How essential to life is a smart phone in the 21st century?

[Domh245]

"Android one" devices are definitely my preference - I myself went from a Moto G (my 3rd one in 6 years) to a Nokia, having convinced my parents to both go to Nokias (albeit, Mum has since upgraded to a Pixel!)

 

[GRALISTAIR]

There is another reason not to use mercury amalgam - it's not "sticky" so you have to drill out a much larger hole to keep it in, which weakens the tooth. Modern composites are glued in so you need to drill less and so there is more chance of the tooth surviving long term.

Correct - modern composites have improved considerably. I live in the USA so have great choice.

 

[najaB]

Correct - modern composites have improved considerably. I live in the USA so have great choice.

Interestingly, I live the UK and have a great choice as well, even with my NHS dentist.

 

[eMeS]

If it's this Nokia 6030:

Nokia 6030 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Then I suspect the problem is the lack of 3G support as I've seen some areas where they have turned off 2G/2.5G. Although there is support for running voice over data networks it's far from standard and unlikely all the smartphones would be able to use wifi for normal voice services.

Thanks for your reply; yes, that seems to be the model.

In normal use I have no idea which network the phone uses, but in the Oxford hospital, I noticed that the substantial masonry walls had been covered in a thin external metal covering - which I assumed had been installed when the NHS was so worried about mobile phones interfering with their medical instrumentation. A worry which now seems to have gone away.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Interestingly, I live the UK and have a great choice as well, even with my NHS dentist.

Presumably at a private fee, though. Or is Scotland different from England in this regard?

 

[najaB]

Presumably at a private fee, though. Or is Scotland different from England in this regard?

Scotland is different. Dentists can make the choice between amalgam or composite if they think that composite is the better option, and still get paid by the NHS. Of course, you can choose to pay private rates for amalgam for smaller fillings as well. The last time I went (or might have been the time before) the dentist was slightly apologetic that the cavity wasn't quite large enough to justify composite so I had to pay - had it been slightly larger she could have used composite instead on the NHS.

 

[Romsey]

Think about "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and the book. Now think about that mini computer we call a smart phone.... I'm sure you can buy a bright cover with the words " Dont' Panic" on it.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Interestingly, I live the UK and have a great choice as well, even with my NHS dentist.

That is very comforting to know as I will be retiring back to the UK. Thanks for the info

 

[najaB]

That is very comforting to know as I will be retiring back to the UK. Thanks for the info

Try your best to retire to Scotland. Our NHS is (to date) in a better state than England's.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Try your best to retire to Scotland. Our NHS is (to date) in a better state than England's.

Oh I know that - my aunt and uncle taught at George Herriott School in Edinburgh for many (40 ish) years. My uncle even wrote a school textbook.

 

[bearhugger]

Think about "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and the book. Now think about that mini computer we call a smart phone.... I'm sure you can buy a bright cover with the words " Dont' Panic" on it.

Had that as the wallpaper for the lock screen on my iPad.

 

[Lucan]

I have a dumb phone but life is becoming such that it is becoming essential to have a smart phone. It is increasingly assumed that you have one.

My mother was one of the last people to have a black-and-white TV. She only watched football (I know) and she said she did not need a colour set because the teams always wore colours that would show as different in B&W. For example if one team strip was normally blue with black shorts, and the other was red with black shorts, one team would wear white shorts for that match.

However the day came when it was assumed everyone had a colour set, so the teams stopped worrying about how the colours showed in B&W. So she had to buy a colour TV eventually.

 

[gg1]

As long as I had a basic mobile I could quite happily get by without a smartphone. Far more important to me is a desktop PC or laptop, I find smartphones are fine for general browsing but for anything else a PC is far superior, online shopping especially is a PITA on a smartphone.

 

[eMeS]

... Far more important to me is a desktop PC or laptop, I find smartphones are fine for general browsing but for anything else a PC is far superior, online shopping especially is a PITA on a smartphone.

And yet, the Halifax emailed me two days ago saying that I need an "app" to access their internet banking. Can I download a typical "app" to my desktop running Win10? I assume not, but hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[GB]

And yet, the Halifax emailed me two days ago saying that I need an "app" to access their internet banking. Can I download a typical "app" to my desktop running Win10? I assume not, but hopefully I'm wrong.

No highstreet bank requires you to have to have an app for online banking. You just navigate to the online banking section via their website. However you do need to be registered for online banking to use their app.

 

[najaB]

And yet, the Halifax emailed me two days ago saying that I need an "app" to access their internet banking.

Did they say that you had to download an app, or did they suggest that you download it? I'd find it very surprising if they stopped maintaining their website-based online banking.

 

[Bletchleyite]

No highstreet bank requires you to have to have an app for online banking. You just navigate to the online banking section via their website. However you do need to be registered for online banking to use their app.

Even Monzo has a web interface, though its capabilities are somewhat reduced compared to the app, its main purpose is to allow you to log in and block your account if you have e.g. been mugged and lost both phone and card.

 

[najaB]

I find smartphones are fine for general browsing but for anything else a PC is far superior, online shopping especially is a PITA on a smartphone.

This varies considerably between retailers. Some have very well-designed responsive websites, others well as you say can be a right PITA.

 

[eMeS]

Did they say that you had to download an app, or did they suggest that you download it? I'd find it very surprising if they stopped maintaining their website-based online banking.

Here's the text I received in an email yesterday: "The Pay a Contact service is only available when you use our Mobile Banking app. We're updating the terms and conditions to make this clearer." I think the commencement date is next June 8th. Seems pretty clear to me.

 

[Domh245]

You only have to have the app if you want to use the "pay a contact service" - you will still be able to make payments through other means without using the app. Indeed, guessing at what the "pay a contact" service is, it's pretty obvious you need the app (along with a phone with contacts saved in it) to use

 

[najaB]

Here's the text I received in an email yesterday: "The Pay a Contact service is only available when you use our Mobile Banking app. We're updating the terms and conditions to make this clearer." I think the commencement date is next June 8th. Seems pretty clear to me.

As @Domh245 says, that only says you have to use the app to use the Pay a Contact service. It doesn't say anything at all about other services. I suspect because people were asking why they couldn't use the Pay a Contact service on the website.

 

[eMeS]

As @Domh245 says, that only says you have to use the app to use the Pay a Contact service. It doesn't say anything at all about other services.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[ComUtoR]

Pay a contact is for mobile to mobile banking. You can pay someone directly using their mobile number. It is relatively new but pretty much exclusive to mobile banking apps. I'm not yet convinced with mobile banking and I still don't trust it 100% but I have been banking online since my bank first started their services. It had a dramatic impact on my life. Mobile banking just puts it in your pocket for added convenience.

 

[najaB]

It is relatively new but pretty much exclusive to mobile banking apps.

Yes, and no. PayM has been around for a few years now and you can use it to pay anyone who has signed up for the service using either an app or your regular Internet banking.

 

[ComUtoR]

PayPal is also interweb based an can be online and also transfer using a contact.


The world is changing and moving towards a digital society is inevitable. Traditional banking now has competition from online startups or companies like paypal who offer payment services etc. Those who refuse to move away from traditional banking are going to be pushed out and are just going to be left behind for some weird traditional idealism and Luddite thinking.

 

[Hadders]

The world is changing and moving towards a digital society is inevitable. Traditional banking now has competition from online startups or companies like paypal who offer payment services etc. Those who refuse to move away from traditional banking are going to be pushed out and are just going to be left behind for some weird traditional idealism and Luddite thinking.

A friend of mine refuses to use online banking (I'm talking traditional web based version not mobile) because he's petrified of being scammed and because it's too new, unproven etc. It's been around now for more than 20 years now so this thinking really doesn't apply.

 

[alxndr]

A friend of mine refuses to use online banking (I'm talking traditional web based version not mobile) because he's petrified of being scammed and because it's too new, unproven etc. It's been around now for more than 20 years now so this thinking really doesn't apply.

Similarly I have a friend who won't even set up direct debits, he'll go to the bank every month to pay his bills.

On the topic of smartphones, I don't think they're essential but they are more convenient. I could do everything that I normally do without one, but it would mean carrying several different devices instead. With a smartphone I don't need to carry a book, map, and camera as my phone can perform all of the same functions. It can't always do them as well as a dedicated device, but it is almost always on my person.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Similarly I have a friend who won't even set up direct debits, he'll go to the bank every month to pay his bills.

Until online banking was a thing I used to decline them too, and would only pay by credit, not debit, card. That's just because any possibility of a debit I couldn't see until the monthly statement arrived was something I didn't want, as it messed with my "offline" record keeping.

Not a problem now of course (and because Monzo calculates an "amount left to spend" for you no need for offline records either).

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I would think that right now in the UK, it's almost essential to be online, either through a smartphone or through a computer/traditional web browser. I can think of one or two people who I know have refused to learn how to use either, but their lives are pretty limited as a result. It's not essential in the sense that it's possible to live completely offline, provided you already have a house and a (manual?) job etc. you can buy food in shops, get your entertainment from tv, read books,and so on. But to participate in wider society, find out what events are on, even communicate with the majority of people who - these days - mostly use apps to send messages - is very hard if you're not online.

The final straw that could make smartphones essential is if more and more apps start to be written only for smartphones, without equivalent PC/Mac/Web-browser versions. The NHS Covid app is an obvious example but that's slightly unusual because it's raison d'etre relies on it running on a device that you have with you all the time. But some other apps are starting to point in that direction - my bank for example provides a browser login but strongly advises using its smartphone app. Some dating apps seem to be phone-app only. And most obviously, the big messaging apps WhatsApp and WeChat are smartphone based (You can use both on a PC but only if the PC is connected to a smartphone that holds your actual data and credentials). For that reason alone, if I didn't have a smartphone, I'd come close to immediately losing contact with quite a few of my friends.

 

[Crossover]

Essential, arguably not, but it would make various things much harder work without the features they bring.

I don't have a smartphone, and normally get by using an old Nokia 6030. However, I had a short spell in two hospitals last December, and discovered that my phone simply didn't work inside either of the two hospitals, whereas Smartphones used by my visitors worked OK. I'm guessing that the Smartphones used the hospitals' WiFi systems to make contact with the external networks. So, perhaps Smartphones are essential... the nursing staff were very helpful when I did want to make a call.

When we were visiting a family member in hospital a year or so back, pretty much no phone would work, including smartphones (and the only days WiFi worked vaguely reliably were Christmas Day and Boxing Day!)
I don't know what was blocking it, but a staff member advised us that O2 was boosted round the hospital and that their network would work. Sure enough, we acquired an O2 sim and put it in an old unlocked phone and it worked perfectly!

The one area it's a *bit* lacking is dentistry, where I do pay for private treatment, for two reasons - one being that I don't like the idea of having mercury based products in my gob

Interesting - the last couple of fillings I had on the NHS (replacing amalgam) are composite, I am sure

The final straw that could make smartphones essential is if more and more apps start to be written only for smartphones, without equivalent PC/Mac/Web-browser versions. The NHS Covid app is an obvious example but that's slightly unusual because it's raison d'etre relies on it running on a device that you have with you all the time. But some other apps are starting to point in that direction - my bank for example provides a browser login but strongly advises using its smartphone app. Some dating apps seem to be phone-app only. And most obviously, the big messaging apps WhatsApp and WeChat are smartphone based (You can use both on a PC but only if the PC is connected to a smartphone that holds your actual data and credentials). For that reason alone, if I didn't have a smartphone, I'd come close to immediately losing contact with quite a few of my friends.

Instagram, whilst usable on a desktop, has limited functionality natively - such as it isn't possible to upload images (without a bit of browser butchery :lol)