“I’ve pondered this as I’ve watched people play with their iPhones. The primary reason to get one is for random Web browsing (which iPhone owners generally do to show off the fact that they can browse the Web on their handset) or time-wasting. The latter seems to be the main use of cell phones these days,” Dvorak writes. “I include phone calls in that category. Honestly, how much time does any one person need to yak on the phone? Nearly every time I overhear a phone conversation, the chit-chat is almost always inane, useless, unnecessary.”
MacDailyNews Take: While we, gulp, agree with the bloated gas bag on the last point, he’s obviously not watching experienced iPhone users work, not “play,” with their iPhones.
Dvorak continues, “And when people are not too busy needlessly chattering on the phone, they’re sending messages to all of their friends for no apparent reason.”
MacDailyNews Take: Agreed (even though us agreeing twice with Dvorak in one article means that the Apocalypse is nigh).
Dvorak continues, “When they’re not on the phone or texting, the person is probably goofing around on the phone. In the old days when people were standing in line or otherwise waiting for something, they’d read a book or knit or meditate. Now they fool around on the phone… They play games, sort messages, look for new apps. In other words, they waste time. Really, the iPhone is only the greatest handset around because it has more ways to waste time than any phone, ever.”
MacDailyNews Take: Here are just three examples, each of which has at least 50 other apps in its category:
• Free Books: 23,469 classics for less than a cup of coffee. (See all App Store apps for “books”)
• Knit Counter: A convenient way to store stitch counts and info for multiple knitting projects. (See all App Store apps for “knit”)
• Meditate – Meditation Timer: Elegant and functional meditation timer. (See all App Store apps for “meditate”)
Dvorak continues, “With the economy in the tank, this is probably as good a use of idle time as anything. But let’s face it, this whole phone thing is about wasting time… Cell phones are ruining the country. The economy has tanked in proportion to the growing popularity of the iPhone. This is no coincidence, as far as I’m concerned.”
Talk about wasting time, the full article – Think Before You Click™ – is here.
Actually, after a year of iphone ownership and tons of apps. What I do most with it (outside of core tasks like phone, email, music, text and web)…is read. Stanza and Kindle. It’s my main book reader now and I sincerely hope all written media goes the way of itunes.
For the record, if Amazon has ANY sense, they’ll realize that it’s not the Kindle, IT’S THE STORE. If they make that store go everywhere, they’ll be iTunes for books.
But the apple tablet is around the corner…..
“Galloway” is right. JD is better on TWiT but he is still a nitwit.
I find MDN’s treatment of him is quite harsh until I read prattle like this:
“The economy has tanked in proportion to the growing popularity of the iPhone. This is no coincidence, as far as I’m concerned.”
Yes, I’m sure the two are inexorably linked.
People use their cell phones as they see fit. There is no law against it (except, in some countries or jurisdictions, operating a cell phone while driving a car is illegal. There is also some common etiquette issues when using cell phones in general, like not using them for personal reasons during business hours, turning the ringer off during meetings, etc. But I digress). The author’s argument could easily be made about any cell phone, not just the iPhone. Just another lame excuse to poke or take shots at the popular iPhone.
I hope he is being sarcastic. Because if he isn’t, that would be funny. When you are stuck in a line aren’t you just standing around wasting time? Instead, you could be answering emails about a project, ordering your wife’s Christmas present, researching that new car……… No offense, but I think he could be doing a lot of things that wouldn’t be wasting time.
This Dvorak is an idiot…ultimate predominated hit-whore of all time…
There are two kinds of people in this iPhone scenario.
Those that screw around wasting time and resources playing with their phones and those who screw around wasting time and resources writing about people screwing around on their phones.
Both kinds of people are boring as hell.
I don’t waste time chatting on my iPhone; I didn’t even realize it made phone calls until I read this…
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A woman in my neighborhood was talking on her cell phone while she was backing out of her driveway. What’s worse, she shared the driveway with three other houses with small children. What’s even worse than that is that she was driving one of those Mack trucks converted for passengers that people call “cars” these days.
And unbelievably, it gets even worse. She is also among those who wanted speed bumps in the neighborhood for the “safety of the children.”
She’s one of those people who cannot breathe without talking on a cell phone. So Dvorak not only has a keyboard layout, he does have a point. Just one.
Dvorak’s other nom de plume is Ken Rockwell.
That’s right I read this whole on a line
Dvorak…Better than a hack journalist wasting time writing a whiny article. Grow up.
You know Dvorak is right… I wasted my time the other day in a meeting negotiating a contract with a client based upon population demographics of different countries (distribution agreement based on population) by looking up the populations of several countries on my iPhone… Closed the deal… Making heaps of $$… What a waste of time that was!
But, of course, I am not in the USA, where his disparaging remarks were directed. As you can surmise, the fskwad is not aware that the iPhone is in use outside of the USA and is the prime cause of the Global Recession and Global Warming (oops, since we are now experiencing cooling trend, it is being touted as Climate Change) <- which happens four times a year. Hmmm
Sorry for the side comment. Just can’t believe people are wiling to give up their sovereign rights for a bunch of gasbags in Copenhagen Købehavn (Read the agreement)
Cheers!
“With the economy in the tank, this is probably as good a use of idle time as anything. But let’s face it, this whole phone thing is about wasting time… Cell phones are ruining the country. The economy has tanked in proportion to the growing popularity of the iPhone. This is no coincidence, as far as I’m concerned.”
I can’t believe he said this. What a jerk.
I don’t have an iPhone. I waste my time reading all of these damn articles about them on MDN.
Dvorak is a mook. We all need to stop acting like the writing whore is relevant.
Quoting Dvorak: “The economy has tanked in proportion to the growing popularity of the iPhone. This is no coincidence, as far as I’m concerned.”
Well… the economy has grown worse as the gas bag has further gained weight. There might well be a cause-effect relationship there too.
John C. Dvorak: “The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse.’ There is no evidence that people want to use these things.”
Hit whores.
I don’t understand why teens and other youngins text on their cell phones like there is no tomorrow. Voice calls? No way. Video chat? hardly. Email? Are you kidding? They would rather thumb their way through a cryptic green screen equivalent ascii text string. Texting seems old school to me, I don’t know why it is so popular except in situations where you have to remain silent.
The young ones I know would rather text above all else. 10,000 texts per month? Why in God’s name would they do that? What is the attraction? I personally loathe those tiny little keyboards.
Just look at the kids in the mall next time. 90% of the time their heads will be hung instead of looking straight ahead. They are texting someone for no damn good reason for the millionth time that month. Obviously I don’t get it.
“every time I overhear a phone conversation, the chit-chat is almost always inane, useless, unnecessary.”
Just like John’s writing.
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I agree with Dvorak. Sure the iPhone is portable Jesus. Only now everyone from Google and soon Dell are pushing their false gods onto unwashed masses where Jesus can’t get decent AT&T;coverage. Seriously, how much more bloated can the cellular market get?
Dvorak is also correct when he mentions the tech news sector’s obsession with phones. Aside from Apple, it’s gone from what? The Bold, the Storm, Android, the Pre, the Droid, and all the mish-mash of HTC/Nokia/Sony/Motorola devices. There used to be a clear separation of what a standard cell phone and “smart phone”, but it’s all condensing into a grey area. The sheer reporting and tech talk around cell phones is downright dull and uninteresting because they all do mostly the same thing since, well, the iPhone. The only real difference is, Apple has succeeded in obtaining Microsoft-like dominance in the mobile application space just as Windows dominates the PC desktop.
Yes, I can get driving directions on my phone. Yes, my phone can tell me the weather. Yes, my phone knows where I can find a cup of coffee. Yes, it still makes calls too. Yes, it will cure canc… er, well… maybe not. (But perhaps the Jesus phone can!)
I hope Apple is planning something big. Combine what it already has and knows with its hardware, Mac OS X, iTunes and the App Store, location services, wireless devices, multitouch and add to that the typical living room. AppleTV was the first step in that direction, but as MDN reiterates: Apple needs to be more serious about it. Despite their best efforts Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are duking it out in the home console media space, but to be honest, the TV and living room are in desperate need of being touched by Apple’s grace. It’s very much a wild west frontier left largely unchanged in years since the introduction of the DVD disc player. Still with plenty of room for innovation and perhaps even “productivity” as Dvorak puts it. The personal computer maybe yesterday’s hot tech news, but there are still plenty of undiscovered frontiers which could benefit from its influence, not just more cell phones.
I, too, am surprised I agree to a point. About cell phones in general.
Why the hell does somebody sit in the can talking on their phone, in a public restroom? Is there no space in these people’s lives? It’s bad enough I have to listen to the idiot if I’m stuck in the stall next to him- and I don’t mean just talking. But to entertain the person on the other end this way (no pun intended)?…
People are shallow and lack imagination these days because there’s no time to think.
Stop. Posting. About. Dvorak.
Those comments by Dvorak is simply unresearched and misinformed. What about young adults below the age of 21, who simply don’t have much important things to yak about? Those below 18 who obviously use their phones just to get in touch with their friends? Of course Dvorak would consider them as pointless conversation.
He should do more research on what working professionals and those above 21 do with their iPhones. I would believe working professionals who own iPhones and Macs are more productive than those who struggle with other branded “smart”phones, and of course, waste time trying to solve problems on their PC-laptops rather than doing meaningful work on their Macs.
http://no-spamming/
Wasting time is the common activity of mankind since far before ANY sort of phone or whatsowever.
dvorak? what an idiot? not! hit Whore! that’s what that article is about hit whoring! he never means anything he says. he’s just living up to the “cranky twit” moniker put on him by leo laporte.
don’t get riled up by him. it’s all an act!
by the way john, may be you should come to my work and see us use the iphone for serious work. ever seen scientists look up dna structures on the fly or enter codon sequencing for dna molecules on the fly in search engines designed for the iphone?
no, you ignorant git, your only goal is to eavesdrop and make money by being a hit whore! No difference between you and the shady chicks and dudes outside my dorm. you hit whore!