Living without a personal smartphone

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jeffythedragonslayer
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by jeffythedragonslayer »

I look forward to meeting the ensuing mob of zombie physicists attacking when they take away Einstein's Nobel Prize.
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Individualised
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Individualised »

I'd just like to point out that there is no evidence that phones listen to you on the scale that many seem to believe. I know Google was doing it a few years ago on Android but that was a high profile case (and they didn't hide it; it was an option in phone settings and you could see everything that was recorded); apart from that, there is no evidence, if such a thing was happening there would be recordable network traffic and nothing like that has been captured. The whole thing about getting ads or recommended searches based on things you said or even just thought about likely has a different cause, which may be more or less comforting depending on your point of view. We know that Google and YouTube track your mouse movements, browsing habits and typing mannerisms in order to fingerprint you, so if they are feeding that data to their recommendations AI/machine learning algorithm it's entirely possible that it's just gotten so good that it can tell what you're thinking about or what you might want to search simply based on for e.g. the way you scroll. Which is weird to think about, but us as humans give off unconscious clues all the time.
Joe
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Joe »

Garth wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:14 pmHere's another page I came across last week:
...The "resources" page on that site links to a former doctor who lost his license after he was caught publishing falsehoods in order to boost profits for Big Pharma. I thought you didn't trust the corrupt pharmaceutical industry?
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by tepples »

Individualised wrote: Tue Feb 14, 2023 4:49 am I'd just like to point out that there is no evidence that phones listen to you on the scale that many seem to believe.
For comparison, my roommate has been following the trial of Alex Murdaugh for murder. Near the end of the prosecution's case, they called a witness to explain how the OnStar unit in Murdaugh's Chevrolet Suburban station wagon logged every mile of his whereabouts on the night of the crime.
unregistered
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by unregistered »

Hmmm… that’s interesting; but, OnStar is not the same as a cell phone. :)
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Pokun »

You are missing the point.
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Drag »

1) Was the owner of the vehicle aware that it had OnStar?
2) Was the owner subscribed to the service at the time?
3) Does OnStar still monitor equipped vehicles even when the vehicle isn't part of an active subscription?

No.3 sounds like it would be the basis of a lawsuit against OnStar, but if we're talking about a mobile device, we'd need to define what "active subscription" means, because as long as your device is tied to a vendor account (such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, or Tandy if you're reading this in 2035), you technically have an "active subscription" to a cloud sync service, which works anytime your device has an internet connection, regardless of whether that's through wifi or a cell tower.

No.1 and No.2 form the basis of "darn, my own ignorance was my undoing in my brilliant scheme" if [1=no, 2=yes] or [1=yes, 2=yes]. :P
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by nesrocks »

My 2 years old Xiaomi phone battery has just gotten swollen, bulging and opening the back panel, revealing that they now use glue to keep the panel there. I read somewhere that the MIUI update that ruined the phone also introduced a new charging method that would eventually lead to this. Hey, you gotta buy a new phone! Two years is too long for you to not be buying new phones, mister. Your time is up.

And no, you're not supposed to buy a new battery and replace it. It's all glued.
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Controllerhead
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Controllerhead »

It is getting harder and harder to do anything without a Smartphone, and i hate it. I only see the trend continuing.

I went to see a concert last summer in a beach town and was looking for parking. ...There were no parking meters, only a sign with a specific number telling you to download an app. I hate bloatware and i avoid apps whenever possible. I had to download this app, create an account, give up an email address and phone number, and navigate through a ton of menus ALL TO JUST PARK MY CAR. The process took nearly 15 minutes; when putting money in a meter might take a couple minutes at most. If you didn't have a smartphone, well, your SOL i guess. That's scary.

I still use a Galaxy S5 circa 2014, and i have replaced the battery (and the phone) several times. It was the last model with an interchangeable battery and it's nearly a decade old. In the last year or so, the service has gotten much worse. My phone can accept both 3G and 4G signals, and I suspect they are shutting down 3G towers and transitioning to 5G, as i often can't get reception anymore when i had near perfect reception at all times for almost a decade; I live in a highly populated area of the US. There is also the issue of Apps not supporting Android Marshmallow anymore, which is becoming more and more as time goes on. Sadly, the writing is on the wall for my poor baby and i will probably have to upgrade soon so i can properly receive phone calls at all times, as it is not guaranteed right now. Ah, phone calls, do you remember those? It's the MAIN THING A PHONE is supposed to do?

Somewhere along the line, the Smartphone went from AMAZING that you could so many things on the go without a desktop computer or laptop to a dreaded "what stupid app do i have to download now..." and how many spam emails and notifications are they going to bombard me with when i am trying to mind my own business...
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Garth
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Garth »

Joe wrote: Tue Feb 14, 2023 11:58 am
Garth wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:14 pmHere's another page I came across last week:
...The "resources" page on that site links to a former doctor who lost his license after he was caught publishing falsehoods in order to boost profits for Big Pharma. I thought you didn't trust the corrupt pharmaceutical industry?
I don't know which doctor you're referring to, but you had to look awfully hard to try to find something to discredit the article, and you found it in part of the site that's not related to the either article or its author.  Did you bother to follow any of the many links in the article?  I don't pay much attention to who has lost their license due to supposed "misinformation" or "disinformation" anyway though, since I no longer respect the licensing boards and agencies and the lying industry.  You go ahead and use your smartphone all you want.  I won't be joining you.  As I said, I have several reasons for not using one and not liking this smartphone culture.  Over and out.
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Joe
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Joe »

Garth wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:35 amI don't know which doctor you're referring to, but you had to look awfully hard to try to find something to discredit the article,
Andrew Wakefield, the "doctor" who famously faked the results of a study in an attempt to promote the new (more expensive) mercury-free vaccines produced by a pharmaceutical company he held significant investments in. He is the poster child for big pharma faking medicine.

Besides, I'm not trying to discredit one article - I'm trying to discredit the entire website. It's all a sales pitch from the slimiest used car salesman you know. Think about it: they keep telling you there are big problems no one else is talking about, and in the same breath they try to sell you the solution. "Buy my book to learn how to survive the upcoming apocalypse!" "The economy is going to get worse, buy my gold as an investment!" "Don't trust big pharma, trust my supplements!" "Cell phone radiation is dangerous, buy my radiation blocker!" Of course, not every article is a sales pitch - the others are meant to disguise their sales pitch as "the truth mainstream media doesn't want you to know".

But, sure, if we're talking about the article itself, it makes a lot of claims about possible links between low-power microwave radiation and health problems, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't link any studies that show conclusive evidence. A single case is not conclusive. Correlation is not conclusive.
Garth wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:35 amDid you bother to follow any of the many links in the article?
I tried, but which links are supposed to be important? Most of them pointed to another slimy website trying to sell me things.
Pokun
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Pokun »

Well those are obviously con artists capitalizing on conspiracy theories.

I don't think privacy invasion concerns fall in the conspiracy theory category though.
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by tepples »

This month (March 2023), Lifehacker has published two stories about alternatives to a unique mobile phone number per person. Neither article mentions drawbacks related to use of a service that uses a mobile phone number as a primary key for account creation rate-limiting. I guess the assumption is that a household with two adults will have three lines of service: one for each adult and one for the house (and the children and teens who live there).
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Garth »

Joe wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 10:54 am
Garth wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:35 amI don't know which doctor you're referring to, but you had to look awfully hard to try to find something to discredit the article,
Andrew Wakefield, the "doctor" who famously faked the results of a study in an attempt to promote the new (more expensive) mercury-free vaccines produced by a pharmaceutical company he held significant investments in. He is the poster child for big pharma faking medicine.
I can respond to that, but I won't drag everyone through it here though, as it is severely off-topic.  I'll respond by PM.
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Catyak
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Re: Living without a personal smartphone

Post by Catyak »

Garth wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 4:06 pm
Joe wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 10:54 am
Garth wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:35 amI don't know which doctor you're referring to, but you had to look awfully hard to try to find something to discredit the article,
Andrew Wakefield, the "doctor" who famously faked the results of a study in an attempt to promote the new (more expensive) mercury-free vaccines produced by a pharmaceutical company he held significant investments in. He is the poster child for big pharma faking medicine.
I can respond to that, but I won't drag everyone through it here though, as it is severely off-topic.  I'll respond by PM.
If it's off topic, why not create a new thread? This is the off topic board after all.
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