Smartphones: C or D?

yeah i read the article. I just never switch my location setting on unless I want something to actually access it. So I'm assuming the apps I've given permission to access my location can only do this when the location setting is switched on?

I'm amazed that ppl leave this switched on tbh

https://thebaffler.com/latest/busy-doing-nothing-marz?fbclid=IwAR2fzWOPshz96LHU7UODZMLpdbgomGIOyWBq8hNgnU8I6v2VzW9zjAfB21Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNRqswoCVcM

the relevance becomes clear in the second half of the talk. just ordered her book

she quotes something deleuze wrote in 1995:

…we’re riddled with pointless talk, insane quantities of words and images. Stupidity’s never blind or mute. So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop people expressing themselves but rather force them to express themselves; what a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, and ever rarer, thing that might be worth saying.

Like

On the other hand, don’t be bored, because it’s absolutely the most exciting time to be alive

deleuze: 'I think we'd all be better off if we were more silent, so I'd like you all to be quiet while I explain at length why I think this is true.'

yeah, we should just give ourselves over to an overwhelming flood of information that leaves us feeling scattered and lost.

what -- your worryposts?

if you feel like thats the human condition now then im not convinced that wouldnt have been your human condition whenever

"are we spending too long listening to bards?"

I need a new smartphone. my current one doesnt turn on anymore, and was a donation. I'm not sure what it is (definintely a Samsung, but i dont know the model, maybe a J4?). Anyway it was reasonably good. I have a crappy Alcatel PAYG as backup but its horrible to use!

Basically i dont want a piece of shit. I'll tether wifi to laptop so battery life is a consideration. Is 3GB ram suitable? is €150ish going to get me something that isn't a piece of shit?

There are some Samsung A6's for around €180 in the shop in the station. What i don't understand is there seem to be lots of different phones all called A6. This is far too irritating. They also have a Nokia 5.1 for around €150. Can i get anything cheaper than this or does it start to be a piece of shit again

moto g, xiaomi or huawei in or around that price point prob decent bets

Thanks, i saw some from the latter two brands. Is that a reasonable pricepoint? I'm worried the cheaper ones are just going to be garbage to use and I really want to avoid any irritation. Some are nearly €1000! unless it comes with more interesting callers I can't imagine what you're getting for that

everything available now

i tend to stay a few years behind cutting edge and unimaginative about what i need the phone to do.

android
decent processor
32gb internal storage
sd slot of at least that again
usb c, decent battery, quick charge a bonus

etc etc, ymmv

I think that describes exactly what I'm looking for! (and i totally forgot about usb-c, good shout). Only thing is i dont knonw what a good processor is (or how to know if it has decent battery / quick charge)

Got my first smartphone, a Huawei a couple of months ago and I really like it, and it was 200 quid

xiaomi mi a2 is worth a look. not underpowered, good quality, easily comparable to phones twice the price in the basics and a few premium touches.

dunno your buying options or location but id imagine €175 gets you 4gb/64gb version which is a good base model to do a few years without falling on its arse

Lisbon - and the shop here has that model for $187. Its now in pole position, just a case of if its in stock!

idk if its already widely discredited or just not that known, but i find trustedreviews do pretty helpful and niche lists to point me towards this kind of stuff so thats worth a look too.

I bought the Moto G7 Plus a couple of weeks ago - about £230 sim free. Decent smartphone at that price. You can get the G7 Power which has huge battery life for about £170.

Previously had the G5 which is still going strong and has been passed on to my daughter.

i had a g....2 i think back in about 2014 and it was a beast for the money alright, if i see a g6 even on offer in the next while id prob jump

idk if its already widely discredited or just not that known, but i find trustedreviews do pretty helpful and niche lists to point me towards this kind of stuff so thats worth a look too.

― deemsthelarker (darraghmac),

Part of my problem with this is the dizzying array of options is overload. Worten has 42 pages of smartphones! I'd try trustedreviews but thats just going to be more overload! I just want someone to tell me what phone to buy. At the end of the day, this has now happened and I'm going to (try and) buy a xiaomi mi a2!

nah listen, thats the thing, theyve prob got a list that sets out 'ten best budget android phones to buy 2019" or and end of year "best android budget phone" and maybe only one or two in that price bracket, and the full review will break down what it is and isnt good at, so its more a "three options, and in depth look for what might suit you" site- thats how i find it anyway

anyways, there yare youve enough to go on id say

Is everything 'sealed body' or whatever it's called now? I deliberately got the most recent phone where you can take the back off, take the battery out etc if it goes wrong as I'm wary of not being able to do this, but it's getting a bit past it now. or am I worrying about nothing?

agree that phone shopping is the worst, w/ probably deliberately confusing names w/ no easy way of comparing stuff and compounded by the fact I can't decide if it makes more sense to pay for some £100-£200 medium phone now while money is tight or get something good for £30+ a month

Alright, i went in! trustedreviews is giving your boy the xiaomi mi a2 the thumbs up. Moto G7 also does well, so I think whichever of those two is in stock

Groovypanda, they have your boy the G7 Power in there, but its not going to make the weight class, looks about $50-60 overweight, the chances of it shedding that and making the cut by 5pm today don't look good, this is looking like a routine win for darraghmac at the moment

oops it was the G7 Play that trustedreviews liked and is in the correct weightclass, and the G7 Power that is not

The Guardian's updated list of best smartphones is not as helpful as it could be.

For example: Apple iPhone XS:

Buy if: you want the best iPhone

Don’t buy if: you don’t want to spend £999 or want to use Android

if you Google smartphone search, there are some databases where you can find phones based on features you're looking for...

... anyone know which of these is best? :)

I am typing on my new Xiaomi A2 phone!

It's huge! I feel like I'm going to drop it. How on earth do people walk around with €900 phones and not worry about dropping them

they don't worry because they just buy another one

A case, bro

get a case, not least because theyre a slippery bugger

Probably pushing it to ask for a case recommendation as well!

amazon prob as good a bet for you there as any rly, should ensure you get a compatible one by searching the phone and seeing what accessories come up

Based on personal and work experience, get a flip style case that covers the screen when not in use. I've had my S4 for three years and it looks like new because the case covers the screen. Also the phones we have at work last considerably less than three years because we supply them with cases that only cover the sides and back.

Why don’t they have a black and white phone with no features but the ability to use group messaging?

I tried making my phone that by disabling all the featuees but I restored them. I need someone to use the childproof features I think and not tell me the password—but then again, no one I know irl agrees with me that this is a distraction machine/emotional anaesthetic.

I will need to somehow take drastic action before the election really gets started though. I think i might die if I try to flow news coverage of this one like I did in 2016.

The iPhone has a greyscale display option. Helps reduce distraction for sure.

oh yeah. i did that and then set it back to color when i had the great idea to re-install instagram.

i am kind of addicted to this thing, which is why i resent it. i use it as an emotional crutch. but it's insidious because i go to it for comfort but then get wrapped up in the wave of bullshit and political outrage. at some level i must find that kind of manufactured anxiety appealing--probably because it's a powerful distraction.

i don't think what i want is to be "less distracted" or "more productive." i want to feel free from the pavlovian reward cycle. i also aspire to know less about american politics--as little as possible.

i'm reading "how to do nothing" by jenny odell. she cautions against this kind of renunciation drive--advocating learning to spend time with one's own thoughts, but not forsaking civic responsibility. that seems chill--maybe that's like, level 20 and i'm at level 1 in terms of how much control i feel i can exert over this machine.

also i think it's odd how these things just dropped form the sky ten years ago or whatever and transformed everyone's life on a granular, minute to minute level yet we never truly had a conversation about them. or it doesn't feel like we did.

again, these are old themes for this thread, and i'd apologize, but you know--that's what you're getting into when you open this thread

we should eradicate twitter before worrying about smartphones

all you zombies

twitter is a part of smartphones