Can you live without your mobile phone?

Being in my mid to late thirties, I can remember life before mobile phones. So it never fails to amuse me when I hear from people, who are of a similar age to me, who have to be parted from their phones for a few days. It amuses me, not because I enjoy seeing people upset, but it invokes in me the thought of how we used to cope before mobile came into being.

I change my phone regularly; I find that having a good understanding of the varied mobile operating systems around helps when I try out a new device. For years I’ve been a fan of the S60 OS, these days I find that Android is my favourite. I also use an iPhone regularly, and occasionally BlackBerry devices too, plus the ‘standard’ phone operating systems like Nokia S40 and the general Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG offerings. By far the operating system I dislike the most is Windows Mobile, although to be fair HTC have done good work in laying a decent UI on a pretty naff OS.

Right now I’m using a Nokia N86, a handset that before it came out I was sure I would enjoy using, but first time round I didn’t have the best experience, and within a few days the handset was sold, and I was on to the next model. One of the issues was the phone turning itself off, something I thought was caused by a bug in the dodgy S60 software on the device however I now think there may have been a battery issue. Anyway, the N86 I’m using right now is behaving much better, although the same dreary S60 UI is still a bit of a drag. The new UI S60 is supposed to be delivering isn’t due for another 12 months or so, either!

Anyway, it was after a conversation with a chap the other day that set me thinking about the way we use our phones these days. I was arranging to get his phone repaired, and he was distraught at the thought of not being able to use his device. It would only take about four days to get his phone sent off, repaired and sent back, which is quite quick, yet he lamented that he ‘couldn’t live without his phone', how he ‘wouldn’t be able to survive’. Strong sentiments, yet he was serious, the thought of losing his device, if only for a few days, caused him great distress.

All of this set me thinking, about how integrated mobile phones are in our lives, and how much we really are dependant on them. And this led me to ponder on how much I use my phone in a typical day. Now, before we get into that, just a quick point – one of the main issues this chap with the broken phone had was losing all his content (basically the phone wouldn’t turn on, and he had never done a backup of his names and numbers, not even to his sim….) This is something we have mentioned before, and I’m not ashamed to still be banging the same old drum. Back up your phone. Seriously, if you have names and numbers you can’t afford to lose, and pictures that are of sentimental value, and messages you want to keep, then back them up! Keeping all that content in one place is just asking for trouble.

Different handsets offer different ways of keeping your content safe, either storing it online or to your PC. Back up, at least once a month. Changing handsets regularly as I do, I keep all pictures and music on my PC, and just copy the folders across to my new phone. Names and numbers I have stored with Google, which synchronises with most phones I use (some handsets easier than others, admittedly) but the 20 or so important numbers are on my SIM. Back up your content, or lose it.

Anyway, my day with my mobile phone:

I don’t use a watch anymore, nor do I have an electronic alarm clock. My phone takes care of both of those for me, and the alarm is one feature I use every day. One thing I like about the N86 is I can set the snooze time on my phone, very handy. Another nifty feature on the phone is timed profiles. After setting my phone to the night profile, it will automatically switch back to the profile that was active before at the time I set it to. Otherwise, one thing that I commonly forget to do is to turn my phone back to the general profile, which usually means missed calls and texts.

Once up and ready, I’ll check my email, and reply to what is necessary, and then check in to my Twitter account and Facebook. After leaving home, the first port of call on a typical day is Church, and related to my forgetfulness of selecting the right profile for my phone is the dread of forgetting to activate the silent profile on my phone when in Church. Thankfully, the N86 provides a solution, albeit via third party app, which ties in with the calendar on my phone, another feature that I use regularly, which means no need for a standard diary. The calendar on my phone rules my life; otherwise I’d forget where I need to be, what time, and what day! By using an application called Best Profiles, I can set the phone to automatically switch to silent every day when Mass is on, if I set the Mass schedule in the calendar. And that is easily done as once I have set Mass for a day it is then set to repeat weekly. Best Profiles can also be set to switch to a certain calling profile based on your location, too, and is a handy application to have. It is one of the applications that I install without fail when using a S60 handset.

I still use a phone for its main purpose, making and receiving calls, and here there is another app that comes in very handy, Advanced Call Manager. This allows me to set up blacklists of numbers I don’t want to take calls from, or whitelists of always acceptable numbers, or just block numbers on a random basis. For example, if a withheld or private number calls, Advanced Call Manager dumps these calls straight to voicemail. Generally these types of calls are not important, and I can respond at my leisure once I’ve heard the voice message.

And that is generally what I use on a daily basis on my phone, email, calendar, calls, text, and checking Facebook and Twitter on the move. And whilst most devices these days connect well enough to Twitter, Facebook and Email, and generally have some kind of PIM system, I always miss auto changing profiles, call management, and snooze control on handsets that don’t offer these options.

Aside from this there are the features which I do use regularly, but not daily. A phone with GPS and SatNav capabilities comes in handy from time to time, and if it’s not Nokia Maps then I always use Google Maps, which are both excellent applications. The camera is a great option and I like to snap pics and share them with friends via email. And then there is the music player, sometimes I listen to the radio, and occasionally I browse the web, too.

So in all, the humble ‘mobile phone’ offers so much it is easy to see why people feel so upset about being without access to a device, even if it is for just a few days. Personally, what I would miss the most is the alarm clock and calendar, but I don’t feel as attached to my handset as others seem to. There are moments, even whole days, when the most welcome feature on my mobile phone is the off button!

Let us know how much you depend on your mobile phone and how would you cope without it? in comments below.