I surrender to the Borg....

Oh, and I do take photos, the camera is pretty good. Gotta give credit there.

Well, I do tote it along with me when I go out with Connie to run errands. And I guess if a photo opportunity ever arises, yes, I can see where it might be handy having this thing along. But truth be known, a while back Connie and I took a bike ride along the St. Marks trail, that runs through some swampy areas, and we almost ran over a cottonmouth laying on the trail. I remember thinking that I wish I had a camera with me, and obviously completely forgotten that I had a phone with me that could take photos. So duh!

So let me ask this. Is there an app for a smartphone that you could use to capture someone weaving all over the road with a photo or video and have it automatically reported to highway patrol? Actually this would likely be a good app to have embedded into a dashcam.

Speaking of apps, I tried several that didn't even come close to doing what they had promised and I wound up just deleting them. Maybe that kind of soured me on this whole thing.

As for using a phone, heck, now I have four phone numbers I need to remember. My old phone line I've had ever since I moved down to Florida, a new one as a VOIP land line, my cell phone, and Connie's cell phone. My old business line doesn't even have a phone attached to it any longer, as I use that as a spam filter now. I have it set up to forward people who may call until they can remember the new phone number, and everyone else just gets a request to leave a message. If they leave a message and I have a good reason to want to call them back, then all is well. But if they don't leave a message, too bad, because I just presume it is some spam phone call telling me my ad with Google has expired.

As for my cell phone number, except for Connie and myself, only two other people know it. Connie's cell phone number? Well, it's on my cell phone, otherwise I sure as heck don't remember it. She hasn't turned on her phone since she got back from Delaware, which was a couple of weeks ago, I think.

Wonder how long it will be before paying that monthly bill for these smart phones just gets real old?

I am getting a new phone and switching carriers. Apparently the area where I am moving only gets spotty reception at best and only from a few carriers (I can confirm that, my Metro PCS phone hardly worked at all when I was in the area).
No cable internet to the home I'm looking at either.
I briefly considered just doing without a cell phone but I guess I have been assimilated by the Borg to such an extent that I ultimately decided that wasn't an option.

Originally Posted by Lucille

my Metro PCS phone hardly worked at all when I was in the area

If you're not in or very near an urban area, T-Mobile's network is often next to useless. I just switched to Metro a few days ago, my decision based on signal strength claims on their coverage map. The Metro 4G LTE service I get here is mostly slower and less reliable than the spotty Sprint 3G I had before switching. Now I find myself regretting the restraint I showed when the twits at the Metro store tried to convince me that my unlocked Boost S7 was incompatible with the T-Mobile network. I guess the fact that the SIM card was working fine in the phone wasn't enough of a context clue to the contrary.

Well, I actually got to use the smartphone for something practical today. Was planning on taking a couple of the vehicles out to put gasoline in them, not because of the hurricane, but because I haven't driven them for months now, and I figured the gasoline in the tanks is getting pretty stale by now. But I remembered reading accounts of some gas stations being depleted, so I found an app called "GasBuddy", or something like that, and it has a display that shows which stations in any area are noted as being out of gasoline. So I checked that and found that there are quite a few in the Tallahassee area noted as being depleted of stock. So heck, I don't really NEED to put gasoline in those vehicles right now, and quite likely there might even be lines at the stations with gasoline available. So I decided that several days delay isn't really going to make any difference, and if someone else REALLY does need gasoline, I sure as heck don't have any reason to deprive them of it. So I'll wait till this blows over.

Anyway, this was one handy use of the phone that I can see being useful, especially while out on the road. I can use the app on my PC, but it only showed prices and didn't give me the display of available gasoline, for some reason.

Found another interesting app. Called "Waze". Kind of cool to basically in real time look at traffic conditions. Apparently the routes heading west along the Florida panhandle are all experiencing very heavy traffic and stoppages right now. LOTS of people evacuating the lower part of the state apparently. Couple that with a lot of server stations being out of gasoline, and things are likely going to be getting ugly.

Maybe these things (smartphones) DO have a practical use after all.

Well, I will say one thing about this smartphone stuff. When wifi goes away or is not otherwise available, these apps are as slow as molasses. I'm curious to see how well (or not) it works when Connie and I are on the road, as I know reception for stuff considered as "data" here at the house is not very good. Just barely one bar showing. But at least the actual phone service seemed pretty decent, regardless.

I'm just amazed. I can talk to my phone (by first saying 'OK Google) any time my screen is on and get info without having to type in search stuff.