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Comment by fastball | Hacker News Reader

I'm not entirely sure you disagreed. It sounds like mostly what you value is indeed the portability ("I don't want to get my laptop out"). But the actual experience of writing a text on your laptop is better (at least for me). If I ever need to write a long message or many messages, I do get my laptop out because the hassle of that is outweighed by how much faster I can type on a computer than on my phone.

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The key point is that, if you were already at the laptop and could message (iMessage, Discord,Slack), would you switch to a phone to tap out the text with your thumbs or keep typing on the keyboard. We all know the answer.

The only advantage of mobile devices is their size, mobility, and convenience. For actual winning (development, drawing, design, modeling) you want a larger screen and better UI.

It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive but perhaps with the current options for mobile devices on the market, they are. To this day, I still miss the Blackberry keyboard. And while I'm on this triggering topic, I also miss QNX, a real-time operating system that won't prioritize Candy Crush over a 911 call. Don't get me started about the removable batteries. I'm about to have another graveyard of Apple chargers in my drawer when I replace my last Lightning devices with USB-C. And in 2008 you didn't need a surgical lab clean room to replace your phone's battery. I could throw my blackberry against a concrete floor like I'm goddamn Billy Mays and the battery pops right out. Now it's a glass sheet with a yearly battery subscription. Even the self-hosted Blackberry messenger is now NSA-hosted iMessage. They won't let a private company have that much power again. Oh well, at least it's simpler now on the surface.

Edit: To top this off, here are some references and further reading.

[1] Android apps jamming up 911 functions, "Android phones have a bug that stops them calling the police, Google warns (2021)" https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/google-android-microsoft-...

[2] Blackberry lasts 3 days per charge of normal usage, "BlackBerry Bold 9780: Not So Bold (2011)" https://www.anandtech.com/show/4228/blackberry-bold-9780-not...

[3] The surgical room to replace batteries, "Apple shipped me a 79-pound iPhone repair kit to fix a 1.1-ounce battery (2022)" https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/21/23079058/apple-self-servi...

[4] The government suing itself to stop Blackberry's injunction because they all used Blackberry phones, "Fed Agencies Side With BlackBerry (2006)" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4672844.stm

[5] Related: Today's HN discussion on bugs in QNX. Comments mention Blackberry's acquisition and why they use Android now, "The weirdest QNX bug I've encountered (2021)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40837411

The cable/charger situation was worse in the pre-smartphone era. I remember two variants of Nokia, several for Sony/Ericsson and an even greater number for Samsung. Most phones had proprietary audio connectors too. People are now able to switch between all major smartphone brands without purchasing new cables or power supplies. If you wanted to, you could just use your USB-A power brick with a USB-A to USB-C cable.

Let's not forget that what you type on a physical keyboard might have some semblance of what you intended. My phone "corrects" my words on such a frequent basis that it has just become accepted that written communication contains nonsensical words/phrases because an algorithm thought it knew better.

The same thing could be said for people using Microsoft Word on their desktop.

You can change those autocorrections in both options.

I'd hardly call the features that we now have in a device that fits in your pocket a technological regression.

The fact that I can video call my mother almost anywhere in the world, view emails, send high quality photos to family and see pictures of my friends around the world using two thumbs is hardly a technological regression.

Do I prefer writing emails on my mechanical keyboard looking at my 27" IPS display, yes. But that doesn't take away the value of my mobile phone that allows me to do that anywhere anytime.

I wish I could do phone calls and text messages using a 8" tablet, but that functionality is not offered — directly. It is possible to do those things on a tablet but only if you first tether the tablet to a smartphone over WiFi, even if the tablet has cellular connectivity.

This seems like a useless artificial limitation to me. Why not give users the choice if they want it?

They’d need to sell a phone plan in addition to the data plan. I guess there’s not enough demand to create those plans.

If I were on my laptop and didn't have the particular IM app up on the laptop, I'd reach for my phone.

For reading articles, I'd just use whatever device is closest at hand.

For writing long things or coding or photo editing, I'd reach for a full computer.

For answering this post, I'm using my phone because it's closer.

I’d caution against trying to project too much.

The portability is almost equivalent to the form factor itself, in many cases.

To the point you’re responding to, I can actually think of numerous scenarios where my phone is the preferred device to “send texts.” This activity is not simply the single dimension of “length.”

Could you give an example?

I think kurthr made a great point in a parallel comment – in what scenario would you switch to your phone to answer a message if you are already sat in front of your computer (assuming the relevant apps are on both devices)?

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