It’s easy to get caught up in what’s new in smartphones — novel applications of near field communication, their potential as detectors of environmental pollutants — but it’s also useful to occasionally look back on what they’ve granted us already. Indeed, a recent survey found that, at least in the UK, 4 in 10 smartphone users said their phone was “more important for accessing the Internet than any other device.”
If you spent enough time in the dark ages before they were ubiquitous, you’ve probably got a sense of the sheer number of physical objects which your phone replaced. But have you ever tried listing all of them? You might be surprised at just how long that list can grow. Here’s mine.
via technology review
July 23, 2012
