Five things I love about my smartphone
I took a long, long time to get onto the smartphone wagon. I don't regret that at all, and there are occasionally times where I think life was better without smartphones.
But on the other hand there are a lot of things I really do love about having a phone!
1. Having a camera in my pocket
I used to be dependent on my SLR, which I still do love more than my phone camera.
But it's hard to beat having a camera with me all the time, and I love how easy it is to send/upload photos from a smartphone.
(It's a bit more of a process with an SLR and a memory card, especially since my SLR is older and doesn't have fancy digital features like the newer ones do.)
2. Texting
I really, really love the ability to check in on the people that I love without having to make phone calls. It's so handy to be able to send a message whenever I have time, and they can feel free to respond whenever they have time.
And I also love texting when I need to reach out for help and encouragement...especially helpful when two of my besties are no longer local to me!
3. Remote check deposit
I know it's a little random, but my soul, this is one of my favorite things about having a smartphone. I love, love, love not having to go to the bank to deposit checks anymore. So fantastic!
4. Instagram
I don't use a ton of apps on my phone, but Instagram is one of my faves. And you can't really use Instagram without a smartphone or other mobile device.
It's definitely one of the things I'd miss most if I gave up a smartphone.
5. Maps/Navigation
I'm not very directionally challenged, but I still think Google Maps/Waze are awesome! I love being able to look up the fastest routes, and I appreciate that Waze can redirect you around traffic jams.
And when I'm going somewhere new, these apps are invaluable.
They're definitely better than the old stand-alone GPS units, and way, way, way better than the old MapQuest printouts we used to use (remember those??).
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What are your favorite things about your smartphone?
(assuming you have one...if you don't, I'm very impressed!)
P.S. According to my phone's battery stats, email is one of the top five things I use on my smartphone. But I have mixed feelings about email on my phone. It's easy to read mail on mobile, but it's a pain to respond to anything, so sometimes I end up reading things without responding.
Whereas when I check email on my actual computer, I'm much more likely to actually respond to and deal with the important stuff.
P.P.S. I have an iPhone SE (my second smartphone), which I bought on Amazon. And I have service through Ting, which is so, so affordable for our family. I've written about Ting lots of times in the past, and if you'd like to try them with a $25 discount, you can click on my affiliate link.
I actually still have a dumb phone (and feel like I'm one of the last ones on earth!), but I like not feeling attached to my phone at all, and I worry that would change if I upgraded. I actually have found a couple ways to have an Instagram account without a smartphone, however---I used to use BlueStacks, but now I use Gramblr. They're both "apps" you can download to your computer that allow you to post to and use an Instagram account, and so I just upload the pics from my camera to my IG feed through that. It's great!
Love my smartphone! It's funny because, as a marketer, much of my work life is on my phone, too. Smartphones are great for so much, but they do help blur the line between work and personal life.
As far as my fave thing about my phone, I love that I can check email on the go. I live and die by my email and it's great not having to wait until I'm near a computer to check it. Oh, how things have changed in 15 years!
We finally got smartphones about 3 years ago, and our laptop is practically gathering dust ever since. We don't work from home, so we were using the laptop mostly for email, uploading photos, internet searches, etc., which we now do on our phones. I don't do much email anymore -- it's mainly texts these days.
I'm with you on the mobile deposits! At first it horrified me to think of doing that on a phone, but now I use that any time I have a check to deposit. My job is out of my home town and my bank is independent and in my home town only, meaning I had to find time to make deposits, which was really inconvenient. Enter mobile deposits, and it got easy.
I love that I have a free Leaping Bunny app and can scan bar codes to see if the products are cruelty-free.
I love comparing prices while I'm shopping, too, and I am directionally challenged so I use the maps and directions on my phone anytime I'm in headed someplace I don't know.
I used to think I didn't want a smartphone, but now that I have one, I really don't want to go back.
I like the apps that make you money for uploading receipts or playing games 🙂 :)... Not to mention shopping in bed.
they really do everything for you these days.
Love my smart phone too but I still print out directions with map quest LOL. I will say a lot of people spend too much time on their phones- yesterday I passed a neighbor playing with her phone on the driveway while her toddler was drawing with sidewalk chalk. Mom definitely was not engaged with the little one. In the old days, it's unlikely one would bring their phone outside unless it was a real emergency.
I resisted a smart phone for a long time but I really enjoy it now. I was never a big fan of Facebook but I love Twitter and Instagram. Once I finally agreed to start installing apps I have found them to be useful for saving time by picking up food on the fly, keeping up to date on weather conditions and finding my way around traffic issues. Now I just need the app that lets me know I have spent too much time on Twitter and shuts me off.
I'm a fellow "late adaptor" where smart phones are concerned. While I doubt I'll ever be one of those people glued to their phones, I do agree that having a camera on hand all the time is really wonderful. My phone is an android, and I totally LOVE that it automatically uploads all the photos to the cloud so getting my hands on them is super easy. I'm still waiting for the day I can have a real zoom lens on my phone.
I have yet to embrace texting, though I can figure it out in a pinch. For me, the main motivation behind getting the phone, and still the main thing I use it for is the tracker feature. What pushed CatMan & I over the edge into smartphone land was when we were out riding our bikes and he fell and broke his pelvis. We called for help, but didn't know exactly where we were. Apparently directions like "take the South Platt up to Clear Creek and then go west for a few miles" don't translate well into the automotive world! 🙂 Anyhow, now our standby rescue friend can easily just call up the tracker and find out exactly where we are. It's also great for reducing the worry quotient when one of us is out running around. I don't mind if he's not home when he said he would be, as long as I can assure myself that he's not lying in a heap of burning rubble somewhere along the roadside!
The one thing I still hate about them though is the way the actual phone works. It's OK for a quick call now and then, but I just HATE how the phone is sort of a "one way street" and if one person talks it cuts the other person off. Maybe it's trying to encourage us to be more polite conversationalists, but to me it seems to result in disjointed awkward communications.
Ah! I hate that as well! I have a very dear friend that I talk to on a regular basis (we live about four states away from each other so it's how we "visit" ). But dear friend can talk for five minutes without pausing to take a breath (an exaggeration....but not by much, lol!) and that feature/aspect of the smart phone makes a normal back and forth conversation difficult at times with this particular dear friend.
Yeah, I don't love actually TALKING on my smartphone. I much prefer my home phone for that.
The flashlight. I love being able to quickly find things I dropped by highlighting them. Or finding my way out of a public bathroom when someone else turned the light off.
My smart phone has helped me make some extra money because I use it to sell on Ebay using the Ebay app. It makes taking pictures and uploading them super easy. I honestly don't know how I would "do" ebay if I didn't have my phone.
I feel the same way about Ebay! It is so much easier to do a listing with a smartphone because uploading the photos is super simple.
The smartphone I have doesn't actually work as a phone here, so I just use it as a camera. I can use the WIFI at our house to upload the photos to my Google photos account. Usually. After a few tries:-)
But as a practical matter, I don't have a cell phone of any kind anymore. My husband got a flip phone that works with the carrier here (again, usually . . .), and that's our only cell phone at the moment.
Even when my smartphone did work, I never used it except as an emergency for when I was driving or whenever. I'm just not a phone user.
My newest smartphone "love" is the Marco Polo app! It's like texting but videos. You "invite" people to see a video you've sent them and only those you invite can see it--so it's not "public" like an IG story or Snapchat. You can also create "groups" if you'd rather do that. I have a group with my kiddos, 3 of 4, who are far away. My sister, who also lives far away, and I use it several times a day to "chat". You can watch while they're talking or you can save it and watch later. Often, I'll prop it up and record while I'm prepping dinner or something and just chat to her!
Might be something fun for you to use with your friends who've moved away. We love it!
Yes, I like Marco Polo too!
When my daughter and son-in-law upgraded to more recent smart phones, they handed down their IP6s to me and the hubs. I didn't think that I'd use a lot of it's features but surprised myself in that I use more than I thought that I would. I really don't enjoy trying to read or send emails from the phone but I do enjoy being able to pull up coupons from my email instead of having to remember to print them out before I leave the house. My old phone had a camera but this one takes much better pictures....wish there was a zoom in feature though. I enjoy being able to send pictures via text message to someone. My husband and I have found FaceTime useful....especially when he asks me to pick up a weird thing that he doesn't know the name of, lol! I can FaceTime him and show him 'weird things that kinda look like what he described' until he hollers "That one! That's it!" . Saves everyone time and aggravation. Also useful for "Hey honey, found these two shirts on sale....do you like A, B, both or neither?" . The Waze app is extremely useful. I love that it updates constantly and directs you around traffic jams and the like. I also like the voice to text feature even if Siri doesn't understand a southern accent all of the time. It's always amusing to read what she THOUGHT you said. My son-in-law and I play a game called "See if you can figure out what I actually said and as opposed to what Siri thinks I said". (Son-in-law and I are both easily amused) On the whole, I like and use a smart phone more than I thought I would, but no way would I ever, ever pay full price for a new one!
I'm thinking that you can zoom by putting your fingers on the screen and pulling the picture apart before hitting the button to take the photo... just tried it on my Samsung and would expect iPhone to do the same.
Just in case it might work for you.
Yup, that's how you do it on iPhones. The quality gets poorer the more you zoom in, but it's definitely possible to zoom!
I'm sure I've seen a small zoom lens you can attach to a smartphone; not sure if it's brand specific though
Goodreads! I love the Goodreads app on my smartphone. I'm constantly adding books that I want to read, logging books that I've finished, checking out book reviews to see if something's worth reading... I know people whose libraries have apps so that they can check to see if their library has a certain book (which I think is amazing!). I use this quite often on my phone.
I also use the app from WordReference.com, since we're a bilingual French-English family. French isn't my first language, and while I'm decent with it, there's still a lot I don't know and so I make good use of this app. I listen to the radio on my phone while I cook dinner (it's quieter than the actual radio, which is helpful because I cook dinner during my daughter's naptime), I use Duolingo on my phone (if you're still completing the course, do it online, because it's harder and you'll learn more. I finished the course and so it's just review for me now!), and I occasionally use the AnkiApp on my phone (digital flashcards; I've studied both French and Norwegian while I wait in the car to pick my husband up from the train). And yes, having a camera with me at all times seriously comes in handy!
That said, I'm not addicted to it. There are features of it that I really enjoy, but I'm absolutely conscious of how much I'm using it, and I make it a point to put it down so I can do other things.
I also have the SE. Now that we have a baby, FaceTime/video calling with my iPhone is so wonderful so grandparents and aunts can see her! My grocery list app (OurGroceries) is fantastic because I’m not searching for a pen and paper whenever I randomly remember something I need. I also really like the Evernote app on my phone so I can keep to-do lists, meal plans, reading lists, random ideas, etc. with me. The fancy devices really can be useful!
I like pulling up a coupon at a store or restaurant I wasn't planning to visit. I do this a lot at craft stores. It's nice to be able to get a discount on an impulse purchase. 😉
The other thing I like is being able to get an answer to a question when traveling or out exploring. Stuff like poisonous plants and why a bridge was named for a certain person, for example.
I don't have a cell phone. There. I've said it. I have phone envy, but I can't really justify the cost for our family. If I ever really NEED a cell phone, I borrow my husband's. That happens so rarely.
Girl, I think that's great! Why get one if you don't actually have much of a use for one?
iPhone 6s here..I love just pressing the bottom button and asking Siri to navigate me to a place. I used it this morning to get to a conference about 90 miles from my home.
My favorite thing is the Facebook Messenger app. My in-laws moved to Hong Kong two years ago and we use Messenger to keep in touch. I like that we can text, send pictures, voice clips, and video chat all in one spot. And pictures are so easy to upload from my phone. While it's hard to go so long without being with them, I love that my kids get to talk with them and see them all the time.
I'm convinced that the advent of smartphones was just so we don't have to talk on the phone anymore. What can't be done via texting/email can be in a face to face conversation now.
Camera is my hands down favorite feature. So many photos. And the kids can entertain themselves for hours taking pictures of the carpet. Or ceiling.
Texting is my second favorite thing about my smart phone. I even stay in touch with my son's teacher by text now, which is great because I have small children at home who inevitably have disasters as soon as call somone. Not even joking with that.: the number of medical professionals who have heard the screaming and asked if everything is alright should shame me.
Tracker capabilities is another favorite feature. I have a faub attached to my keyring and one in my wallet that are connected to an app, so if I lose my keys or my phone or my wallet, I can find the other two with a simple touch of a button. Genius. I wish they had such a device for children's shoes.
Can you tell me the name of this app?
Trackr. You'll need to but the trackr chips to use it.
I sort of have my foot in both worlds of smartphone and no smartphone.
I have a dumb phone that has a decent text/talk plan. (Not as cheap as Ting, but sadly Canada is expensive for any sort of cell plan.) It's a slide out, so super handy for texting and has lasted FOREVER! I don't want to give it up. (It's at least 7 years old.)
On the other hand, my husband gets an Iphone through his work that is fine for personal use. A year or so ago he got a free phone upgrade and was able to keep his old one. So... I've been using that Iphone as well. I don't have any plan or data, so it works more like an Ipod. I use it for taking pictures, putting events on the calendar (which is synced with my hubby's new phone), screen shot maps I need and I can use the internet, e-mail and certain apps on it when I have WiFi. (I also love Instagram!)
I could move my plan over to this Iphone, but then I would probably get a more expensive plan with a bit of data and I don't need more temptation to spend time on social media or other internet sites.
My son was working in the very remote regions of Australia and his phone would not work out there. It was a network issue but he was on contract. So he gave me his iPhone7 and bought another. I had been without a computer for a long time and quickly adapted to using a smart phone. I love the map features, one particular game, messaging and sms services. But as a grandmother to a little one who is about to turn one I love that I can photograph and record her so easily. When mummy works I send her a number of shots and videos throughout the day. Quick easy and no additional cost.
Then my mother decided she needed a smart phone too. Everyone rolls their eyes and helps her often.
My daughter does a lot of things for her classes at university on her smartphone. The family also likes to do a ot of video watching on their phones. How is the service on Ting for these sorts of things? Right now we pay $238.00 a month for 5 phones and I would like to bring that down.
No smart phone here! I have a dumb phone that has talk, text, and data, and even has a facebook app, which I use, even though it's akin to dial up. 😛
I do have a tablet, and wifi is readily available most places, so I don't feel disconnected.
The only reason I'm leaning smart phone is for the camera. I hate carrying my camera all over, and taking photos on the tablet is not super convenient. But, I do fear I would constantly have my nose in my phone if I had one, so I keep pushing it off...
I love my smartphone for a thousand reasons, but it just saved me a lot of money. I buy my cars new, but I keep them a long time (last car was 18 years, and it's still going now passed down to my daughter). A "navigation package" would have added over $2000 to the price of the car. But with my trusty phone navigation apps I don't need a built-in navigation package. The package I got had the safety features I wanted and came with Apple Car Play and Google Car Play, but I could just as easily have done without them using a good smart phone holder (as I used in the 18 year old car).
I don't have a smartphone. Ok.... I do have a smartphone, but I use it as a "flip phone". I have zero data, and no plan. I pay by usage (35 cents per minute for a call, 10 cents per sent text). I keep it for emergencies and don't even spend 100$/year. I could use it with free Wifi, but I don't even know how... I'm very uncomfortable with anything technological. I feel like a dinosaur (especially because I'm young (37) so I "should" be at ease with technology)
Isa: I'm one phone newer than a flip phone, definitely not a smart phone, and that works fine. We have it for "emergencies," though I don't know what that means, and carry it only when we are traveling. Our spending is similar to yours. As the variety of answers in this post indicates, do what's right for you!
I listen to so many podcasts on my phone, LOVE IT for that!
I love my Strava app and Google maps! Strava helps me track running/biking without having to remap my rout on a computer, and Google Maps allows me to avoid traffic.
I also LOVE Audible and the podcast app.
I also have an iPhone SE - love the smaller size!