of me, I'm always there.
 
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When, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was in another state for an extended period of time. I found that the GPS function , when hooked up with google, was invaluable. I could look up the place I had to go, find the address, and then just touch a button to have the gps directions to the place I needed to go.

I like having a camera with my phone too. When I take walks, I sometimes come across interesting things to take pictures of. I wouldn't have bothered taking a camera long for the walk otherwise.
 
Helix said:
having a good camera readily available at all times is awesome
myfitnesspal for keeping track of my meals
GPS, because i could probably get lost in a few city blocks. don't judge.
nearly constant internet access for random news and other searches
google hangouts to talk to my wife throughout the day

that's just a few. basically, a device the size of my high school calculator can do thousands of cool other things.

fun fact : i also still have my high school calculator and use it almost daily at work because i dig it.
Click to expand...

My high school calculator looked like this:

versa2.jpg


Now, it's an app on my phone.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
My flip phone (LG/Tracphone) lets me receive/make phone calls, shows me the current time/date and has a built in camera. These features are usefull and the best part is that the phone and service are very inexpensive.

My girlfriend's phone (iPhone 7+ /Sprint) which has internet capability and a gazillian other features is our business phone and it is considerably more expensive.
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Flip phone here as well... The only thing I'd add is the BT connectivity to my car so that I can make hands free calls while driving. Love that feature.
 
Superfly said:
:lol: It happens to the best of us. My husband was the same way. He would have rather had two tin cans with string than a cell. "Why do I need one of those things? Anybody that knows me knows how to get me." Then he got an iPhone. Now he is worse than me. He always has to have the newest phone, with all the gadgets and goodies on it. Seriously - had a biopsy last year? Was on his phone the entire time. The medical staff allowed it because he was nervous.
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It's funny, I've embraced all kinds of technology and I really like my tablets and while cell phones are useful I've just not gotten enamoured with them. I loathed so much getting work emails on it I disabled the account on my cell phone. Seriously I only use it as a phone, texting, calendar, occasionally google maps when I'm visiting one of my kids in a city and occasionally I have Alexa add something to my grocery list that I'll forget otherwise.
 
Winchester said:
It's funny, I've embraced all kinds of technology and I really like my tablets and while cell phones are useful I've just not gotten enamoured with them. I loathed so much getting work emails on it I disabled the account on my cell phone. Seriously I only use it as a phone, texting, calendar, occasionally google maps when I'm visiting one of my kids in a city and occasionally I have Alexa add something to my grocery list that I'll forget otherwise.
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Yup, you've always been ahead of the curve, tech-wise. You got me hooked on my Kindle, remember?

Hey, how do you like Alexa? I like the idea, but have always wondered about privacy with something that is constantly listening, and constantly hooked up to WiFi.
 
Superfly said:
Yup, you've always been ahead of the curve, tech-wise. You got me hooked on my Kindle, remember?

Hey, how do you like Alexa? I like the idea, but have always wondered about privacy with something that is constantly listening, and constantly hooked up to WiFi.
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I've got 3 of em, well one Alexa and 2 dots. Love em (even though I probably only use 5% of what they can do), have the dots paired with little bose speakers. Have them playing music or NPR most of the day which is a blessing because we have **** for radio stations. I did buy the Alexa as soon as it was introduced, bought the dot as soon as it was introduced and bought the second dot on sale.

As far as privacy, meh, I'm boring, though listeners, if there are any, might get some entertainment value out of the one in our bedroom. :lol:
 
Winchester said:
I've got 3 of em, well one Alexa and 2 dots. Love em (even though I probably only use 5% of what they can do), have the dots paired with little bose speakers. Have them playing music or NPR most of the day which is a blessing because we have **** for radio stations. I did buy the Alexa as soon as it was introduced, bought the dot as soon as it was introduced and bought the second dot on sale.

As far as privacy, meh, I'm boring, though listeners, if there are any, might get some entertainment value out of the one in our bedroom. :lol:
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:lol: Yeah, that's exactly what I am talking about. I guess you could turn Alexa off during those times? :lol: And what's the difference between Alexa and the dot?
 
Superfly said:
:lol: Yeah, that's exactly what I am talking about. I guess you could turn Alexa off during those times? :lol: And what's the difference between Alexa and the dot?
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Alexa has a built in speaker, dot is basically the Alexa sans a speaker.

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-..._1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505839154&sr=8-1&keywords=dot

I'm probably going to get my kids some and try the call feature. They've also come out with a Echo Show (has a screen) to watch videos and video calls etc., but I'm not sold on that one yet. Listening is one thing, watching is another. :lol:
 
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