My wife and I went on vacation a couple years ago and we stopped some guy on the street and asked for directions. He pulls out his phone and shows us a map that indicated where we were, where the nearest bus stops were, what buses stopped there, and had links to show where they' were going, and when they arrive. At that moment I knew I had to have one of these things. I believe the words I said to my wife were, "greatest invention ever!" Before that moment I had intended to avoid getting a so called smartphone for as long as possible.

I've since spent several hours playing games on my phone while waiting for stuff. I can't quite get myself to actually buy a full version of anything yet though. I find I want the games I play on my phone to be pick up / put down / continue later at a moments notice. I doubt I'll be picking up any sort of RPGs to play on my phone.

Email notifications are nice but I don't use my phone to update facebook and I am not interested in receiving a continuous stream of updates from "friends" on my phone either.

I will occasionally write down notes about stuff that I suspect I'll need later like gift ideas, measurements for stuff at home, prices of groceries so I can compare later.

For awhile I thought geocaching was pretty cool but never kept up with it.

I prefer taking pictures with our little digital camera but we don't always keep it with us.

The whole point is that in all likelihood, you will always have your cell phone with you. You always have a way to take note of things around you or thoughts that you might want to recall later. And when 'later' happens, you actually have that info with you instead of having left it somewhere else not realizing that you would need it.. As you do this more and more you might want better and better ways of organizing and sharing everything. The organization and sharing of things is in general the point (theoretically) of apps.

Aside from playing killer sudokus on my phone when I'm waiting for something, I use it for several mundane things - it is a great place to keep a shopping list, rather than on paper, and that is helped by a good keyboard app. If you have inspirations or other ideas you want to remember you can jot those into your phone too. It's also handy if I half-remember what I wanted and can use those vague search terms to google up a more specific answer. I don't need a watch, which I've always disliked wearing, because my phone knows what time it is. It's not any worse than the older-model digital camera I have; actually it has a major advantage of having a better battery life, so it doesn't die after an hour of playing tourist, plus it's smaller and fits in my pocket better. It is handy in the middle of a conversation when I want to show my conversation partner a picture of an object they aren't familiar with (google image search), or play for them a song they don't know (youtube). When I'm in the navigator's seat on a long car trip I'm often asked to use google maps on the phone to find the nearest restaurant or gas station, or make sure we aren't going the wrong direction. A phone can function as a music player; my brother watches videos on his all the time, though I'm not a huge fan of trying to watch that kind of thing on such a small screen. Perhaps the most interesting use I've seen for phones so far is allowing people to grind for money or resources in an MMO or pokemon-type game while they aren't at a computer buff enough to play the actual game.

I don't even own a smart phone. Call me a Luddite, I guess.

I thought about the idea of what we call "apps" before it even became as popular as it is. I used to download random software I called "single task programs." I don't need all of photoshop, just something that crops pictures etc.

I have about 90% utility apps between my ipad and ipod touch (no iphone) and some of them have come in very handy in several emergencies. In fact, without them, I probably would have had no way of dealing with those issues (serious emergencies). Imagine you are stranded without a cellphone. You'd be thinking in terms of "how long is a day's journey?'"

You can get an email, or you can hire a courier. It is all about convenience.

I will list my most useful apps (all of them are useful) You can look them up:

File Management
Dropbox (cloud document storage)
Documents by Readdle (store documents)
Splashtop (link ipad to computer)
Wi-Drive (portable wireless hardrive)

Writing
Editorial
Pages, Keynote, Numbers

Reference
Flipboard (digital newspaper)
Wiki Offline (offline encyclopedia)
Meriam Webster's Dictionary
White Pages
iTriage (medical reference)
MapsWithMe (offline map)

Uitlity

UPS
Dewalt (measuring)
Livestrong (dieting)
Resume HD

Kayak (booking flights)

Art
Snapseed (photo editing)
B2M App (create normal maps from photos)
Inkpad (vector illustration)

Programming
Codea (programming in lua)
Pythonista (programming in python)

Game Press (make 2d game on ipad)

Music

Garageband (music studio)

Vocalive (high quality voice recording)

Audiobus (link music apps)

Figure (music stuido)

Multitrack Daw (track editing for music)

VideoGrade (video editor)

The list goes on. But basically, I can do everything from transfer money between accounts, to checking latest news headlines both in this country and across the world, to saying hello to a long lost relative, from one device. It is just about convenience.

Of course, before I had all of this, I remember I did things the long and hard way. And quite honestly, I prefer simplicity. But apps like ITriage and White Pages have been a major help to me in the past. I could name others.

It is hard to find actual useful apps, But I have a collection of the Best I think.

Ok so my questions are, am I alone in feeling like this and if so what am I not getting?

No, I had a coworker with the same feeling. He asked me, "what do you use you iPad for?". I couldn't really give an answer. I know I use it all the time, what do I use it for? What don't I use it for? I still don't have an answer...

I completely agree... I swear to God, they could make the iPhone6 without a "Phone" function, and 90% of the world wouldn't figure it out (and probably 50-66% of those wouldn't grasp the fact that it's no longer a "phone")... Until one of the other 10% made a Facebook post about it, then everyone would take to Facebook in order to complain and bitch together in one big rally.

I recently saw one of the dumbest posts on tumblr. I can't find it anymore, but this is basically what this person said:

wouldnt it be cool if there was a way to like get my iphone to record sounds so i can talk into it and the person on the other end could hear it and then could instantly talk back at his iphone so i could hear what he says so we dont waste time with typing

Didn't Einstein say something along the lines of:

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

Did you ever accidentially say "excuse me, am I boring you!" to someone you were out on dinner with while they were updating their social media stuff?

Oh the good old times when a mobile phone subscription was a comfortable three-digit bill (though I think nowadays a lot of people have 3 digits on their bill anyway), when cell phones were the size of a beer bottle, and when they didn't do internet anyway.

I completely agree... I swear to God, they could make the iPhone6 without a "Phone" function, and 90% of the world wouldn't figure it out (and probably 50-66% of those wouldn't grasp the fact that it's no longer a "phone")... Until one of the other 10% made a Facebook post about it, then everyone would take to Facebook in order to complain and bitch together in one big rally.

I recently saw one of the dumbest posts on tumblr. I can't find it anymore, but this is basically what this person said:

wouldnt it be cool if there was a way to like get my iphone to record sounds so i can talk into it and the person on the other end could hear it and then could instantly talk back at his iphone so i could hear what he says so we dont waste time with typing

Didn't Einstein say something along the lines of:

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

If we want to be nice we could assume that he meant, without making a phone call (Which can be quite expensive, especially if you have friends in other countries). VOIP apps are pretty much one of the killer features on modern smartphones. (as long as your carrier doesnt' block voip traffic)

>Why oh why would you register an account here? This is gamedev.net...

>Why oh why would you register an account here? This is gamedev.net...

Because there are funny pictures and things there... The real reason is because it's a tool to help keep me motivated with game development, as I can post updates and things to my blog for people to see, and to reflect to myself how much progress I've made over time.

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In response to OP, I'm quite the same with my phone. I still have an old Nokia phone (the ones where if you drop it you have to buy yourself a new floor, and not the other way around). I don't need the luxury of internet, apps, gps, and the like because my laptop already does all of that.

I also can't understand how people can claim mobile devices are the "new gaming platform". Apps, or "games" on mobile devices are nothing more than a time filler for train trips between your house and work. They are little toys to help prevent people from dying of boredom. They cannot indulge a person into the immerse surround sound, beautiful high definition graphics and intense story driven entertainment a computer game can deliver.

The mobile app market is still very small compared to the desktop market: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/

I too am not such a big fan of social networking. I do have a tumblr blog, but there's not a lot of socializing going on to be honest.