I suspect the median age of commenters is here is between 65 and 70. The right-leaning blogosphere in general, probably well north of 50. Sounds worse than it is because the median age of the US is 38, which age is definitely dwindling in my rear view mirror.

No kidding. Guilty. Hence the “old hat” reference.

I recently put most of my music on the new phone & then bluetoothed everything. Car, an old but nice home stereo, earbuds, & bought a JBL Charge speaker. The car surprised me. I hop in and the stereo picks up my playlist right where I left off, with zero interaction on my part.

More old hat no doubt.

Exactly. Use the tech as you see fit. This is a hell of a lot better than it was back in the days of Pavlov’s Humans.

}}} “New phone isn’t a problem, it’s the constant updates that changes things you are use to that is the problem” – No truer words were ever spoken. I find my laptop updates (I hate Microsoft with a red hot passion) to be the ultimate in frustration.

Indeed, in general, I have all my equipment set up to notify me if there is an update needed. I let the bleeding edge people figure out the problems, then, after it’s been settled for a year, I update.

BTW, I’m still running Windows 7 on this computer, and Windows 8 on my laptop. Why “improve” what’s working just fine? For both, I have an AV that is updated constantly, so security threats are generally not an issue.

}}} My only advice is to get the sort of device that best fits your needs.

Yup. Let the tech be yours, not you be the tech. Get what you feel comfortable with, and that’s fine.

Tommy, look into an app called “What Three Words”… I’ve been encouraging its use for 5-6 years, now.

Essentially, they gridded the planet into 10′ x 10′ squares. Each square is mapped to three English words (dunno if there are alternate language versions, don’t care for my own purposes).

So if I’m on the beach, I can tell you exactly where I am — you can type in those three words and it’ll show you the path to me. If I’m in the parking lot at the mall, I can tell you exactly where I am by sending you three words. If I’m in the hotel complex in Atlanta for DragonCon, I can tell you exactly where I am with three words *plus* the floor I am on (It does not have a z-coordinate, unfortunately).

It’s an awesome app, and you could not do it without a smartphone.

Nahhh. This is the mantra of every old person in the world. 😉

You can certainly not use many of the features of something, but you are vastly better off having the options than not having ANY options.

It’s a lot harder to get stranded somewhere than it was even a decade ago, for example. And it’s possible to make it impossible to get stranded, for a price, with a satellite phone.

Now, THAT said, Neo’s complaint about scratching phones, well, yes, that’s an issue. Every single idiot manufacturer out there has brainlessly followed Apple’s “glass” iPhone design. And so all the phones are made of glass, nowadays, which cracks waaaaaay too easy. No, “gorilla glass” is still freaking glass. “Ohhh, but it looks sooooo sleeeek!!” Yes, until you put a big honking case on it to protect the thing of necessity, unlike with older metal and plastic cases, for which the device was tough enough to withstand minor whacks and slaps that are almost unavoidable. This is not a result of “progress”, but drooling idiot design incompetence.

Neo: just get an Otterbox for your phone. They’re a great case.

Another alternative for you to consider is getting a “ruggedized” phone. It’ll cost more, but you should find it harder to screw up.

File under: Smart-alec phones.