I know this is a shitpost, but I honestly think that was better. In the past couple years I’ve bought an mp3 player, and dslr camera, and a pocket sized e-reader, and a retro gaming handheld, and it feels so much better swapping between them when I’m doing something than just staring at the little hell rectangle for 12 hours a day.
There was a time when people had to deal with all of these being separate
Submitted 4 days ago by Mickey7@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/94d20283-4c2e-4f8c-a0d9-c887e231290c.png
Comments
awmwrites@lemmy.cafe 4 days ago
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
Well, yeah, if you do one thing good, that’s gonna be better than doing a million things halfass.
It’s almost like “a cheap, right tool is better than an expensive, wrong tool”.
I don’t think we’ll see phones that are as good of a camera as an actual (read: not toy-tier) digital camera. A lot just has to do with the quality of the optics you can pack into a small lens, and how much to expect out of that lens when it’s being touched and shoved into and out of a pocket all the time.
Portable audio players…the only leg up they really have are tactile interfaces and usually expandable storage…both of which increasingly uncommon on phones. But that’s largely because the phones have nailed that job, and physical media is pretty much dead (albeit at the hands of phones).
Watch? It depends what you want out of it… As a fashion item/jewelery, point goes to legacy tech. As a utilitarian gizmo? Unless your needs are solely limited to time and possibly a calculator, point goes to modern.
OwOarchist@pawb.social 4 days ago
It’s more like a Swiss army knife, really.
Any multi-tool will always be inferior to the single-use tools it replaces. That’s the cost you pay for being compact and convenient.
Sure, every multi-tool has a screwdriver on it somewhere … but it will never be as good as a real screwdriver for driving screws.
Then again, it would be a pain in the ass to carry around 30 different individual tools. So it really depends what your needs are.
los0220@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The lack of expandable storage on my phone really hurts the audio player experience for me. I would really like to have all my music just on my phone.
And the lack of headphone jack is really annoying too. I’ve spent over 160€ on headphone DACs since I replaced my old LG G6 with Samsung S22. Before that I just had the phone, which had a really nice sound quality. Now I’ve lost some DACs and another one is starting to malfunction since I dropped it.
I’m really starting to consider an mp3 player rn.
axh@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Well, the headphones are still a separate thing. They are even more separate now, than they ever were (each one earphone is separate now)
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 days ago
No if you just play music on your phone speaker loudly.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 4 days ago
There’s our perp, boys! Move! Move!
MisterD@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I bet there are people drooling at the idea of making those headphones part of people’s heads
certified_expert@lemmy.world 3 days ago
And it was beautiful
Beacon@fedia.io 4 days ago
Young people today are increasingly choosing to have separate dedicated-purpose devices. And that's probably a good thing. It decreases distractions, lets you focus on what you're actually trying to do, and makes you less addicted to your phone, and avoids the always-connected evils that come with it
OwOarchist@pawb.social 4 days ago
Plus, a single-purpose device is often better at that purpose than a combined device … especially when compared at the same price-for-price level.
A decent standalone digital camera will take far better pictures than any phone camera ever made … while still costing less than the best phone cameras.
A standalone mp3 player is smaller, cheaper, and has longer battery life than a phone, and it still plays music just as well.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I don’t remember having to deal with USB-C earbuds before the iPhone.
Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
And it was awesome.
Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 3 days ago
I literally remember this. I was living in the US in circa 2000. I remember standing outside my apartment with a mobile phone, a GPS system, an iPod, and a digital camera, and thinking ‘these should all be one thing’!
And here we are, 26 years later, and all of these things are deeply infected with unnecessary LLM bullshit. Progress!
spacehulk@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
And some of us are returning to this simplicity and privacy
laranis@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
Serious question: What do you do about maps/navigation? I travel a bit and that’s the one thing I can’t find out of the big tech ecosystem.
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 4 days ago
We used to have bits of paper with lines representing geography
spacehulk@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
You can buy a small gps (bunch on amazon) to stick to your windshield or dash. Its what i had before android, and they still apply.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
There’s still standalone GPS units.
cevn@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Mapquest was how we used to do it. Essentially, you would have a list of directions. If you get lost, you go backwards a bit and then… ask someone where to go lol.
black0ut@pawb.social 4 days ago
Paper maps and map books still exist, and they’re pretty useful for navigation. If you stay at hotels, they usually give you some simple maps of the area with the most important features highlighted.
If you still want to use online maps, OSM (Open Street Maps) is a great project that doesn’t depend on any big tech maps. It also works completely offline if your frontend allows downloading maps. CoMaps is a good client for phones. You can contribute to OSM yourself if you miss anything.
Seaguy05@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Don’t you remember the joy of carrying around a dozen proprietary cables. Oh dads cable drawer was great.
OwOarchist@pawb.social 4 days ago
Now you need to carry around a dozen USB-C cables that all look identical, but can do different things.
This one can do video, this one can do fast charging but no data at all, this one has fast data transfer…
ddplf@szmer.info 4 days ago
Huh what? Is this a thing with USB-C cables? I always used the same cable for everything and I’m fine
Mac@mander.xyz 4 days ago
Are you aware you can buy a 240W/40Gps cable?
FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 4 days ago
Yes, please bring it back.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
That’s today if you’re looking for quality for any of them.
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
Ah yes, Lightning headphones. Or USB-C, can’t tell. Either way, none of the iPods accept these. Meanwhile late keypad phones all have headphone jacks…
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 days ago
That’s definitely USB-C on the headphones in the pic, lightning has the little white connectors visible on the flat sides.
Snapz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It was better and the price of the slight convenience now is that the next generation, and your aunt and uncle, are openly cheering on nazis and pedophiles with no idea what’s actually happening in the world.
Shut up and carry the cassette tape thin digital camera already.
BrickEater@lemmy.world 4 days ago
And that’s was a good thing too.
sudo_shinespark@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I don’t miss all the different cables but fuck, do I miss being able to listen to a song without having to silence a spam call in the middle of it
noxypaws@pawb.social 4 days ago
I literally have all of these things separate today.
Smartphone, mechanical watch, wallet, wireless headphones but also a Fiio portable audio player that can drive my good wired headphones.
These things all do their job very well. Combining them makes everything worse for me.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 days ago
I’m surprised American smartphones are not also firearms.
HeHoXa@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
Shut UP!
Gdi… this is definitely coming
DmMacniel@feddit.org 4 days ago
Down with GDI!
One vision, one purpose!
OwOarchist@pawb.social 4 days ago
I’m honestly surprised that isn’t more of a thing already.
Especially for high magnification scopes, it would have some big advantages. No parallax. No more worries about the size of the eye relief box. The scope can be mounted lower, closer to the bore (or really anywhere on the gun you want) without having to worry about messing up your ergonomics or cheek weld. Could potentially include software aids to adjust point of aim to compensate for distance … or even wind and other factors.
Of course, it would only really be good for hunting or target/sport shooting. Because in any tactical situation, none of that makes up for the downsides: it relies on a fragile screen and fragile electronics, the scope (and perhaps the entire gun) becomes useless if the batteries run out, and the glow from the screen could give away your position to enemies – especially in the dark. Also, unless you fit it with some really fancy night vision camera system, it’s not going to work well in low light or darkness.
elucubra@sopuli.xyz 4 days ago
I’m always surprised I these conversations that almost no one mentions always having a useful, generally charged, decent close range flashlight.
I’m old enough to ha e experienced that having a zippo was the most reliable way to see close range stuff. Flashlights were basically dead battery containers.
los0220@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I carry with me a small rechargeable flashlight everywhere and use it almost every day. I do not think I could have spent that money better.
It has a low light mode so I can see at night in the bedroom without waking up my partner and it’s really powerful at the same time. It even has a magnet and baseball cap clip so the hands can be free to do other stuff.
Having a flashlight in the phone is really nice, but I don’t think I will use it again.
tamal3@lemmy.world 3 days ago
How do you clip a flashlight to your baseball cap? It must not dangle at all?
Bruncvik@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That’s me, today. Different brands and models, but pretty much the same items. If I have the space (inner coat pockets, for example), I also add a small notepad and pencil, and a calculator. I ain’t gonna pay for a HP-12C calculator app, when I have the fully functional hardware.
shweddy@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The time is now. Fuck relying on a tech giant for all my cloud storage and “convenience”
los0220@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Do it! Selfhosting is a great hobby
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 4 days ago
I still prefer this and carry almost all these kinds of separate use items, with the exception that I only carry a camera under certain circumstances. Otherwise, my phone doubles as a quick use camera.
roserose56@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
I still do. And it’s your choice to do. For example, I use my old LG ThinQ V40 for music, because it has audio jack, and I still buy CDs and I listen to them.
Its your choice.los0220@lemmy.world 4 days ago
RIP my old LG G6, really miss that headphone jack
roserose56@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Thats what I was missing, the audio jack and this hifi quality, amazing.
ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I feel like this is a shitpost because they’re all weird or anachronistic in some way
pigup@lemmy.world 2 days ago
We were all very excited to do so.
green_link@lemmy.world 4 days ago
guy the headphones aren’t supposed to be “headphones built into a phone”. they are more representative of speakers. cassette players, cd players, and MP3 players didn’t have built in speakers, you had to have headphones to listen to music. in no way am i advocating that anyone should listen to music or their shitty social media short videos, or have a phone call on speaker in public. im just saying you don’t need headphones anymore because phones have a built in speaker
(big boomboxes had big speakers yes but those were very cumbersome to carry around, i’m talking more Walkman’s)
but also i still have all those separate. i have a cell phone, a separate MP3/FLACC player, bluetooth headphones (which connect to both my phone and mp3 player), a smartwatch, an actual wallet, and a mirrorless camera.
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
Ear plugs are now included in phones as well? Please don’t promote people to play their horrible music on speaker.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
My 2012 DLSR still takes better photos than the phone does. Admittedly, I don’t use it as often given its cumbersome nature.
DrSleepless@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Earphones are still separate
DmMacniel@feddit.org 4 days ago
And it was Or still is pretty cool. Dedicated purposeful gadgets that dont distract you.
BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
And a time where 3rd party companies had no access to any of them
fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip 4 days ago
us and our 735 partners care about your privacy
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 days ago
Only 735?