Why Do People Like Phones and Tablets?

RJM62

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Geek on the Hill
Other than portability, what is it about phones and tablets that make some users prefer them to bigger-screen devices, even when the latter are available?

To me, the only reason to squint at a tiny screen is because you don't have a big one handy. But many people I know (mainly younger ones, but some older folks as well) will preferentially browse the Web or even watch movies on their phones while sitting in a room with a perfectly-good computer or wide-screen TV.

I'm not complaining. Frankly I don't care what other people do. It just seems bizarre to me. It would be like walking around with glasses that make everything look smaller, or listening to music on a tinny, 1970's era transistor radio in a room where an audiophile-quality stereo system is available. What's the point? It just doesn't make sense to me.

I can't think of any explanations that don't hint at some sort of psychopathology revolving around self-isolation. But I'm open to less-clinical suggestions.

Rich
 
I wonder about the same thing at times.

My 50-some wife is one of those people. She prefers her iPhone and iPad mini to anything else. She watches TV only to keep her hands free or to share the experience with me.

Eyesight may be a factor. I know that she never sees anything clearly at a distance but her small screen inches from her face is clear and sharp.
 
I know some people are a little paranoid about other people seeing what they are looking at. For others its a matter of comfort. They use their phone or their iPad a lot more than they use a desktop now so they are more familiar with the phone or tablet.
 
For younger folks, and maybe some others it is a self indulgence thing. They like that it is only theirs, and it boosts their ego to be self involved with it to the ignorance of others. It makes them look like they are doing something, or have some importance.
 
iPhone, only if I am away from iPad and computer.

iPad for lots of uses, unless I need keyboard and/or larger screen.

Laptop if I need larger screen and keyboard, away from home/office.

Desktop with big screen at home.

Desktop with multiple monitors at office.
 
I loathe tablets. I only use my phone to browse when I'm not at my computer.
 
It's the new smoking. Fussy, personal, allows you to focus for a few minutes on something besides real life.
 
My iPhone or iPad is always in arms reach. My desktop is in my office, my laptop is either in its docking station at work or zipped up in my bag.

Also, instant on. No booting up an iPhone. Hit button, google whatever comes to mind at that moment.
 
They never turn off? Perpetual motion battery?
 
It's personal choice.

While waiting in a doctor's office for example, there may be a big screen TV in there playing something, but I'm looking at stocks, bonds, or reading/watching about flying or whatever I want on my phone...

It also relieves one from just sitting there and looking awkwardly silent which can lead to actually speaking (OMG!) to any other old phoneless bags sitting around who won't shut up if you happen to engage them in conversation ... :nonod::lol:
 
I only use the phone when I have to. I use my laptop as an entertainment center and for running various advanced software that I use occupationally. For general web browsing and stuff like this, the iPad is just lighter, cooler, more convenient, since I am rarely to never at a desk. "Laptops are poor devices to actually use in your lap. Tablets in reality are 'lap top' devices.

Personally at 49 and sporting readers, the 10.4 tablet size provides plenty of screen real estate for comfortable reading, and the pop up keyboard is of a sufficient size that typing on it is not a chore like on a phone.

Right now I'm on an iPad.
 
I know you said "other than" but I think portability is the reason.

I communicate a lot by text or SMS and if I do that on the computer I'm sitting there chained to the computer. Same with email. Also if I want to send pictures the tablet/phone has that integrated and it takes less effort. I can be wandering around the house or watching TV on the couch or even be out and about in town and keep up with whatever I'm doing instead of twiddling thumbs waiting for a reply at my desk.

Also for teenagers I think privacy might be an issue. A lot harder to see what they're up to on a phone screen vs a big PC screen.
 
I only use the phone when I have to. I use my laptop as an entertainment center and for running various advanced software that I use occupationally. For general web browsing and stuff like this, the iPad is just lighter, cooler, more convenient, since I am rarely to never at a desk. "Laptops are poor devices to actually use in your lap. Tablets in reality are 'lap top' devices.

Personally at 49 and sporting readers, the 10.4 tablet size provides plenty of screen real estate for comfortable reading, and the pop up keyboard is of a sufficient size that typing on it is not a chore like on a phone.

Right now I'm on an iPad.

Henning pretty well sums up my situation too except for one more consideration. My laptop has all my work related information on it and I am very cautious of getting a virus on it. I spend 3-4 nights a week in a hotel and would rather not have my laptop tied to their internet. My iPad, on the other hand, is not such a big deal. It would be pretty simple to reset it to factory defaults and reload or restore my programs and personal information back to it.
 
I don't prefer a phone or a tablet over a desktop if it's available, but certain things like surfing the web, reading emails and looking at youtube videos are just as easy on the Ipad as they are on the desktop, so I might as well whore it up on the POA using the Ipad while I'm planted on the couch.

I can always run back to the desktop if I need to author an epic rant.
 
Other than portability, what is it about phones and tablets that make some users prefer them to bigger-screen devices, even when the latter are available?
For me it has everything to do with the portability. If I'm at home I'll usually use my desktop. If I go somewhere overnight or on trips I'll bring a small laptop (Macbook Air). But since I got the iPad I'll take that on day trips rather than the laptop. I use the phone when the other devices are not convenient.
 
Combination of portability and efficiency.

If I am on a business trip, I take my laptop since I need a lot of extra functionality. On vacation where I'm just going to check messages and hang out in a forum, all I really care about having is a tablet.

For reading a book, my old Kindle and my tablet beat a laptop any day of the week.

Squinting is in the eye (so to speak) of the beholder. That's why I prefer a full-size table to a mini for flying and why I rarely just surf the web on my phone.

And I don't use the smaller device when the bigger one is available the same distance away.

Different sizes, different strokes, different folks.

And if you're whinig about what kids do, well, that's a sign of old age.
 
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Depends on the use. Full programs? Computer. Internet browsing and email? iPad or iPhone because they're really good for those applications. And for other applications that have been streamlined to work with phones and tablets, like weather sites, home security status, music streaming, airline reservations and scheduling, etc. Heck, I can scan and send documents faster from my phone than from the assortment of machines I have in the front room.
 
Okay, thanks. Quite a variety of reasons. Most of them I don't happen to share, but at least I understand a bit.

Rich
 
I can see how very young and rather old people might do it because they are likely, more than the general middle ground folks, to have just gotten their first smart phone. I remember browsing the web and reading books and watching movies on my phone basically just because I could and it's kind of a kick that wears off. I still use the net browse but only to find a specific thing - not to browse or chat on silly forums like this.

In fact, one of the things I dislike the most is this trend towards larger and larger phones, ones that can serve as a decent snack tray or the so called phablets that are coming out. I'ts like holding an ipad to the side of your head and carrying on a phone conversation. I've been using a Motorola Razr-M and one of the things I like about it is how I sometimes panic thinking I don't have it when it's right there in my pocket. I might be tough to find a replacement come time to upgrade but I see the Samsung G5 mini so apparently there are others like me creating a market for this stuff but the Samsung phones seem kinda cheap to me. The Razr-M is solid metal and carbon fiber. I've dropped it sooo many times (once from a horrifying level onto concrete) and not a dent or a scratch despite having no protective cover whatsoever.

Unfortunately inside, the hardware is not capable of keeping up with the unstoppable advance of time and technology. :nonod:
 
I remember creating my billing documentation on an old Seimens Pocket PC Phone Edition running WinCE with an Office suite, and emailing it in before I hit the dock so my paycheck wold be waiting for me, that was in the early 2000s
 
I am young and my eyes still work.

The phone is quicker for many things than the tablet, which is quicker for many things than my laptop, which is quicker for many things than my desktop.

If I don't need a keyboard (ie I'm just web surfing my every whim), an iPad does great. My phone is seldom to hand, but I use that too.

If I had to pull out my laptop, wait the interminable 2 seconds for it to come out of sleep, swipe the screen on (ugh, Win8.1), load chrome, and do my search... well many times I'd have forgotten what my search even was.

I often watch TV or a movie and will browse little tangents according to what I am watching, or if its a sucky tv show, I'll browse an entire train of thought to distraction while waiting for something interesting to reappear.

Don't see why it's strange. It's pretty logical to me. Casual tool for casual activities.

$0.02

From a laptop. :)
 
I only use a desktop at work, at home or traveling it's my iPad. If not my iPad, I use my iPhone. But, I don't do any work on my portables, I can check on things with my iPad, but I don't really make any changes, mostly email and wasting time on aviation forums!:D
 
I often watch TV or a movie and will browse little tangents according to what I am watching, or if its a sucky tv show, I'll browse an entire train of thought to distraction while waiting for something interesting to reappear.

I do that once in a while, mainly to look up words when I'm watching programs in languages in which I have limited fluency. But I tend to put that in the "portability" category. If I were in my office rather than my living room, I'd use a computer instead.

Rich
 
Oh that....where everyone is an expert. :lol:

I'm old school....no iPhone. The iPad is for the plane....and the PC is for everything else. :D
 
I'm not a fan of devices that don't have a qwerty keyboard.

That's one of the reasons I still use BlackBerries. In fact, there's a new one on a UPS truck headed for my house as we speak, and a Straight Talk SIM kit for it on a FedEx truck. I'm going to try getting the BB to work on ST via AT&T. Supposedly it's doable, but not "supported." If that doesn't work, then I'll put it directly on AT&T.

I did try a phone without a keyboard once for about a week. I couldn't stand it. I wound up returning it for credit toward another BlackBerry.

This time around, I did look at Windows phones in addition to Berries, but I couldn't find any with physical keyboards (at least not for 8). So I stuck with BlackBerry yet again. I wouldn't use an Android if they gave it to me for free, and I doubt that Apple would ever even consider an iPhone with real keys; so BlackBerry it is.

It's kind of surprising to me that there are no Windows 8 phones with physical keyboards. Considering that it's actually a very decent OS with a lagging market share, you'd think they'd want to at least give it a shot. There are people who use their phones more as tools than toys, after all. You think they'd want to capture that market. Considering their weak market share, you'd think they'd want to capture any market.

When the day comes that there are no more smart phones with physical keyboards, I'll most likely stop carrying a phone. I use it more for email when traveling than anything else. I rarely make voice calls on the road any more, have yet to receive a text message that was worth the time spent reading it, and haven't played a game or installed an "app" on a phone in years. If I can't do mobile email to my liking, then there's no point in my carrying a phone at all.

Rich
 
Does the fact that I'm only 63 yrs old allow me to be part of the younger group?
I find that I use the Iphone much more than I ever thought I would. I use it when I am a passenger in a car, when I am taking a walk, when I am on the stationary bike at the gym, when I am in the kitchen cooking, or almost any other time a question pops up that I'd like an answer to.

And the older part of me that is hard of hearing and hates the telephone really likes to use the texting ability. And being a business owner, I am constantly checking email that involves my business.

If I have a lot to type I will go to a desktop, or if I have sufficient time to just sit and "internet", I will use the desktop, but most of the time I am on the go, and I have the Iphone with me, so I use it.
 
Speaking of phones with keyboards... My BlackBerry Q10 arrived yesterday! :D

q10.jpg


I texted a picture of it to my 26-year-old daughter. Her reply was, "Lol, buttons."

I was going to go with the Classic, but Gettington had an unlocked Q10 on sale for $232.00 off. I've been lusting for a Q10 since it came out, I haven't used Gettington in a while, I actually like them as a vendor, and I'm a notorious tightwad: So I figured "why not?"

My reason for waiting this long was actually that I couldn't get a BB other than the one I already had (a Curve 9310) on prepaid. VZW told me flat out that they wouldn't activate a Q10 on prepaid, and because I loathe cell phone contracts, that meant I was out of luck because VZW was the only game in town here.

But AT&T planted a 4G / LTE tower just north of Sparrow Fart about a year ago, so when I saw the Q10 on sale, I decided to check out that possibility, either directly with AT&T or through Straight Talk (which has an MVNO agreement with AT&T). So I called Straight Talk first.

Straight Talk told me that BBs definitely were not supported on their 4G GSM service. But surprisingly, they also told me of a workaround that sometimes worked, but that almost certainly wouldn't work in my ZIP code for a variety of technical and contractual reasons. Apparently there are some device restrictions on their MVNO agreement with AT&T. But they offered to send me a SIM card for the cost of shipping if I wanted to gamble.

It didn't work. Anyone need a Straight Talk SIM card?

AT&T, on the other hand, assured me that the Q10 would work just fine on their prepaid service. But because they still haven't updated their database to reflect the new tower they planted, their system wouldn't let order the SIM card online. The map has been updated, but the database hasn't.

But they helpfully put me through to an engineer in Texas and told me that if he concluded that the service would work, they would override the system and sell me the SIM card. Because I hadn't actually purchased the phone at that point, it seemed like a good idea to me to make sure it actually would work first; so I let them put me through.

The engineer was so helpful that he knocked my socks off. He took my address and told me exactly what kind of reception I could expect everywhere within a 40-mile radius of my house, right down to the obstructions and topographic depressions here and there where the signal would drop off. I was impressed by his competence and helpfulness -- especially considering that we were talking about a single prepaid line.

I also was pretty surprised that he was as forthcoming as he was about the tower locations. I used to install stationary EVDO service years ago, and sometimes getting accurate tower locations and capabilities was like pulling teeth. Not any more. The engineer read off a list of all the local towers, where they were located, their heights, and their capabilities. He even asked me for other addresses where I spend a lot of time so he could check the coverage in those areas. Very impressive.

The engineer suggested that I order the phone, try ST's SIM card first (which he also predicted wouldn't work) since I already had an account with them, and then buy the AT&T SIM at a store and let them activate it so the store would get the credit for the activation. As predicted, ST's SIM didn't work, so I headed off to an AT&T store. Their SIM card worked just fine with no manual configuration at all.

But because the store was quite a distance away from my home, they advised me not to port my number until I got home just to be sure that the phone worked here. It did, so I called customer service and they ported the number. It took about five minutes. The CSR stayed on the line until the port was complete and called me on the new phone to make sure it had gone through. Also very impressive.

The AT&T deal is for unlimited talk and text plus 4GB of 4G / LTE data for $60.00 / month, including the taxes. That's not horrible at all. I probably could have gotten away with the 1 GB / month plan (I rarely use more than 500 or so Meg in a month); but I don't know how data-hungry BB10 is, so I went with the 4GB plan. I think it's only like a $5.00 / month difference, anyway.

One other thing I noticed right away is that the FastMail push is working again. On the Straight Talk account, it had stopped working about a month ago. It still collected the mail, but the push wasn't working, despite FastMail being enabled in Dovecot on my servers. Apparently Straight Talk (or TracFone, or VZW) is no longer supporting it on pre-BB10 handsets (or maybe not at all). Whatever the case, it's working on the new handset.

Life is good.

Rich
 
I don't mind the virtual keyboards, I prefer them for the screen real estate when I'm not typing. The thing that bugs me is using the alpha numeric touch tone phone key pad. That's why I bought the first Seimens unit.

I now have a little Microsoft blue tooth keyboard that I can use with all my devices.
 
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I do that once in a while, mainly to look up words when I'm watching programs in languages in which I have limited fluency. But I tend to put that in the "portability" category. If I were in my office rather than my living room, I'd use a computer instead.

Rich

What's funny is that all of my little devices have good RDP clients in them, so I find that I actually go into my office less and less these days. Really only when I MUST have more than 2 monitors and a keyboard. If I only need two for light stuff, I'll use my ipad as a second monitor to my laptop. :D

People look at me funny for having a windows 7 session going on my little 4.7" samsung phone. Then they squeal "omg how can you read anything on that?!" and then I pinch zoom and read the parts I need to and spend a lot of time panning around. :dunno:
 
This all so old school... but it's a bunch of GA pilots so no surprise.

Or maybe we've all just become so jaded...

...back in the day (say 1990 or pick your decade), the idea of having something akin to a networked supercomputer with unlimited memory in your pocket, that could also take and place calls would have been mind blowing. Oh, and it can take and transmit high quality photos and videos. Oh, and it's a GPS device with maps and sat pics, etc. It's about the size and weight of a billfold and it will run with 1 recharge a day.

Well we now have it and it's so mind blowing that 'everyone' has one or wants one, or two.

Comparing it to a laptop and griping about the lack of a keyboard is missing the point. You can talk to it and it will talk back (and it works better than most believe). Video calls and conferences, no problem. Every fish I caught last year was photographed, located by lat and long, satellite picture mapped, time stamped and notated on my phone.

I just finished an intensive bit of flying (for me anyway) with only by phone and tablet in the bag. If you saw me hunched over it, I was filing and amending flight plans, getting weather updates and planning routes around storm systems... on my phone. Never missed or wanted a keypad. Bigger screen? Sometimes, so I pulled out my tablet.

We have yesterday's supercomputers in our pockets, seamlessly networked to the internet thru wifi and cellular connections with tiny high quality cameras, Bluetooth, GPS and enough local and networked storage to hold any amount of digital data.

Why do people like this stuff??!!

:lol::lol::lol:
 
Other than portability, what is it about phones and tablets that make some users prefer them to bigger-screen devices, even when the latter are available?

How often do you see this happen? What specific use case do you observe that doesn't make sense to you (i.e., what exactly are they doing on the small screen)?

I don't exactly see a boatload of people in my office working on documents or spreadsheets on an iPad or Galaxy S5, just like I don't see a boatload of people walking down the sidewalk working on a laptop.

When I do see someone in the office using a tablet, it's because they're away from their office and they either don't have a laptop or prefer to lug the tablet around instead of the klunkier laptop.

When I do see someone in the office using a phone, they're either making a personal phone call or sending a personal text message, or they're checking personal email, and are using their personal device because for various reasons they don't want to (or aren't supposed to) use office computers for those tasks. Or, they've got a work-issued phone and they're away from their desk and are using the phone for work-related emails or IMs.

In all cases, it's made sense to me why folks are using the device they're using.
 
This all so old school... but it's a bunch of GA pilots so no surprise.

Or maybe we've all just become so jaded...

...back in the day (say 1990 or pick your decade), the idea of having something akin to a networked supercomputer with unlimited memory in your pocket, that could also take and place calls would have been mind blowing. Oh, and it can take and transmit high quality photos and videos. Oh, and it's a GPS device with maps and sat pics, etc. It's about the size and weight of a billfold and it will run with 1 recharge a day.

Well we now have it and it's so mind blowing that 'everyone' has one or wants one, or two.

Comparing it to a laptop and griping about the lack of a keyboard is missing the point. You can talk to it and it will talk back (and it works better than most believe). Video calls and conferences, no problem. Every fish I caught last year was photographed, located by lat and long, satellite picture mapped, time stamped and notated on my phone.

I just finished an intensive bit of flying (for me anyway) with only by phone and tablet in the bag. If you saw me hunched over it, I was filing and amending flight plans, getting weather updates and planning routes around storm systems... on my phone. Never missed or wanted a keypad. Bigger screen? Sometimes, so I pulled out my tablet.

We have yesterday's supercomputers in our pockets, seamlessly networked to the internet thru wifi and cellular connections with tiny high quality cameras, Bluetooth, GPS and enough local and networked storage to hold any amount of digital data.

Why do people like this stuff??!!

:lol::lol::lol:




Right on. And why NASDAQ is cutting a rug on Wall Street. People love good tech.

I wonder what the next generation or step will be? You have to have a screen of some size, so I think phones have found the minimum. What's next? Smart-glasses? Flexible thin screens? Holographic? The smart glasses have some value in the cockpit imo if they can get them very light like any other glasses and not wired to anything. A good pair of sunglasses with enhanced vision for flying ... I'd try to get a pair.

For now, a smartphone can do everything. And it's the most portable like a wallet you can carry like you said. I have our plane set up so I can velcro either my phone or a mini to the yoke. And I usually take both. My G5 is in an otterbox and I keep a wide strip of Industrial velcro on the back. It sticks and doesn't move. Industrial velcro is your friend. :yesnod:
 
Other than portability???!!!

Hell I've been lugging around a laptop for work for 15 years. Not having to do that anymore is HUGE.

I'm not talking just lugging it around once in a while like most folks. I'm talking about once you're at some magical level of IT you'd better have a way into the company network that you can do real troubleshooting on, and have it with you or a short walk away, 24/7.

There may be underlings to take the first, second, third... tier calls for help, but eventually if they find you, and they will find you during the big outages or the big panics with small outages... You won't get away very often with "my laptop is three hours away".

Tiny keyboard perhaps, but I can fix anything from my iPhone 6+ nowadays.

Or at least get enough information that I can walk someone else through what to click/type to do so.

With an iPad and the phone I can look up things on one and fix on the other if it's that bad...
 
How often do you see this happen? What specific use case do you observe that doesn't make sense to you (i.e., what exactly are they doing on the small screen)?

I don't exactly see a boatload of people in my office working on documents or spreadsheets on an iPad or Galaxy S5, just like I don't see a boatload of people walking down the sidewalk working on a laptop.

When I do see someone in the office using a tablet, it's because they're away from their office and they either don't have a laptop or prefer to lug the tablet around instead of the klunkier laptop.

When I do see someone in the office using a phone, they're either making a personal phone call or sending a personal text message, or they're checking personal email, and are using their personal device because for various reasons they don't want to (or aren't supposed to) use office computers for those tasks. Or, they've got a work-issued phone and they're away from their desk and are using the phone for work-related emails or IMs.

In all cases, it's made sense to me why folks are using the device they're using.

More often than I used to is probably as specific as I can get. Or at least I notice it more often.

Recent examples: My nephew playing some online game on his tablet that appeared (at least to me) to be hard to see on the small screen; my niece tapping away at her phone to do some sort of essay for school via their Web portal; my brother using RDP on his phablet to do something work-related; my goddaughter watching a Netflix movie on her Android phone rather than the computer; and even my elderly mother squinting through her readers to read something on her tablet rather than the big-screen monitor on her computer.

I've done most of those things at one time or another too, but not when I had a computer nearby. I know you can do pretty much anything on a tablet or phone these days, but almost anything on a small-screen, small-keyboard device seems much more difficult to me than doing the same thing on a computer; and doing it on a no-keyboard device would make me bananas.

The only two exceptions, in my experience, are mail and SSH. I can do either of them almost as quickly and easily from a BB with a keyboard as I can from a computer. They're also the two things (other than voice and text) that I most need the mobile device to be able to do; so how well and how comfortably it can do those two things are big factors in my purchasing decision. I use the mail all the time. I don't use SSH nearly as often on the road, but when I do need it, it's usually an emergency.

Rich
 
Right on. And why NASDAQ is cutting a rug on Wall Street. People love good tech.

I wonder what the next generation or step will be? You have to have a screen of some size, so I think phones have found the minimum. What's next? Smart-glasses? Flexible thin screens? Holographic? The smart glasses have some value in the cockpit imo if they can get them very light like any other glasses and not wired to anything. A good pair of sunglasses with enhanced vision for flying ... I'd try to get a pair.

For now, a smartphone can do everything. And it's the most portable like a wallet you can carry like you said. I have our plane set up so I can velcro either my phone or a mini to the yoke. And I usually take both. My G5 is in an otterbox and I keep a wide strip of Industrial velcro on the back. It sticks and doesn't move. Industrial velcro is your friend. :yesnod:


You should be seeing flexible, roll up, tablets in the not too distant future.
 
You should be seeing flexible, roll up, tablets in the not too distant future.



Time will tell.

Enhanced vision google glasses are exciting. A lightweight wireless pair of glasses that could superimpose airspaces, traffic, and other flight data out there like you're looking at it would have to be good.

We could find a way to make it good. :redface:
 
Time will tell.

Enhanced vision google glasses are exciting. A lightweight wireless pair of glasses that could superimpose airspaces, traffic, and other flight data out there like you're looking at it would have to be good.

We could find a way to make it good. :redface:

I already saw them at the boat show as part of big $$$$ a bridge layout.

The glasses are interesting, but they have a way to go as well to get it right.
 
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Other than portability, what is it about phones and tablets that make some users prefer them to bigger-screen devices, even when the latter are available?

I guess it's the "touch" aspect on the iphones/ipads that we subconsciously find appealing. Plus more immersion is experienced when the device is up-close. :wink2:
 
Ever try to mount a desktop computer to your yoke?

At work, I can't get enough screen real estate, no matter how much there is.

But in an airplane, it's real easy to have too much.

It's also hard to curl up with a "book" if it weighs 20 lb. Phones are a bit too small for that, but an iPad mini works pretty well.
 
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