Please tell me it's worth the cost to get a smartphone!

[ny biker]

I haven't tried to use it through the car stereo. But I can take the earphones from my mp3 player and plug it into the phone and listen to music through them. Isn't that the same kind of plug?

[ny biker]

I would just like to say that technology is so cool.

My new favorite album (Foo Fighters Wasting Light) goes on sale in 2 days. They made it available early to listen to for free on their website, but it's not possible to download it yet for storage on a hard drive or memory card.

So today I fired up the browser on my Droid Incredible, went to their website and pressed the "play" icon. Then I started up the car, turned on the stereo, plugged the phone's power cord into the outlet inside the car console, plugged the phone's earphone jack into the Aux-in port inside the console, and cranked the volume. I was listening to music from the internet in real time through the car stereo speakers while driving around northern Virginia. Awesome.

(BTW I'm able to use a standard male-male plug from the phone earphone jack into the aux port. I got it cheap at Target.)

[Aggie_Ama]

I am ridiculously addicted to my Blackberry Torch. Never understood the obsession with the smart phones with internet. Now my email box is cleaner, I can check the weather on the fly and I get directions if I am without my Garmin. Plus I gave into Facebook when my closest of friends got lazy with email but will check Facebook daily, I love how easy it is to use. I really hate how much I like my Smartphone.

[Irulan]

FWIW, iphone does NOT sync with Outlook 2010 yet, but then, the 2010 version is still in Beta, which probably has something to do with that.

Iphone 4 syncs with Outlook 2010 just fine, I've been doing this since Xmas.

Have you been able to play music in your car?

I can't do it with my brand new Droid Incredible and DH can't do it with his iPhone. He explained it to me just a little bit ago - the jack in a phone, unlike the jack in an iPod, is for a combined microphone/headphone, so it takes a different plug from the stereo cable that you can easily find in male-to-male. Cables are apparently available but kind of expensive. I suppose we could fabricate one pretty easily with parts from Radio Shack.

I use my iPhone 4 as a music player just fine through the male/female auxiliary jack in my car. No problems here. The cable cost $7.95 at Radio Shack. It is the same kind of plug as earphones.

As for cost, we have a family plan. Once we got the phone ( upgrade, saved a lot of money) it added exactly $15/month plus fees to our plan. I discovered right away that I didn't need the unlimited plan. You only need that if you are streaming Pandora, streaming Netflix etc.

One can be a smug Luddite all they want (I have an answering machine, who needs a smart phone) but they are very useful tools, aside from the fun stuff. I'm sold.

[GLC1968]

One can be a smug Luddite all they want (I have an answering machine, who needs a smart phone) but they are very useful tools, aside from the fun stuff. I'm sold.

You ain't kidding! I've been a smartphone hold out for years. I even work for a company that makes parts for smartphones and yet, refused to give in. I hardly ever used my dumb cell phone - why would I even need a smarter one?

Two weeks ago, I got an iphone 4. Granted, it's paid for by my work, so I'd probably not have ever bothered otherwise but I am convinced. Seriously. I have NO patience for technology that doesn't work (again, pretty funny considering that I'm an EE by trade) and this thing has seriously impressed me. I absolutely LOVE it. I don't update facebook on it, I don't text, I don't take and share photos or face talk with anyone...but I definitely use the GPS, the browser, the email, and many of the apps. I never would have expected to say this, but I seriously LOVE my iphone! I love that now when I run I can take ONE device. It's my watch, my gps, my phone and my music (if I want it) - no need to carry a bunch of other little things. I will take it on my bike with me as well once I'm riding outside again.

It plugs into our new surround sound system, so I can play my music through our TV/stereo in the house (while it charges). It will plug into our new car (once it arrives) so that I can play my music or talk hands-free (while it charges). It plugs into my little stereo thing in the kitchen so that I can listen to music when I'm cooking, cleaning or canning (while it charges). It's so simple and yet so powerful.

My only question for myself is: Why did I wait so long?

[Crankin]

Still a Luddite....
Don't play music, don't use GPS, don't need or want to check email when I am out and about, don't text. Take pictures with a camera (a nice one), but I have no idea how those pictures get into the computer...
I'm not being sarcastic, really, but I can't really think of any reason I would get a Smart Phone. Perhaps it's because in my field, we don't and sometimes can't (because of confidentiality) use technology much in our work.
I keep asking myself why so many people feel the need to be in touch all of the time. I often watch people on the train and count how many are using some kind of electronic device. It's just interesting, to contrast that with how many are reading, not on an I Pad or Kindle.
Just a comment and casting no judgments on anyone.

[GLC1968]

I often watch people on the train and count how many are using some kind of electronic device. It's just interesting, to contrast that with how many are reading, not on an I Pad or Kindle.
Just a comment and casting no judgments on anyone.

My husband and I laugh about this all the time. The other morning, we met for breakfast at a cafe and for the first couple of minutes after we ordered, we were both doing something on our phones. I looked up at him and said 'put it away' and we both did. Then we looked around the restaurant and saw entirely too many families where every single member was doing something on an electrical device and no one was even speaking to each other! I'm not a parent, but if I was, that would NOT fly in my household.

Anyway, I love how handy the smartphone is when we are running errands or doing things on the weekends and having email and a VPN on my phone means that I can attend to my work things without having to lug a laptop home. But yeah, I don't feel like I need to be 'connected' all the time. I don't even carry my phone with me when I'm working on the farm as it just isn't that important to me. The smartphone means I can connect when I need to, but it doesn't mean that I am ALWAYS connected. Of course, that's more my personality than it is my electronics.

[ny biker]

Don't play music

I would be miserable without music. The stereo is always on in the car. I always have an mp3 player (used to be portable cd player, walkman) at the gym. It just makes me happy.

[OakLeaf]

I wouldn't be able to get along without some kind of handheld calendar, address book and check/debit register. For confidentiality issues, you probably wouldn't want an Android phone (since it's all Google stuff), but a Blackberry is as secure as anything out there (including paper, that's too easily lost and can't be locked), and iPhones aren't far behind in terms of security.

I was fine for years with a separate PDA and regular phone, but it's so much handier and less bulky in my purse having a single device. It's true it's more bulky to run and ride with - situations where normally I'd carry only a phone, not the PDA - but I deal with that.

I'm old enough that the paper thing was my only choice for years. Spent way too much time manually entering everything in two or three different places and never being 100% sure whether something had been "synced up" or "backed up" or not. Never looked back.

I have my Garmin for navigation on the bike - but the phone is great in the car where I can plug it in, and I can't count the number of times that it's saved me from having to pull over and dig for a map that I might or might not even have.

[ny biker]

I have my Garmin for navigation on the bike - but the phone is great in the car where I can plug it in, and I can't count the number of times that it's saved me from having to pull over and dig for a map that I might or might not even have.

I love maps, and I have no problem reading a map. But I once paid a homeless guy in Philadelphia $5 for giving me directions when I was horribly lost in a not-very-good neighborhood, because I didn't have the right map with me. With the smartphone, I always have a local map and built-in gps to help me reach my destination.

It's also handy for running errands, when I know how to get to a certain store from my home but don't know the best way to get there from another location that I visit first. And for the kitchen renovation it was truly useful. I was looking for cool white wall tile, found something I liked in one store that was charging a high price, was able to look up the manufacturer's website, then find other tile stores in my area that carried it, then looked up their hours and used navigation to get to them before they closed. It would have taken much longer if I'd had to go home to look all that information up instead of doing it in my car while parked at the first store.

[Bike Writer]

Hopelessly in love with my blackberry. I come from a paper planner background and have used the Franklin Covey system of planning for years, they have software that integrates with Outlook and just makes Outlook a cooler version of itself and it operates on my blackberry too. I honestly have so many appointments and tasks related to work that I'd be lost without something to keep track of it all and the BB happens to be smaller and handier and do more things besides just be a planner.

I don't really use my smartphone to it's full capacity and rarely surf the net with it unless I need to find something and I'm away from my computer but I have been using it for mapping driving routes as a GPS.

The added plus is that it's also a phone and that reading what some of you use your smartphones for gives me ideas about how to realize a greater potential from it.

I'm not addicted to the point of it taking precedence, when I am face to face with others it takes the backseat and I don't inturrupt face to face interactions with it's intrusion. I love modern technology and appreciate the simple life just as much. Like so many other things it can be carried to excess. I don't enjoy watching people letting technology interfer with social things like dinner time, time out with friends, family or a spouse etc.

Meal time has always been reserved for family time without a TV on where I grew up and still practice that today, even when dining alone.

[Crankin]

I don't even use the address book function in my email... just let the auto feature work there, you know the thing that starts typing in an address when you do. I use a day planner, not the fancy kind, just a paper notebook I bought in the college bookstore. I started using Outlook for a while at work this year, but I stopped, because I hated those fricking sounds going off, the reminders, etc. And the idea of letting someone else see my calendar creeps me out. I could never work in the business world. Truthfully, I find stuff stays in my brain if I write it down, like in write, not type. Yea, I have the radio on in the car, but I could definitely live without music. I never know who is singing what anyway, and so I am not interested in buying the newest stuff, because I don't know what the stuff is!
As far as maps, I have very little occasion to have to drive somewhere that I don't know my way to. If I do, I use Mapquest, print it out, study it, so I have it just about memorized and leave it by me in the car. DH has a built in GPS in his SUV, which although we buy the updates for, sometimes is a little off. He bought a portable one for when we use my car or his Miata, which I think I could figure out, if I had to.
Can you guess that I am not very adventurous? While I do travel and go out to eat, etc. quite a bit, usually someone else is doing the planning. I do have a good sense of direction, though and most of the time, it's me that gets us out of a "lost" situation when the GPS has sent us off in the wrong direction.
Truthfully, I have a lot of trouble remembering how to use anything electronic or mechanical; it's like that part of my brain doesn't work. If it's language mediated I'm fine, but symbols or numbers, forget it. I've always wondered who makes up icons, because if they are supposed to be intuitive, they think really differently than me.
I know I'm in the minority on this list, as it seems like most cyclists are very gadget oriented and mechanical.

[ACG]

I have a work provided blackberry. It has saved me countless times at the office or when I'm home and something comes up from the office.

I have a me provided Droid. Work doesn't have this number. The map/gps has saved me countless times when I'm riding and I find construction, need a shorter way home or can't find a Starbucks.

My BF has a 2 hour commute each way, we text eachother. The best was when I was in Italy and we texted. He does not have a smart phone, doesn't want one.

We do not have phones at dinner.

My adult daughters are out and about and I need to know where there are so there is usually the "alive" text I get from them. Both are in school and I need to know they are in fact alive.

We have a pretty good deal because we are on a family plan.

This like anything else is a personal decision. There is no right or wrong here, it is how much money is it worth to you?

[emily_in_nc]

Still a Luddite....
Don't play music, don't use GPS, don't need or want to check email when I am out and about, don't text. Take pictures with a camera (a nice one), but I have no idea how those pictures get into the computer...
I'm not being sarcastic, really, but I can't really think of any reason I would get a Smart Phone. Perhaps it's because in my field, we don't and sometimes can't (because of confidentiality) use technology much in our work.
I keep asking myself why so many people feel the need to be in touch all of the time. I often watch people on the train and count how many are using some kind of electronic device. It's just interesting, to contrast that with how many are reading, not on an I Pad or Kindle.
Just a comment and casting no judgments on anyone.

I'm pretty much like you. I do have an old-timey (first generation and not made by Apple) MP3 player, which I listen to at the gym (only way I can tolerate the treadmill!), but aside from that, I just have a simple cellphone. I have taken only a handful of photos on it in the 2 years I've had it. Like 5 photos. I don't use the internet on it, and have only sent about 5 texts.

When I take the bus to/from work, I read a newspaper or paperback. I am in the minority as most are on their smartphones or Kindles/Nooks. I am on the laptop so much while at home (and online all day at work), it's actually a nice break not to be tempted to go online every minute. I don't care to be "always on".

Editing to add: I am a techie - a software engineer, and I still don't want technology taking over every part of my life. In some ways, I think it's gone too far in our lives. I have seen so many of my friends get practically addicted to their Smartphones after never even knowing they "needed" one before.

[Geonz]

I had serious problems getting my Sprint phone to keep working -- between phones and chargers, I kept returning 'em (and lost two chargers along the way)... and a friend of mine offered to sell me his smartphone so he could upgrade. My phone worked for several weeks running but I realized that I'm out riding on the wild open prairie (incoming goose!) often enough that I want to be able to see those big dark clouds and check the radar. I even did it last week at the grocery store and shopped with leisure 'cause they were just clouds, not a storm...
I want to try to figure out a way to get a to do list on it... but I've never in my life been able to do that with any kind of planner, so that's a long shot. (If I even remember I have a list, I usually don't know where it is. I'm accustomed to cleaning out drawers and finding forgotten evidence of Some Organizing Attempt...)
$25/month gets me 300 minutes a month and all the INternet I want. I generally don't check email... but it will be nice to be able to when I'm doing GITAP and on the bike for a week. Battery life isn't so great -- but lots better now that one of my students showed me the "kill the battery sucking automatic update apps" app.