Stuff

[kerravonsen]

Hello everyone!

So now I'm back from holidays and my family have scattered. I did stuff... played games - must get hold of a copy of Splendor, great game, simple rules but somehow rather addictive. Made things with resin - I have a rather large backlog of items I need to photograph.

And I got myself a smartphone.

It is a Samsung Galaxy S5, as recommended by my eldest niece, who was replacing her dead phone with an identical model; we went on a shopping expedition together.

This purchase is rather momentous, since I have spent years and years utterly refusing to get a mobile phone of any kind at all. They represented to me nothing but an expensive nuisance, since I didn't - and still don't - want people calling me any time of the day or night, anywhere I am, and didn't want to make costly calls that were much cheaper on a landline. I'm the kind of person who can happily chat on the phone for hours: something which is not feasible on a mobile. Plus I am getting increasingly irritated by the assumption that everyone has a mobile - that's almost enough to get my back up and swear to never ever get a mobile, so there!

So what changed my mind? Well, it occurred to me that I could bypass the irritations by simply not using it as a mobile. Don't make calls, and don't tell anyone my number. Which you then say "what is the point, then?" The point is that I have an Android device which just happens to be a phone. But I am primarily using it as an Android device.

I even wrote the bulk of this post on the device, using a text editor and a handwriting recognition app, with a stylus which works like a stylus used to work before someone decided that capacitive touch screens was the way to go - in other words, like a pen, not like a finger. Now I have something as close to electronic paper as we can get nowadays. Cool.

So what am I using it for, if not a phone?

1. Controlling other devices. So many gizmos nowadays are designed to be controlled by apps on your smartphone - everything from fitness watches to head cams. And I got tired of my Fitbits breaking, and every other brand of fitness watch seems to require a smartphone. And I have my eye on a few other gizmos too. This was the main impetus for getting it, but now that I have it, I'll be using it for other things as well.
2. Skype. Using my home WiFi, I can have a vidphone conversation with someone in Canada! I'm living in the future! If any of my friends who have Skype would like to call... there are about twenty other people with my name there...um. Let me know if you want to talk, anyway.
3. Audiobooks. My first Android device was actually an mp3 player, and there I used a great app for listening to audiobooks, Smart Audiobook Player. The device I have now has more storage, too. Bluetooth headset and I'm set.
4. Music. As for audiobooks.
5. Brag Book, aka pocket photo album. When I'm talking with friends, those with smartphones are liable to take out their phones and show me photos (of their works, of their events etc). I'd like to be able to do the same. Currently I have uploaded a large number of craft photos onto my phone. I haven't played around with the phone's camera enough yet to decide whether to use it as my primary camera or not.
6. Writing. As I am doing right now. This was an unexpected use, but I am really liking the handwriting recognition app that I installed. I tried out a lot of text editors until I found one that I liked. The setup isn't very good for editing things, but it is good for getting down an initial first draft.
7. Phone calls. Yes, I said I wasn't going to use it as a phone, but there are three exceptions: 1) calling the police/ambulance/fire in an emergency, 2) calling a taxi, 3) calling a friend if we are meeting somewhere and I can't find them. "Call" in that case is used loosely, since it can include internet messaging of various kinds. I have a Pay-as-you-go plan for the phone; we'll see how that works out. So far, the only calls I've made have been to my home phone, to test if the number worked.

So there you have it.

Who of you has an Android smartphone, and what do you use it for? What are your favourite apps?

Comments

[fred_mouse]

I am interested in your comment about the Fitbits - mine broke recently, and I'm umming and ahhing about replacing it, and what with if I do. Could I ask hoow long were they lasting for you? And what, if anything, are you looking at as a replacement?

[kerravonsen]

The first Fitbit watch I got (a Fitbit Charge), the strap broke off almost as soon as the watch was out of warranty. And since the strap is this integrated plastic thing, unlike a normal watch, once the strap breaks, that's it.

The second Fitbit I got actually still works, but it isn't a watch (a Fitbit One tracker), and I found it annoyingly inconvenient to use, since one was supposed to attach it to one's bra strap, which made it inconvenient to look at. And then for its sleep tracking you had to take it out of its case and put it into a special strap every night, which was irritating. So I chucked it in a drawer somewhere and got my third Fitbit.

The third Fitbit I got was another watch (a Fitbit Charge HR), and this one broke even worse: it wasn't the strap, it was the device itself, it stopped syncing, and the time became wildly inaccurate.

As for a replacement, I haven't quite figured out what to look for. There were two things I was primarily using my Fitbit for: step tracking (with a daily goal) and sleep tracking. I wasn't using any of the other fancy features. And after a while I stopped checking the sleep tracking data, it wasn't that helpful. So it seems a waste of money to get the Fitbit Blaze simply because it has a replaceable strap with much more robust strap options to pick from.

Option 1: dig up my Fitbit One, use it only for step tracking, and buy a conventional dumb watch to use as a watch.
Option 2: buy another brand of smart-watch, the cheaper the better. But I haven't really looked at the different watches for this yet.

[fred_mouse]

Thank you for this. Mine was a Fitbit HR, and what has happened is that the glue that holds the little metal clip on the back that the charging cable connects to has given up, so I can't charge it. I held it together with gaffer tape for a bit, until my skin declared that gaffer is not acceptable. I'm trying to motivate myself to either find a better repair method, or sort out a replacement (it being decidedly out of warranty).

Reading your notes, what stands out for me is the watch aspect -- that is one of the good bits. I liked the heart rate monitoring on the HR, because it tells me the difference between 'breathless because working hard' and 'breathless with no good reason, try ventolin'.

Urgh. Back in the too hard basket for the next week or two...