And it was beautiful

I literally remember this. I was living in the US in circa 2000. I remember standing outside my apartment with a mobile phone, a GPS system, an iPod, and a digital camera, and thinking 'these should all be one thing'!

And here we are, 26 years later, and all of these things are deeply infected with unnecessary LLM bullshit. Progress!

And a time where 3rd party companies had no access to any of them

We were all very excited to do so.

Well, the headphones are still a separate thing. They are even more separate now, than they ever were (each one earphone is separate now)

I don't remember having to deal with USB-C earbuds before the iPhone.

I know this is a shitpost, but I honestly think that was better. In the past couple years I've bought an mp3 player, and dslr camera, and a pocket sized e-reader, and a retro gaming handheld, and it feels so much better swapping between them when I'm doing something than just staring at the little hell rectangle for 12 hours a day.

And some of us are returning to this simplicity and privacy

That's today if you're looking for quality for any of them.

It was better and the price of the slight convenience now is that the next generation, and your aunt and uncle, are openly cheering on nazis and pedophiles with no idea what's actually happening in the world.

Shut up and carry the cassette tape thin digital camera already.

And it was awesome.

That's me, today. Different brands and models, but pretty much the same items. If I have the space (inner coat pockets, for example), I also add a small notepad and pencil, and a calculator. I ain't gonna pay for a HP-12C calculator app, when I have the fully functional hardware.

Yes, please bring it back.

Young people today are increasingly choosing to have separate dedicated-purpose devices. And that's probably a good thing. It decreases distractions, lets you focus on what you're actually trying to do, and makes you less addicted to your phone, and avoids the always-connected evils that come with it

Don't you remember the joy of carrying around a dozen proprietary cables. Oh dads cable drawer was great.

Ah yes, Lightning headphones. Or USB-C, can't tell. Either way, none of the iPods accept these. Meanwhile late keypad phones all have headphone jacks...

EDIT: yup, USB-C. Also, the phone has a clock. And a camera, not a good one but a camera. It's a ~2008-2010s Samsung.

And that's was a good thing too.

I'm always surprised I these conversations that almost no one mentions always having a useful, generally charged, decent close range flashlight.

I'm old enough to ha e experienced that having a zippo was the most reliable way to see close range stuff. Flashlights were basically dead battery containers.

The time is now. Fuck relying on a tech giant for all my cloud storage and "convenience"

I feel like this is a shitpost because they’re all weird or anachronistic in some way

I don’t miss all the different cables but fuck, do I miss being able to listen to a song without having to silence a spam call in the middle of it

I literally have all of these things separate today.

Smartphone, mechanical watch, wallet, wireless headphones but also a Fiio portable audio player that can drive my good wired headphones.

These things all do their job very well. Combining them makes everything worse for me.

Exception maybe is camera, I have a good Fuji digital mirrorless but I do actually enjoy using the very good cameras in my phone as well.

I still do. And it's your choice to do. For example, I use my old LG ThinQ V40 for music, because it has audio jack, and I still buy CDs and I listen to them. I still use my 9 years old DSLR. Its your choice.

I still prefer this and carry almost all these kinds of separate use items, with the exception that I only carry a camera under certain circumstances. Otherwise, my phone doubles as a quick use camera.

I'm surprised American smartphones are not also firearms.