Turning Smart Phone into a Multitool

[admin]

You’re welcome to your opinion, of course, but society did, in fact function better before cellphones. As someone much your senior, I will not take advantage of your youth & inexperience, but since you mentioned vehicle accidents, I’d like to point out that using a phone while driving was instrumental in very many of those. One does not have to “cherry pick” incidents of cell phone misuse and addiction, because it’s rampant. I think many of us have witnessed a family dining out & instead of enjoying each others company and the meal they are on their cell phones. Is that society functioning better to you? As to the “necessity” of being able to reach someone 24/7?….NOPE, that’s not an improvement. Can cell phones be useful?…yes, but they are a double-edged sword.

[admin]

Tesla said: ↑
You’re welcome to your opinion, of course, but society did, in fact function better before cellphones. As someone much your senior, I will not take advantage of your youth & inexperience, but since you mentioned vehicle accidents, I’d like to point out that using a phone while driving was instrumental in very many of those. One does not have to “cherry pick” incidents of cell phone misuse and addiction, because it’s rampant. I think many of us have witnessed a family dining out & instead of enjoying each others company and the meal they are on their cell phones. Is that society functioning better to you? As to the “necessity” of being able to reach someone 24/7?….NOPE, that’s not an improvement. Can cell phones be useful?…yes, but they are a double-edged sword.
I hope you can appreciate that I both understand where you are coming from and am in a different place myself.
I called it Necessary Evil for a reason and I certainly stick to that description from my own perspective.
I understand that for you there is not much about these devices that you either appreciate or invite,it is tough to miss that from your comments.
Hopefully you can appreciate that your perspective is hardly universal as well?

I am not a user of any Social Media beyond special interest Forums like we are on right now,together.
I do not Facebook,Tweet,Pinterest and do not entirely understand what they even are and I am OK with that.
I can not even Text while sitting on my couch and much less while driving and unless I can talk to the phone as the interface I do not use it while driving.I ALWAYS use a headset.

At the same time I rely on my phone every day to work and probably do so 100 times a day,every day.

I do make a living in “Tech” though and I am telling you from experience that these devices and the software that they run enable me to function and I can not do my job at this point without them period.

There is software written now for configuration and control that is only written for the Smart Phone and that is just a simple and maybe sad modern day fact.
Your lack of awareness or experience with this hardly makes it irrelevant or frivolous and it hardly demonstrates that you understand fully the topic at hand either though you seem to comment about it as if you do?

I too lament and resent the rampant and ill considered use of these devices by those too selfish to realize that they are literally threatening the life and well being of others and it is all too common for sure but at the same time the Smart Phone only does what we tell it to do,they are not the problem.

I do need these devices to do my work & they have to potential to be instruments of Evil in the hands of those who blindly treat them without respect.
Like many other things.

[admin]

@EZDog, appreciate your thoughtful comments and viewpoint as my oldest son makes a living in Tech, so there’s no lack of technical awareness driving my comments. Clearly there are good and bad uses for all devices, but we as a society have not yet fully come to grips with the fact that tech is a double-edged sword and cell phones being ever-present feeds bad judgment and manners on the part of many and de-socializes our society to a great degree. I am certainly not alone in my observation of this, nor is it simply a generational issue. I understand that one of the big debate topics in schools is “Cell phones…Boon or Bane?” There are always growing pains when technology introduces negative possibilities for use along with the positive. CBS News reports that 6000 people were killed last year in conjunction with texting and driving. Now, while I don’t blame a lifeless tech device for the carelessness of the owner, neither can I turn a blind eye to their downside. We have not now & may, in fact, never arrive at a consensus on their proper use. As a Texas citizen, I’m ashamed to say that we still have no state law effectively limiting cell phone use while behind the wheel. I have no wish to further detour the actual topic, but perhaps this would be a good topic for the Break Room…or it may be like politics and religion—something that will never have universal agreement.

[admin]

Tesla said: ↑
You’re welcome to your opinion, of course, but society did, in fact function better before cellphones. As someone much your senior, I will not take advantage of your youth & inexperience, but since you mentioned vehicle accidents, I’d like to point out that using a phone while driving was instrumental in very many of those. One does not have to “cherry pick” incidents of cell phone misuse and addiction, because it’s rampant. I think many of us have witnessed a family dining out & instead of enjoying each others company and the meal they are on their cell phones. Is that society functioning better to you? As to the “necessity” of being able to reach someone 24/7?….NOPE, that’s not an improvement. Can cell phones be useful?…yes, but they are a double-edged sword.
Not to turn this topic into an argument about the merits of cell phones, but can you tell me how many lives have been saved because of this tool? It’s not known. And you know why? Because it’s nothing special. Technology is supposed to work. Thousands have been saved. But you know what makes headlines? Instances of cell phone abuse. I know full well the results of distracted driving. I’ve been to quite a few accidents when I was a patrol patrol officer. But you know what is the REAL problem? It’s people, not the technology. I learned that lesson during my 23 years active duty service in the military before I retired.

Technology, like anything else, has the potential to be abused. If anything, people need to change their behavior. If you see people ignoring each other then who’s fault is that? You’re a firearms owner, yes? Then anyone can make the same argument about firearms. How many people have been killed by firearms? How many times has a firearm been used in the commission of a crime? How many people have killed themselves using a firearm? Should they take away firearms? Same with knives. They are tools. If there is a downside to them it’s because people misuse them, just like firearms, knives, and other weapons.

[admin]

See Post #18 above. I created a Breakroom topic for further discussion.

[admin]

Getting back to the topic of smartphones being multitools. The most obvious one is using the camera as a photographic tool to capture not just memories, but also for communication. Camera technology has advanced by leaps and bound during just the past few years to the point that smartphones have collapsed the point and shoot camera market and the camcorder market. Image quality from smartphones have surpassed point and shoot digital cameras, as well as camcorders. They have not yet however, caught up to DSLRs and other dedicated cameras. But who knows what the future will bring.

This is a huge improvement from when I was a kid. Let’s set the way back machine to “back in the day”. Back in the day, we couldn’t afford one of them expensive fancy film cameras, and my first camera was a Kodak 110 film instamatic, that didn’t even have a flash. We had to buy those disposable flash bars that contained 6 flashes. That’s right, you had to buy individual flash bulbs! Imagine our delight when the new model instamatic came out equipped with a flash, that will flash as many times as you want! Amazing! But we were still limited to size 110 film, and 12, 14, or 36 shots in a film roll. And back in the day, you would not be able to tell if you’re picture came out right until you had the film developed, which was yet another fee. So you had to buy the film, buy the flash bulbs, take the pictures, then bring it to a photo store and pay a fee to have the film developed and pictures printed. And that took a week. It didn’t improve much until they had those 1hr photo places in the 80s. Wow! So now you can have your film developed and receive your picture the same day! Then when you got those pictures, most of them turned out like crap, and you might have 1 or 2 keepers. Size 110 film was terrible, low resolution and grainy as hell. It wouldn’t be until the mid 80s that those limited autofocus cameras came out that could actually read that ISO mark on the film canister! Yeah, camera technology sucked back in the day.

People today take photography for granted. Now they have a camera that’s integrated with their phone that’s such a useful tool. Naturally,there will be those that will say this is a bad thing. There are always upsides and downsides to tools, it depends on the person using it.

[admin]

What, they are not multitools to begin with?

I use mine for so mush more than a phone. Just the basic things it can do out of the box makes it a multitool. Add apps and it is the jack of all trades. Just needs a good blade app :cry::bounce:. (Elmax or m390) :stomp:

Lateck,

[admin]

For Android:

View Ranger is one of the best offline GPS and electronic compass tracking tools. You can also download tracks to get to your chosen destination.

Smart Tools for all kinds of measuring, leveling, height estimation, etc., while on the go.

Sent from my LG-V520 using Tapatalk

[admin]

I’m a student and my phone is invaluable. If I don’t have time to write down everything on a slide or a whiteboard, I just take a photo. These days I can be halfway back in a huge lecture theatre and still get a decent quality image without getting up.
In seminars, I can research and fact check whilst having discussions from my phone.
If we’re working collaboratively, we all use phones to communicate, plan and share information.
I can work on assignments while waiting for the bus.

[admin]

Moshe ben David said: ↑
Interesting. I’ve always held that an inherent weakness in using the GPS function on a phone is that if you get off in the rural areas or backcountry you run a distinct risk of loss of signal. Or does the GPS function not need a phone signal?

I use a ‘dumb’ phone — an old school flip phone so I wouldn’t know myself you see.
Phone signal not needed but many GPS apps rely on downloading maps on the fly during use. Obviously there are other GPS apps that use their own maps stored in phone. Both ways have their positive and negative sides.

[admin]

ViewRanger is one of the best for offline GPS, IMHO. I have used it for years for hikes in the tropical forest. No signal, no electricity. Just rain and bugs. 😉
KLF said: ↑
Phone signal not needed but many GPS apps rely on downloading maps on the fly during use. Obviously there are other GPS apps that use their own maps stored in phone. Both ways have their positive and negative sides.
Sent from my LG-V520 using Tapatalk

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