[Almondsetat]

This article really resonates with me. Sometimes I stop and think that in actuality people do very little computing with their devices. If people actually used computers to manage their life, a windows 95 dekstop would already be plenty powerful to run all the necessary software.

As always, entertainment and ads are what keeps the treadmill going

[volemo]

I often think this way about my smartphone: what do I need the “smart” for? Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders. Seems so little… How old of a hardware could support my needs?

[lmm]

> taking/viewing photos

Camera and screen quality are often what the new generation of a phone is sold on.

For everything else, yeah if you're not watching videos or gaming then you probably don't need a top-end model.

[ryandrake]

> Camera

Whenever I see this fact, I don't doubt it, but it reminds me of how weird and out of touch I am. The Camera is probably one of my least used phone feature. My lens got a crack across it a few years ago and I have no idea how long I went before even noticing it. It's never even occurred to me to care about how "good" my phone's cameras are. For those rare times I need to take a picture of something, my 8 year old phone camera is good enough. I really don't feel I need more pixels.

It's always so strange to learn how important that feature is to normal people.

[Larrikin]

I think this is where the consumer should be demanding more. We went to the moon and back with 64kb memory computers. Why are these basically sci-fi devices in our pockets that can communicate between each other dumb terminals for a bit of JSON and tracking.

"Apps" should be using the array of sensors to be more than displays of simple information AOL could have done if they had really good marketing

[ForOldHack]

Stone thrown for a hit. Apps want to use locations and the microphone, but not to help you, but to sell you stuff. I have 14 sensors on my phone, mostly for positioning, and the software still cannot reformat text for zooming without a left to right cornrow panning. You get the absolute absurdity of it.

AOL had great marketing, just not pointed at consumers, it pointed it at ad providers. The free disk thing ...

[Antibabelic]

> Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders

That's not really "little". Back in the day computers could only do a fraction of this. Today you have it all in your pocket

[Almondsetat]

Everything on that list could be done 30 years ago with an internet connection, except maybe online maps. Do not confuse functionalities with how much modern GUIs weigh things down

[Antibabelic]

By "back in the day" I was thinking more IBM PC era, rather than Windows 95 era. I agree that there's almost no qualitative difference between how personal computing was done 30 years ago and now.