I can't vape weed with my phone yet.
Not with that attitude
Electric Toothbrush. Keeping up with Dental Hygiene is important too!
Cameras. You can take pictures with your phone, but despite Apple's advertisements, a phone camera will never produce anywhere near the same quality a dedicated digital camera with interchangeable lenses. And neither are as good as film.
Neither are as good as film?
That's subjective. Subjective to the application and the viewer.
They haven’t completely replaced them. But for 99% of people they’ve replaced them for 99% of their photography needs.
On a similar note, action cameras, which can be even more portable than a smartphone.
Radiation detectors. Such as the Radiacode or the Open Gamma Detector.
Binoculars are quite portable, very useful, and phones don't do a good job at zooming in like that.
Smart watches integrate with phones but the phones by themselves are not so good at measuring the heart rate and other parameters directly.
Mini projectors. UV flashlights. Tools in general... There is so much actually. What type of gadgets are you looking for?
Can phones "detect" really high radiation on the camera if it's high enough or is that film only?
Hi-fi audio recorders with builtin microphones. As a bass player, I deeply resent phone mics and speakers.
I was just thinking this morning that it's kinda odd that there's no cell phone that also doubles as a multi-meter for measuring electronic current. I guess it's because in theory you'd need to also carry around a set of probes with you?
Flashlights. Again, in an emergency, you can use your phone. But it's not as good as a real flashlight, and I always carry and use a flashlight.
Handheld Radios, some are those "Walkie-Talkies" (I hate that term btw), others are VHF/UHF Ham Radios, or GMRS/FRS, MURS, or Meshtastic (I don't even know how those meshtastic things work). AFIAK, phones cannot fit those antennas in such a thin build, so they won't be replaced for a long time, possibly forever. I mean, there is no way to cram such antenna in there. There might be some phones that are also handheld radios, but those are probably so niche, that I've never heard of any such thing.
Very useful in like a natural disaster and the cell towers are down. (Or just something like war where the commucation infrastructure is just shut down by the destruction).
Idk about other countries, but in the USA, those walmart/target walkie talkies do not need any license, because they are just FRS radios that use FRS frequencies. AFIAK MURS and Meshtastic also is license free. Ham and GMRS will probably require licenses in many jurisdictions. Some GMRS and FRS frequencies overlap, but GMRS can (legally) use more power, and can swap antennas, which FRS radios cannot (not legally).
Baofeng radios are cheap and its only like $50 or so for a pack of two. They are supposed to be either Ham or GMRS versions, but apparantly I have those "Ham Radios" that can do both which is gonna make the FCC sad 👀
If you have a repeater in your area that your signal can reach, you can talk a long distance throughout your neighborhood.
Both Ham and GMRS require a license in the USA, but GMRS license does not require a test, which Ham license do. GMRS license is literally just a payment for a paper.
Even if you use a radio without a license, most of the time, nothing will happen. The FCC (at least, before 2025) wont care if you talk to your friends using radio without a license. And FCC rules don't apply during an emergency.
(I mostly learned these things via looking around the internet in the past few months because I was interested in the topic of "off grid" communications. I don't have any licenses yet 😅)
CB radios are still widely used by truck drivers. Listening to the CB on long trips can sometimes be very entertaining.
Video games. At least for me. Mobile games suck.
If you haven't experimented with roms and emulators yet, many old school games play great on a smartphone. The biggest downside is the touchscreen controls overlay will never compare to an actual controller, but it's close enough that it's... well, close enough.
Nintendo's entire library from their inception as a company through all of their N64 content is a grand total of like 20gb, the vast majority of which being N64. Roms from previous console/handheld games are tiny.
No idea what the current best emulators are; for the games, drop into places like thepiratebay and search for things like "SNES Romset" for the entire library.
Use a VPN. Yar.
Laptops! I have a gaming desktop computer and also a gaming laptop that I use if I'm going to be somewhere other than my house for more than a day. Mobile games pail in comparison to what can be played on a decent gaming laptop. I wouldn't even think about trying to run even a rudimentary 3D game on my 3~ish year old smartphone which has 3-5 seconds of input lag for everything LMAO
Honestly most of the non digital functions of a phone are still inferior to it's dedicated counterparts, but I would argue that a phone is good enough for 99% of people.
So get a pocket multitool thingy, I always carry one in my bag and it has helped me quite a few time in my life.
Knife/multitool. There is a plethora of options. I enjoy the classic swiss army knife. Scissors, pincet, knife, saw, bottle opener, pliers... You can get it all in one small package.
Headphones/earphones can't be an app.
Cup/bottle/thermos/liquid container. Drink more water, enjoy hot coffee.
A skill. Spend time getting good at some random non virtual things, penspinning, coin tricks, cardistry, calligraphy...
Vibrator
Nokia 3310 would disagree,
We had Dildroid like 16 minutes after the initial Android release.... 😂🤷
Pagers for Hospitals.
To be clear: Hospitals use pagers because they use a longer (and much lower bandwidth) wavelength, which is affected less by things like thick fire-resistant walls. Hospitals are built like bunkers so that things like fires don’t require the entire building to be evacuated. Pagers can still reliably get signal even in the basement of a hospital, when behind multiple fire-resistant walls and solid concrete floors. Texting has effectively replaced pagers for 99% of the population. But hospitals still use them because reliability is prioritized in the medical world; No hospital wants to lose a patient because a doctor was in the basement and didn’t get a text.
Vicegrips. Wirestrippers. A light screwdriver with common bits carried on its handle like a Sidewinder. Rake lockpick. SDR. Elevator key. Punch. File. Multimeter. Multitool with good pliers. Crank radio. Survival guide. Poncho. Silver exposure blanket. Fire starters. Multihammer thing. MREs. Good flashlight. Beater laptop like an old x200. Serial console adapter. Flares. Camping stove. Throw it all in a bugout bag after you learn how to use them.
- A pocket notebook and a ballpoint pen, for quick note taking. Edit: add to that a pocket watercolor set and a brush, for quick sketching
- A pocket book, for on the go reading
- My (mechanical) wrist watch
I don't care if the smartphone can be used to take notes, to read and has an extra precise clock. I much prefer my analog tools. They don't require upgrade, they don't need recharging, no one will ever try to stole them (my watch is not fancy at all, it's just mechanical ;) and, well, I prefer using those.
Books.
The kindle app might be convenient but it's shit compared to an actual book.
Books are my fondest indulgence as I age. I'm an absolute Aztec history dork and a screen doesn't do any Mesoamerican codex justice.
I buy more odd art books than I should.
My hands.
Pocket knife. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there's a phone case out there with a box-knife-like insert for a razor blade.
...infact, brb.
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