On Sat, Oct 03, 2020 at 10:57:19AM +0100, Phil Thane wrote:

On 03/10/2020 08:45, Chris Green wrote:

...

Do you*really* need any/all of those apps?

I don't actually have many, my personal take is that most ought never to have been developed when you could achieve much the same via the web. But companies like apps because they have more control and harvest more data so some things are hard or even impossible unless you cave in and get the app. And some odd, niche things really do need them. For example I have OSMand (satnav based on OSM). I have had, but lost when I upgraded, a canal/river satnav app with useful info for boaters. I'll reinstall when I go away next year (Covid willing). I have used a phone tracker app to upload details of my solo trips for friends and family to keep a track of where I am. As per previous mail there's online banking too.

A phone is too easily lost or stolen IMHO to be safe for personal banking.

Some of the other apps (Nextcloud for example) could be replaced by the desktop versions on Linux, but I'm not sure how they'd scale to fit the screen. And the functions are different, Nextcloud on the desktop is chiefly designed for syncing files. On a phone that'd be mad because the multi-GB server isn't going to sync with a phone. The phone app is mostly for syncing contacts, calendar, downloading files when needed rather than syncing everything.

But I don't have contacts or calendar on my phone so there's no point in syncing them. I so rarely have my phone with me or turned on that calendar in particular would be pointless. I have a calendar on my laptop which is on almost all the time, and with me.

          It also has an Instant Upload function so (given a data

connection) photos are uploaded to the server within seconds of taking them. Useful for an oaf who might at any time fall in the water!

As I said I don't use the camera on my phone, I have a much, much, much better camera in my pocket more often than the phone.