I’ve been very stressed lately and have been doing some window shopping to calm down. I’m interested in gadgets, but a lot of things can just be replaced with apps. I realize a phone won’t replace very large appliances like refrigerators or washing machines so I’m trying to scope my question to portable devices. So what are some portable devices or gadgets that their specialization hasn’t been replaced by smart phone apps? Extra points if they’re super useful and reliable.

    • Matriks404@lemmy.world
      7·
      7 days ago

      Also somebody had a bright idea to disable the flashlight in Android after battery drops to low percentages. I was very angry one day, when I walked through forest, and I needed to do it in complete darkness.

    • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
      15·
      8 days ago

      Can confirm. In many situations, it is far more convenient to go get a flashlight worth $2 to $5 that can easily fit exactly where you need it to be rather than holding your main communication device in an awkward angle where it doesn’t quite do the job and also a wrong move could destroy your $200 to $1k device.

        • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          1·
          8 days ago

          I use my bike light if I need something fairly bright. Does make me wish I went for the most powerful light available though. Think mine is only like 700 lumems, but the price was climbing up at that point and it is still pretty good.

          A second one could be useful if I ever wanted a long night trip though because unfortunately it uses a build on lithium battery so would have to leave it charging in a bag from another battery pack when it’s flat rather than just sticking a fresh battery in and charging the empty one when I get home.

        • dnick@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          7 days ago

          Any recommendation as far as something that’s convenient to carry but still worthwhile? Most seem too bulky to justify their occasional use when the phone will do in a pinch.

          I know the rabbit hole is pretty deep and it seems like it would take someone with experience to recognize that niche between inconvenience of having another thing to carry/charge vs how often a phone is good enough or a larger/dedicated working is worth keeping where it’s needed.

    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      Depends though, you need to buy a pretty good one. My phone has a better than average phone torch, CatB40. It’s better than most cheap torches so you would need a decent torch to do better than the phone.