jerryd6818 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 04, 2021 8:25 pm
A 1987 cell phone.
Cell Phone - Lethal Weapon 1987.jpg
Some of the things a cell phone replaces just 30 years later.
^0 2017 Technology.jpg
Dad had a Motorola StarTac for many, many years (right up until about ten years ago). Not that old-school, but it was still pretty bare-bones; having even less stuff than the brick of a Nokia Granddad had.
My problem is that making calls seems the second potato to all the other stuff, whether you use it or not. Buying phones intended for government/first responder/business customers gets rid of most of the pre-installed bloat, but not all. Between various news, sports, and DirecTV apps, my grandmother's new LG probably had ten superfluous apps on it. Mine only has two, and one of which is because Google replaced Google Play Music with YouTube Music instead of just updating the old app to take the new name and logo. The other is FirstNet PTT (designed for emergency customers), which while both my Granddad's and my own phones have push-to-talk (kinda like a walkie-talkie but on cellular), we've never used those features, or paid for them.
What really bugs me is that the sunsetting of 3G meant that a lot of perfectly functional "dumb" phones no longer work. There no longer seems to be any good basic phones these days from most carriers. I'd gotten my grandmother a Sonim Bolt (to replace two crappy AT*T basic cellphones); which took her no time to figure out and it worked great (although browser never worked). It was also a heavy-duty, indestructible phone. A buddy of mine had a small Motorola he got in 2005 for work, and it still worked great, but is now a paperweight due to Verizon sunsetting 3G a year before AT*T. My Kyocera DuraForce Pro 2 I like (arguably, the best smartphone I've had), but I really miss the Samsung Rugby 4 it replaced. Tough, basic, and you only had to charge that thing like once a month. even if you talked a lot or regularly listened to music you'd added to the memory card. My new smartphone lasts a day with normal use, and it's got a big battery. Granddad has a Kyocera DuraXE bought 3-4 years ago (which replaced a Samsung Rugby 2); but most carriers seem to have stopped selling it. It's basic and does what you need with it. I have a buddy of mine with a Verizon flip phone from 2005. He liked that it did what he needed it to do, and nothing more. But, it no longer works, and I bet now he's stuck with something newer. I do like that I can look up part numbers, view service, and owner's manuals, and call the dealership all at the farm shop, without getting yelled at for sitting at the PC in the living room in dirty, greasy work clothes. That way, I'll often have the part waiting or ordered without going to the house. I hate using a cellphone calculator over my HP48G (which is a pro engineering calculator) or even Texas Instruments calculators; I can't type well on a cellphone, and the games on most mobile app stores downright suck compared to most console titles. I paid nearly $400 for that phone, and the screen (supposedly Gorilla Glass, but they didn't tell me that was only on versions Verizon sells) scratched up bad, and the waterproof cover for the USB charging port wont' go in right anymore. And it's just 9 months old! And these new USB-C plugs are weaker than Micro USB.
It took me from early April when I bought my phone to pretty much just now to fully understand it.
All right, rant over.