Am I the only one who doesn't care about them at all? It seems like 80% of news on tech sites are about them. I personally only care about desktop and, to a lesser extent, laptop hardware and software.

Smartphones are awesome. I'm searching for a decent notepad app for my android so I don't have to carry pen and paper with me while I'm about town.

They're just great for doing work while not strapped to a desk without hauling around a laptop.

Does anybody know some nice games for Windows Mobile 6.1? An old HTC smartphone stranded here some time ago.

So far, ScummVM is the only game-related thing installed and works well. A number of emulators run on this device, but are not usable due to the layout and nature of this model's buttons.

I have one of each, but I never really *really* wanted either.

Got my tablet (Motion Computing LE1600) because it was very cheap (second hand) and personally find it very useful.
Got my smartphone (Geeksphone Zero) because I found the company and they have an approach I really agree with :)

I was the same way until I got one. One of my coworkers from a couple years back explained it to me best, you don't really know until you own one. I got the device for basically checking email and making calls and the number of uses I have for the thing keeps expanding. From tracking buses and looking up things on the wikipedia, these days I can even stream netflix if I want to, although that would run through my 5gb of bandwidth pretty quickly.

I don't really care about much about the recent fad gadgets:p Cool band tho.

The thing is, a computer is nothing new, and when I want to use a computer I prefer to do it with a normal sized screen and normal input devices.

That reminds me of how I like to price check with it. Find something you didn't know was out or are considering an impulse buy of and you can just toss up Amazon or Best Buy's site to compare prices.

It's not uncommon for me to be at Best Buy wanting to buy a game, see it, decide I want it, but check Amazon just to be sure. Turns out to be a few bucks cheaper on Amazon, so I just order it from them with free shipping to save some cash.

I'm necro-ing this because I am thinking of getting a smartphone with AT&T. I don't really like the screen keyboards but can let it slide If I have to. Any recommendations?

Smartphones generally suck for playing games. It is very limited what you can do with only a touchscreen. It puts severe limitations on what type of control scheme you can employ. I've often wondered why smartphone manufacturers didn't turn out the occasional model with a few buttons suitable for gaming. The XPeria Play seems to fit the bill, but it was a long time coming. And as long as it's the only model with gaming buttons, not many games will be made that use them. I hope other manufacturers will follow suit.

I too have a WM6.1 HTC phone. ScummVM is also the only game (well, games, but you know what I mean) I ever play on it. I've installed this and that on it, but nothing else ever seemed to work properly. On the other hand, with MobiPocket, it's a fantastic ebook reader.

I wouldn't say touchscreens are that limiting, depending on the game. I don't own one myself, but I figure it'd be like controlling with just a mouse. The small screen space would be more limiting than the touch interface.

The RPG Avadon by Spiderweb Software came out for the iPad, and people seem to be happy to finally have an iPad game that's not about matching coloured blocks.

Well except with much lower precision, lack or a "real" right click and the fact that you have you hand/finger covering the screen.

Check out the Game Gripper. It's a dpad/button overlay to be put on top of the slide out keyboard of some smartphones. Obviously you have to have one of these specific phones, but I have it for my Samsung Epic and it works out fairly well.

http://www.game-gripper.com/

Me too. It's one thing to browse the CD racks and the like, but a whole different matter if you're taking hands-on time with the product and getting help from the sales people. I "overpaid" for my bluetooth headset at the Sprint store because they let me fiddle with it for about 20 minutes and answered a ton of questions. It's a love-hate WRT the onscreen keypads. I thought I wouldn't like it but it's not too bad in landscape mode. The thing that makes it work is the predictive text thingy where it figures out, with good accuracy, the correct word based on fumble-fingered misspelling. I can't recommend a specific model but will say that my HTC unit has been reliable, even with the dog's teethmarks on the screen, buttons, and back cover. Durable little phone!

I didn't think much of having a smartphone but it became a necessity a few years after becoming an independent contractor. At that point, it's much more important to be able to use email anytime, anywhere. And the ability to use the internet in a place (factory floor, for instance) where access isn't normally available, well, it's been very helpful for the times I've needed it. Beyond those uses, some occasional nav duties, and as a music player, I barely scratch the surface of what these things can really do. I could do invoicing, spreadsheets, credit card billing, and a bunch of other crap but I prefer having the extra security from doing those things on the laptop.

Right-clicks are overrated.

(You have a point about the other two things though)