In Defense of the Low-Tech Individual

When I go out walking in our mountainous neighbourhood, I use MyAltitude to determine how high we have climbed. Try to do that on your PC with email! Another walker tracks number of steps taken. MY GCs do not use email. That is my problem! So I use what they use.
 
kcowan said:
When I go out walking in our mountainous neighbourhood, I use MyAltitude to determine how high we have climbed. Try to do that on your PC with email! Another walker tracks number of steps taken. MY GCs do not use email. That is my problem! So I use what they use.
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LOL. Try doing that when you don't have a phone signal!

Whenever we backpack or do backcountry ski tours in the mountains we use a thing called topo maps. Remember those? And still do use them. Phones don't always get signals when you leave the comforts of the urban environment. We often go into places that don't have connectivity. I shake my head when I see folks who find themselves at a loss when they lose a signal
 
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hesperus said:
LOL. Try doing that when you don't have a phone signal!
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Most Map Apps don't need a cell signal. Now, if you don't have a satellite GPS signal you are kinda "in the dark" so to speak. (I say most because I couldn't really confirm that Google Maps is that reliable because I have a Blackberry and lack access to Google Play which the App claims is required. Nevertheless, it was able to locate me in "airplane mode" with no hesitation.
 
MasterBlaster said:
FREE ! - Well that's my favorite price ! I'll look into this when my time runs out on my TracFone plan.

What's the catch ?
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No catch but you get what you pay for. Limited customer service/tech support (there's a forum you can post on and a FAQ...). It runs as a MVNO on the Sprint network (less coverage than Verizon's network; may not work in more rural areas). 500 MB per month free data is actually 400MB free data (something about not wanting you to consumer over 500 MB so they cap you at 400 MB??). Voice 200 minutes and it's VOIP over 3G/4G so call quality is variable (4G with 2+ bars = pretty solid like a regular cell quality call; 3G = somewhere between impossible to communicate and a crappy cell call).

Text = 500 per month.

I use about 2 minutes/month, a couple hundred MB, and a dozen texts. Almost exclusively stay within the city or on highways so coverage isn't an issue so far. For me it works perfectly and costs nothing (other than $50-100 for a cheap used Samsung Galaxy S3). Big YMMV of course! :D
 
Well, I just bought my first ever smart phone two weeks ago (iphone 5c) and I love it as I thought I would! Two years ago I tried a Tracphone and found it very hard to use: not worth it. Then I got my first Apple product, an Ipad mini, and never looked back.

What pushed me over the edge this time was security. My landline/internet went down for 2 full days and I was left with NO means of communication in the house (I live alone). That proved to be a scary experience. I realized at my age I really need to carry a form of communication with me. So, bought a new 5c on Swappa and am using Ting.
 
My reluctance to owning one originally was based as an unnecessary cost. With my cell carrier that has all been basically mitigated as now fully functional smartphones can be bought easily for under $100 and full use plans are only $5 higher than my dumb phone plan.
Now my only real reason for not owning one are 2 reasons. 1) I do not like anything in my pockets so my phone always stays in my car. 2) I can read words 20 feet away, but not inside arms length. I never carry glasses with me because of reason #1. So having one would provide no benefit. I also like the fact I only have to charge the dumb phone once a week.
Still I envision buying one this year because the front keyboard style text phone I have is discontinued and I will need one soon.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
One thing I can say the smartphone technology made life much easier was weight loss. We used MyFitnessPal to count calories and lose weight. I think they have a Web site but the phone or tablet is so much more convenient. One feature I liked was the ability to scan barcodes to enter our data. You could get a barcode scanner, I guess, for a pc but why add one more device?
 
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