The fact that it has no keypad of any description with which to operate the thing.
Thus the controls are all touch screen, which for a person such as myself with a high natural electro-magnetic aura, makes the smartphone simply impossible to operate.
The wife has one, but putting my hand anywhere near it causes it to race off into the wild blue yonder much to her annoyance. I take care not to touch the screen, but if I point to some onscreen thing with my finger, very often it is instantly gone !
Now you might find it difficult to believe, but honestly, I cannot operate a smartphone even if I am touching the correct onscreen areas. The phone just goes crazy.
A similar phenomena happens with walk through metal detector apparatus at airports. Honestly, I could strip naked and the darn thing would still go off every single time. Iāve removed my belt, taken all the loose change and keys out of my pockets, left my wallet in my jacket on the conveyor belt, taken my shoes off, and yet the lights still flash and the buzzers sound every time. Before anyone asks, no I donāt have any metallic bodily implants.
A similar annoyance happens with transistor radios. I walk towards it to adjust the volume or tuning, and it falls silent as I reach out to make the relevant adjustment.
Over the years I have received some very nice gifts of watches and lighters that have quartz crystals that mean that they are supposed to virtually work for ever. After 3 months on my wrist, or in my pocket, they no longer function.
So you see there are some of us, admittedly probably a very small minority, for whom the smartphone, or indeed anything else that is touchscreen operated, is simply a complete non starter.
I do sometimes wonder if this is inevitable. Personally, Iām a kick in the backside away from 60 but canāt yet imagine that day. Iām still fascinated by the white heat of technology and the improvements it brings.
Yes - the number of people who have commented on the fact that I choose not to have a Smartphone is infuriating - and Iām certainly no Luddite. I have a laptop and an old iPad, both of which are more than sufficient for my use. I have an old dumb phone, circa 2007, for emergencies and no shame (it has been laughed at countless times and no, itās not a brick). I have always found phones intrusive so this is one reason, the other being cost. I donāt have a television either and this appears to be yet another crime.
So you have an oversized smartphone! We would find it a bit ridiculous in the west but Iām always a little surprised when I go to Asia for work just how interchangeably people in Japan and South Korea for example use phones and tablets. It doesnāt seem especially unusual to see someone using a tablet just as if it was a phone. In a practical sense coming back to the carte vitale, as much as you perhaps wouldnāt want to for practical reasons, if you have an iPad you could in theory download the CV app and get your MT to scan your iPad. It is a reminder that people donāt need to spend 1200ā¬ on an iPhone to get access to apps, you can get a basic tablet that has access to the Google App Store for 80ā¬.
but in more recent times, a number of these apps require 32 bit technology and the old iPad is 16bit so many apps are unavailable on my old iPad 2 which I only use now for listening to music.
Exactly, many apps are unavailable and it actually came to light just last night that the latest Twitter app isnāt available on my iPad which means I can no longer access it (no bad thing given how angry Twitter makes me).
The thing is my CV sits comfortably in my purse whereas carrying an iPad about is a hassle (and itās probably too old for the app anyway). I donāt really want another tablet and have more important things to spend 80ā¬ on (half my pension). I used to teach IT and embrace technology but there are times when I wish it just didnāt exist in the sense that it dominates so many peopleās lives.
Well you only have to see a couple out to dinner each constantly checking their phones or the people heads down, phone in hand down walking along the street and across roads to agree with that. But I donāt blame the technology, itās the idiots that misuse it I blame
I think not having a television was considered as much weirder before streaming became ubiquitous, at least people seemed much more up in arms about it and seemed to take it almost as personal criticism 20 or 30 years ago if one didnāt have it, very odd. Now it doesnāt seem to shock (I am a have-not, by the way).
I went to an iPad only about 5 years ago and would never go back!
A majority of sites now work better on mobile devices as they are increasingly being designed for that. As the majority of people use themā¦!
Vaguely remember having to peel off the prices( ? vignettes) on every medication used and stick it on the brown form to send off to Assurance Maladie.I,m sure someone can give you a more accurate description.
Yes Carol, that was a pain. Just think of all the man/ woman hours wasted in pharmacies in the 80s and 90s with the staff peeling and sticking.
Good job weāve evolved since then.
