As some of you know, I now have a smartphone. Man, do I feel old! Actually, I’m getting younger every day because it seems like every day I learn something new about it and thus I have these daily surprises that aren’t all that depressing.
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I know there’s still a lot of people that don’t have smartphones, and it’s just possible that I’ve learned something that people with smartphones don’t know yet. I doubt that second one, but who knows, right? I figured this was fodder enough for a top 5 things post, so here we go:
1. These suckers run through battery power like whales eat krill. Initially it was like we’d charge the things all night and by 5PM we were down to our last bar, whether we’d done almost anything or not. Turns out there are apps for that (man, what commercial is that phrase in?) to help at least a little bit. One is called Open Advanced Task Killer. The other is called Juice Defender. None of them are perfect, but they have helped to a degree.
2. Some apps you just can’t get rid of. There’s a lot of junk on these suckers that comes pre-packaged. Unlike with computers, where you can delete it all, if it came with the phone it’s staying with the phone. Now, one might think that’s not all that problematic; unfortunately it is because…
3. Apps are always running, whether you’re using them or not. And even if you use the ATK I talked about above, it only temporarily shuts down apps. Now, if you downloaded something and turn that off it stays off, but all the other stuff already on there is always running, always consuming some of your battery power. The weasels!
4. You have to get a cushion of some kind to put around your phone. My wife and I got these little rubbery things to put on ours. You’re not necessarily putting it on for protection. You’re putting it on so you don’t accidentally keep clicking on stuff on the top and sides that you just can’t avoid otherwise. The other day I got a phone call from a friend of mine, only she didn’t mean to call me. She’d sent me a text, then set the phone down but accidentally hit the button to call me. My cell recorded about 4 minutes of whatever was going on in her car before it disconnected; I’m just glad she didn’t say anything bad about me. lol
5. It’s wonderful being able to access the internet wherever you are. Wow, how great is this? I can find out where places are, look up things that I can’t fully remember but have on the tip of my tongue, get directions, access websites, etc. I’m on one of those unlimited plans that I hear might be going away, and I hope I get grandfathered in. It’s just the neatest thing; I never thought I’d care but now it seems I do.
That’s all I have; what say you?
Hi Mitch! I got my first smart phone about 2 months ago, and I have to say I love it. It’s been very helpful to have internet out in the wild.
They do suck down the power though. Mine, an iphone, does well without much use, but once I start checking things, I’ve noticed the power drops about 1% each time.
Take care… Scott
Scott, it’s just amazing how it all works. Today we were at the Verizon tech shop and this guy did some wizard stuff that will help our phones run better and hopefully save on power in some fashion. He also said there’s an update coming by the end of this month that will help everything across the board; guess we’ll see.
Well, Mitch, smartphones do have some utility when you can actually use them because, like you said, their batteries go empty like crazy.
I found out that turning the backlight off and trying to kill as many apps as you can will certainly lengthen the battery life, but it won’t do wonders.
I can see that they are inventing new portable gadgets ever small, but i have the impression they forget about the battery.
Alex, I just wonder if what they’re doing with the batteries is the best they can do right now. When we bought the phones the guy said they might last a little over a year; that sounds like ink for a printer! lol
Dennis, what am I using for what? If you’re asking which smartphone it’s the HTC Thunderbolt; I linked to it in the first line of the post. lol
@Mitch, from your first bullet point (1) itself I figured it out that it’s an Android lol. And (2) confirmed it. Man, I use an Android as well – in fact, started using it six months back when I thought an upgrade to Smart way is a MUST to keep up with the world. To my dismay, I encountered all that problems you mentioned plus I feel that basic telephony was better on older phones. I just can’t seem to touch connect/disconnect on time lol
Ajith, some of us are brought into the 21st century kicking and scratching and wondering how “better” seems to not always be better. I love some of the things this phone does; I hate that the battery drains so fast that I have to constantly charge it or have it go out on me. Sometimes I feel like we just can’t win. 😉
Good luck with your smartphone, Mitch. It sounds as if your having fun with it. I still don’t have a smartphone, but I just got an iPad from work. I’m still haven’t mastered it yet.
Joanne, the phone has proven to be more fun than I thought it would but I wish it held the charge better. Learning new things about it everyday. I hope you enjoy that iPad as well.
Such interesting things about smartphone.I don’t know when I can get it and now it always appear in my dream:D
I don’t have smartphone, yet! And I am kinda hesitating to buy one soon because, it feels like that day after day, new models and versions of smart phones are coming out of the market. So if I will buy one immediately, my phone might end up outdated?
Ron, everything you buy is obsolete the next day, so don’t worry about that type of thing. Did you know that just driving your car off the lot decreases its value 50%? Just get what you think you like & enjoy it.
They do run out of juice quickly. I have an iPhone (surprised?) and I just plug it in when I’m in the car. The car charger seems to work faster than the wall chargers. I’m glad you’re enjoying yours! I wonder how I lived without it lol.
My car charger doesn’t work quite as fast, but it gets the job done Jess. However, this tech the other day said when the update comes the phones will charge faster and not heat up like they do now while charging; that’s a good thing.
Your smart phone is really good, Mitch, but if you remember my connect on the previous post, battery will go down very fast. It is better to turn off Wifi and Blue Tooth, or a day is too long before it goes down.
Carl, the guy at the store did that for us; at least I think he did. lol
Probably, by default those settings are on and can be turned on and off from communication manager.
I like the 5th point. i used to using internet on my phone. But using internet for long would result in low battery and that thing annoyed me. So, i don’t use my phone much.
Edward, I hope you do still use your phone, even if it drains too fast. I still use mine, I just keep charging it.
I bought a smartphone a couple of months ago and apart from a bit of internet browsing, all I have done in that time is make calls and send texts, which I could have done on my old phone. Some of my friends say I’m missing out on lots of things but I haven’t a clue what they are yet.
Karen, I haven’t done much other than that. I did load a small chess game, but otherwise I’m not doing anything I wasn’t doing on my computer.