I cannot tell you a way my life has genuinely gotten better since the advent of "smart" phones.

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Gps without having to buy an expensive in-car GPS unit.
Gps that automatically updates maps.
GPS that updates routes based on traffic\

Route planning including public transit
Especially when you're not sure what your departure time will be
That accounts for temporary route changes
That automatically updates permanent route changes

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Still going but hard to get a decent new flip phone.

Bizzle

I, too, hate phones and love weed

OpenStars

It is a tool. Make sure to use it rather than allow it to use you. For my next phone I wish I could get a dumbphone but the need to have something like Google Maps is too strong. I'll definitely just get a cheapie though, or perhaps a Fairphone.

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Google Maps on my smartphone is God tier.

I drove in the before times. You have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it was to use a paper map or look at written directions and miss a turn? Do you realize how great it is to type in "food near me" and see everywhere you might want to stop for a bite to eat and right where it's at? That I can youch a business name on the screen and it will show me its hours they're open? How n8ce it is that I don't even have to look away from the road and have nice lady robot voice tell me to turn right 2 miles?

I could give up a lot of my smartphone stuff and not have it be "for the worse", but im keeping the mapping stuff.

dadarobot

I just got a fairphone, and so far i have no complaints.

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I use the Realcalc scientific calculator app at least 5 times a week. As others have mentioned GPS functionality for driving is great. I also use my phone's GPS to get waypoints for the location of fixtures for my job as a telecommunications facilities designer.

Having a high quality camera is also handy for work and personal stuff.

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Yeah you’re full of crap dude. You’re telling me you’ve never used the GPS on your phone at the VERY least? Even for walking in the city or something?

AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet

You've obviously never had to read a shampoo bottle to keep you entertained while taking a dump before.

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These badboys exist - tempted to get the hotspot and navigation version.

Flip phone

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There are a lot of good things that a smartphone provides that has made my life better.

Weather they apply to you I don't know.

Here are some great features of my smartphone that had improved my life.

GPS navigation - being able to quickly and easily find your way is amazing. Though I will never have my GPS running with sound, I use it to have a map up when driving where I can glance to see the general idea of the way to my destination, this sometimes mean I miss a turn, but it's fine the system quickly calculates the route again and I don't get yelled at to follow directions when it might be impossible, reducing stress.
Smart lighting, my phone can turn on my lights at home before I get home making me able to open my front door into a cozy lit up home rather than a black void.
Translation on the go, being able to get translations of just about anything you need at any point is amazing, sure the translations are not perfect, but they are good enough.
Entertainment is probably to biggest win for me, being able watch a movie, listen to music, read a book where ever you are on a small device you have with you is truly amazing.

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It's been going on 20 years since smart phones arrived. You go figure it out.

OpenStars

Wow and even those have touch screens (most of them:-).

OpenStars

That somewhat sounds like perfection actually:-).

Is the touchscreen experience less smooth than a traditional smartphone?

dadarobot

Touchscreen is fine

I switched from a pixel 6, and i haven't really noticed anything tangibly worse. Read a lot of complaints about the camera, and i have noticed it is slightly worse, but nothing really bad at all.

The circle to select is disabled. It doesn't have wireless charging. There's probably something else im forgetting...

All in all, very minor complaints, and i'm overall very happy with it.

thermal_shock

yeah, shit post.

OpenStars

Oh that's awesome! I barely use my camera as it is, so that is perfectly fine for me:-). Everything I hear about it sounds so good:-).

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I barely use any these days.

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I had those. They were much worse.

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Seriously. Much much worse.

First you had to pay a fortune for a device, with which you may or may not get very limited map updates. Then after that you had to pay quite a bit to update. Even then it could take a year for permanent road changes to make it to the map updates, and temporary changes were never shown. Road construction, wrecks, and temporary closures were your problem. And God forbid your route took you through a closed area because there was no way to route around it. You had to find a place to park so you could look over the tiny little map to figure out your own way around the blockage, or else you could pick a direction and then yolo your route until you were far enough away from the problem area that the gps would finally choose a route that didn't go through the problem area.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. For instance, all the above assumes that it accepted the address you were going to as a valid address. There was nothing like the joy of typing in an address and having the device tell you that it doesn't exist.