Finally adding a flipphone to my EDC. Ordered it yesterday, and waiting for it to come in the mail. Currently I have an iPhone 8, and I’m not spending the money on the latest and greatest iphone, but my charging port doesn’t work, and I have to wirelessly charge, and I have to use my phone for any period time, it’s likely dead within 2 hours.
If I charge it when I’m at work till I get off, I usually have a full battery until I go home sleep and get up, sometimes it’s at 60%, other times I wake up and it’s dead, and with wireless charging, it takes 4 hours to charge.
I often thought, what if I had to defend myself and my phone was dead? One time my car battery died in the winter, and I called my mom, and she told me to call a tow truck but while on the phone with her, my phone died, so she had to call a tow truck for me, this was back when I was 19.
So for an extra $15 a month, I’ll have a flip phone on me, and only give that number to certain people, and it’ll be my designated emergency phone.
That’s not a bad idea. Though for me I already have my pockets full of other stuff so won’t be carrying an extra phone.
I do have an old cell phone in our safe area as backup to the landline which usually works even when the power is out and cell towers are down. Hopefully one of those will work to call 911. You don’t need to pay for monthly service to call 911 on most cell phones.
I also always make sure to keep my phone charged during the day and have a backup battery in my get home bag. For out vehicles I have one of those small jump starter batteries which can also be used to charge the phone.
I’m an old telecom guy and constantly amazed at how telecommunication technologies have changed everything.
I resisted getting a smart phone and kept my flip phone until a couple years ago, and now, it’s almost an appendage to my body. I use my phone to monitor my security cams (Eufy), turn lights on and off, remotely turn on/off a space heater in the ceiling near pipes that freeze when it gets colder than -9, tap to pay at stores without having to dig a credit card or cash out of my wallet, provide me with maps and voice directions when traveling, finding restaurants/stores, translating when traveling abroad, listening to books and podcasts, and watching videos, not to mention taking pictures & videos, e-mails, texts, and just plain 'ole voice calls.
I recently dumped my rusty nail landline and installed wireless Starlink internet and a Verizon wireless booster which is a mini-cell tower in my house. The charge on my plain Samsung S21 and Samsung foldable phones always lasts more than a couple days.
The capacity to make a video recording of a sketchy situation as it happens may be one of the more important real-world security reasons to have and carry a smart phone. How many things have happened in our world that were captured on smart phone videos?
If my smart phone broke or stopped working, I’d buy a new one in a minute.
I cannot do my job without a smart phone and had to go right out and buy a new one when the battery on my several generation old one stopped reliably holding a charge and the local repair place didn’t have a new battery in stock for it.
I keep my recent gen smartphone charged. It’s USB-C which is ubiquitous so I’m basically never somewhere that charging is difficult. Magsafe wireless, qi wireless, USB-C, home, car, office, whatever.
if I’m traveling or walking around at like a zoo or outdoors or something whatever, I start with it charged, and I bring a power bank
I treat it like the fuel tank in my vehicle…it’s pretty much never below 50%. If it is, it’s not below 25% ever, if it were, I’d put super power saver on so it would be available for calls still by not draining much more.
I wouldn’t mind having an extra smartphone or smartphone looker, kind of like an extra wallet, as a throwaway
Masad Ayoob advocates for carrying two phones so you have a backup.
I have an iPhone. For whatever reason the battery doesn’t last me all day anymore. I carry an external battery and charging cables with me all the time.
When my kids got phones, I set them up with a little pouch. My son got a Maxpedition pouch and my daughter got something more feminine. In that bag is an external battery, charging cable, wall charger, and car adapter. They also carry headphones or earbuds all the time. My rule is if you leave the house your phone goes with you. Where your phone goes, your accessory pouch goes with you. I don’t make them carry that pouch into a store or places like that. But if we are out for the day away from the vehicle for any length of time, I have a bag with me with that stuff in it. My son carries a bag as well. So we have at least four ways to charge a phone (times two) for four people. I usually carry more than one charging cable.
My son is back into sports this season. He carries that pouch to away games. We use the Life 360 app to track locations. So I get alerts when the kids arrive and leave school, home, etc.
One option I might consider is that you can now get smart watches with cellular connectivity that you can call and text from. I’m not a watch person but they do have the advantage of being lightweight and taking up no pocket space.
Some of them can monitor heart health which is something that does appeal to me. Though they are also another source of EMF radiation directly touching your body which is not good for your health.
That is a good point. I actually forgot, I have cellular on my watch. It doesn’t work right at the moment, but 911 emergency call should still work even though I’m having problems with Verizon not being complete trash and getting it to work for normal stuff when outside of my phone’s bluetooth
A watch with cellular is a fantastic backup to a phone
I got a watch for this very reason after an ER visit with a potentially deadly incident. (The chest pain carried over but was not cardiac.) I did not get the cell enabled version, but it works without my phone if I’m in wifi where my phone has connected before (work, home, etc.).
I agree that’ a smart watch with cell service could be a good backup.
@Nathan57 we should swap Verizon wireless stories sometime…I feel your pain.
OMG don’t even get me started. The number of hours we have spent in their store, on the phone, and in chat, for things to still be broken. Also the esim on a phone they bricked, and then fedex delivering a replacement phone for it signature required and we literally refused it at the door (because verizon couldn’t unsend it 3 minutes after they said they were going to ship it…) and despite refusing it at the door on camera and having refusal written on the signature delivered package, fedex dropped it off and left it the next day…
Yeah my watch cellular still doesn’t work but the other devices currently work. Like 15 hours later of phone/chat in the last two months for this crap
I used to have the Apple Watch, I used to have the latest greatest but as I get older I realized most of this stuff is just gimmicks.
Notification goes off on my watch, I got to reach in and grab my phone, the watch was always dependent on the phone. The watch also dies after about 3 days, and it runs my phones battery down.
I also started to think about situational awareness. I usually kept the phone in my pocket in a grocery store, but now I have this watch buzzing me with notifications.
Your phone calls on the watch are on speaker phone.
I just went with Armitron and got a sport watch. I can set alarms, timers, stop watch without it dieing. I’m sure it’ll out last my 1st Apple Watch I had, because the first one I somehow ripped the screen completely off.
I am considering the watch for myself to monitor my defective though supposedly fixed ticker. My cardiac surgeon says I don’t need one but my regular doc said I was perfectly healthy before my heart stopped so not completely trusting docs anymore. Though since I have no history of heart issues in my family I wonder what if any environmental factors may have contributed to my issue.
I’m liking the idea of a cellular watch for my son so we can keep in touch without him having access to all the social media distractions a phone would provide. Though again worry about what all these signals going through the air are doing to our bodies.
I’ve had good luck with Verizon aside from their incredibly high monthly rates. But they are the only provider that works in most of the places I live and work.
I was going to switch to Verizon. Started the order, they weren’t transparent about pricing. So I cancelled the order. I never activated service. They billed me anyway. I spent several hours on the phone with them trying to get it resolved. They ended up sending me to a collection agency. So I called the collection agency, demanded substantiation of why I was billed and explained the situation. Finally the bill went away. Never again, Verizon.
Also check out the Bark phone. It’s meant to keep kids safe online and is a new thing. Has lots of controls so you can turn all the other junk off.
Of course, you can use the screentime settings on iPhone to lock him out of all those apps if you want.
I know the newer Apple Watch will do an ekg. Mine is too old. I also bought a Kardia mobile device which connects to your phone and does an ekg.
Our kids don’t do social media. This forum is the only social media I use.
Your idea of a smart watch for him has wheels. My kids’ school doesn’t allow kids to have phones in class. They technically aren’t allowed to have smart watched either. But it’s not so easy to police that. You can get cases/bands that make it look more like a regular watch.
I don’t know what to tell you about the harmfulness of the signals in the devices, but I hear your concerns.
Our kids both have cellular smart watches. As of elementary school. Can call or text us or our parents or each other, and one friend, that’s it. Find My tracking full time.
Well neither the first doc nor my heart gave me any warning that it was going to take a 25 minute unscheduled vacation so I’m not sure I will ever completely trust either of them again. The cardiac surgeon did beat the billion to one odds against me to pull me back to life so I do hope he is right when he says I am cured🤞
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