How do you use your technology?

[Lark]

I'm just interested in how people use their technology, is a phone a phone or do you use all the organiser and other network apps, does your phone speak to your laptop, speak to your tablet, speak to your sat nav? Do you know enough to "hack", ie personalise, any technology you own and transform it in terms of software and hardware? Would you even be interested in doing so?

 

[chickpea]

my phone I use for calls, texting, browsing the Internet, playing games, navigation (this is a big one) and as a camera. I've considered jail breaking it but I've never had enough incentive to do it.

laptop I use mainly for tv shows/movies/music. I don't have cable and just use an hdmi cord to play shows I download on the tv.

 

[sprinkles]

My phone is just a phone that plugs into the wall.

My Nintendo DS though acts like a PDA and has a rudimentary FTP server that I can access from my PC. It also has very basic internet and email capability and an IRC client. It plays MP3 and videos. I was into hacking it for a while and still have the ARM compilers for it but lost interest.

 

[kyuuei]

My phone has some apps--NFL app so I can get updates on one game while watching another, some pay-your-bill apps. I took off all the games. They annoy me. The alarm clock is my phone--my alarm clock is just a clock now. Usually it's an IM service more-so than a phone via texting. Skype is probably the coolest thing I do on my phone.

I watch netflix from my kindle (read: the kid watches cartoons) and read books. It is also the thing that has my games.. Plants vs zombies being the only game I put on it myself.

 

[UniqueMixture]

For those interested in using your technology for prosocial applications I just wanted to give a quick shoutout for boinc http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

It can be used to donate your computer's processing time when is not in use (ie when the screensavers on)

Currently I'm a member of Rosetta@home - used to understand Jean folding in order to help men find cures for various diseases

I'm also a member of climateprediction.net which simulates what could happen over the next 100 years due to global warming

 

[miss fortune]

I use my phone more for other things than I use it for communication

it's my organizer, my alarm clock, I use the kindle on my phone all of the time, the only camera I use is on my phone because it's better than my actual camera, I use it for the internet in order to look things up almost constantly if I'm out of the house, I use it for making grocery lists, I have an app for budgeting that I use and for banking as well and I'm always using it in my car to listen to music that I keep on it instead of an ipod or anything... I'm one of those people who gets full usage out of their smart phone

on the other hand, I only use my laptop for browsing the internet and word processing, so it's not as useful in the long run

of course my phone is more expensive than my laptop too...

 

[garbage]

I've lost a lil' bit of interest and have since passed the 'hacking' ball to students &c, but I was heavy into it back in the day. They're better at it than I am, what with all this newfangled technology and all, and they teach me a thing or two quite often. I'm typically a few levels removed from 'bleeding edge' technology because it's more solid and tends to have well-defined use cases.

I do it to the extent that it makes things less of a pain in the ass--or has the potential to make things less of a pain in the ass--but not much further. I try to find the best equipment/apps for the job, and write my own if those aren't sufficient.

Synchronizing notes and settings across devices, or otherwise getting access to information whenever needed, is important for me.

 

[spirilis]

Work & entertainment, both of those rely extra heavy on computers for me.

Funny enough, I have a certain distrust in the error-prone complexity of modern computers that wholly preclude me from relying on my cellphone as an alarm clock (as an example).

Now that I'm getting deeper into programming microcontrollers and basic electronics, I am slowly building out those gadgets I want but don't trust someone else to design/make for me.

 

[Randomnity]

My phone is only barely smart and doesn't have much space for apps so I mostly just use it for texting and reading ebooks. Once in a while I'll use the notepad/calculator/alarm clock functions. And almost all of the time my lab files stay in the lab and my home files stay at home. So I don't have much need for syncing.

I use computers a lot but I'm not sure I do much to optimize my use. I use google calendar for pretty much everything scheduling-wise.

 

[cascadeco]

My phone is only for calls; I don't have texting enabled and it's just a flip phone.

My computer is for emailing, going to a few websites, making purchases occasionally, photo-hosting sites/maintenance, keeping track of some stuff via Word or a spreadsheet, and photo editing software.

I have a tv and a plain old dvd player for watching dvd's, but I don't have cable. At some point I've been meaning to join Netflix but that hasn't happened yet because I keep prioritizing other things that I'd rather spend my money on. So, I don't have netflix.

Then I have an ipod and a kindle. Both are 'synced' to my computer in the sense that I'll get music and books via my computer and download, but that's the extent.

I have one of those really cheap am/fm radio-alarm clocks that I wake up to.

I don't use any electronic organizers/calendars.

Basically I don't have a need for anything else atm, and for myself this keeps things way simpler with much less to fret over or keep track of than if I went for all of it. .

 

[Stanton Moore]

In order of use:

Email
internet
Text
Talk
GPS
Notes etc; I have no apps other than the ones that came on it. I used to, but refuse to update my phone through itunes. I'll probably buy a Samsung next...

I once opened up a DVR and put in a bigger hard drive cannibalized from a PC...

 

[The Great One]

I use my technology to look up porn.

 

[netzealot]

I use my mobile to stay connected, ultimately. It's a single stop to get phone/text/email, internet, news, weather, GPS navigation, task list, personal library converted for Kindle application, banking access, music, camera/gallery, alarm clock when I travel... all of this efficiently organized and accessible with a swipe and a click at most. easily the most important tool that I carry on a daily basis.

Laptop is for full time research/productivity/writing since a mobile is not nearly as fast at this. I have a separate setup utilizing my older laptop, projector, speakers, and wireless keyboard+mouse that I use as an entertainment center (Netflix and Hulu).


I could "hack" (modify) a lot of my stuff, but I prefer not to unless I can do so while retaining a certain amount of mainstream reliability and comparability. I use CyanogenMod for Android, for instance, if that gives you an idea of how much modification I go in to.

 

[Such Irony]

I'm just interested in how people use their technology, is a phone a phone or do you use all the organiser and other network apps, does your phone speak to your laptop, speak to your tablet, speak to your sat nav? Do you know enough to "hack", ie personalise, any technology you own and transform it in terms of software and hardware? Would you even be interested in doing so?

My phone is used for calls, texting, games and taking pictures. I hardly ever use my camera anymore for taking pictures because my phone does just as good of a good. Occasionally I use the phone for Internet but it's slow slow on there the screen is too smart. So for the Internet, I mostly use my laptop.

I don't know how to do any of the 'hacking' type stuff. I'm not particularly interested in doing so. I'm satisfied with what I have now.