I think I understand where this guy is coming from. But I also sorta understand his definition of the word "useful".
Yes looking up reviews, finding directions, connecting with people are all cool, time-saving things... but in and of themselves they are not useful. You're not creating anything or enjoying anything. You're just doing small chores in order to get about your daily life.
So I guess a smartphone is useful in that they sort of speed up your existence and make your routine more manageable.. but they are not made for creating or even meaningfully consuming content.
The things you list as average things done with a smartphone are the average things people do with regular computers, the so-called content creation devices in this discussion.
The vast majority of people are not content creators, and just because a device is good at creating content doesn't automatically imply that it's good at consuming content.
I also am curious as to what your threshold for useful is. I'm being able to perform tech support on the go via the phone functions and various remote desktop apps, does that count as useful? I can solve problems with my home network on the bus on the way home instead of wasting that time staring out the window and then wasting more time solving the problems once I return. That's useful to me.
I feel like many of the people here complaining about the novelty of smartphones use them in a very superficial way and rarely harness any real potential. Surprising considering that it's HN, but it really does seem that way.
Yes looking up reviews, finding directions, connecting with people are all cool, time-saving things... but in and of themselves they are not useful. You're not creating anything or enjoying anything. You're just doing small chores in order to get about your daily life.
So I guess a smartphone is useful in that they sort of speed up your existence and make your routine more manageable.. but they are not made for creating or even meaningfully consuming content.