I recently purchased the HTC One M8, my first 'smart' touchscreen phone, tried some games and without exception I removed them within 5 minutes because they are terrible.
I could say the same thing about most 'mobile' stuff, apps and mobile version of any site. Without exception, I use the full version of any site I visit on my phone.
Am I doing something wrong? I love my PC, I build my PC, love to know how it works but I just can't stand this 'mobile' crap-fest. Bought a 600$ phone that, simply put, does nothing for me but look good and being used as my previous 2009 Sony Ericsson W995: call people, text people and occasionally watch a YouTube video and visit a forum.
I guess this is mostly a rant. I'm good now, vented a bit...
Actually, I know! This mobile stuff isn't for me, there's nothing I can't wait for until I get home and do it on my PC, nothing.
That's what you're doing wrong, you love your PC. You love the full experience. Mobiles fucked up the PC industry for a long time.
You just bought a 600$ social status insta-level-up, a glorified phone with a touchscreen, nothing more. There's no real work or play on mobiles. At least consoles have their place, mobile gaming and apps are the scourge of programming. It's profitable because a lot of people buy them and devs see it as a market but the thing is people don't really enjoy even the 'best' games on mobile compared to the worst on a console like xbone. There's nothing you can do but sell it to someone who finds it useful and buy a real phone, you know the kind you actually need to call and send texts with, and one whose battery lasts for weeks.
I personally wouldn't want to live without a smartphone. For me it's a bunch of devices in one:
Well, a phone
A camera
MP3 player
Engineering calculator (and better than electronic ones, at that)
Book reader
GPS
Alarm clock and timer (I don't have and don't want to have dedicated devices for that)
+ minor conveniences like always having a dictionary, different kinds of notifications (email, youtube uploads, twitch streams), synced notes, synced schedule, always having access to the web and being able to kill time with simple games.
For me my smartphone is the second most important device after my PC.
Yeah TropiKo, I realised that before I was typing the text and the only reason I bought it is because my old W995 took a dive from the third floor and I had to get a new phone. As it happens this was just out and for 'bout 20-something $ a month added to my T-Mobile bill I said: why not! I would never pay 600 straight-up for any phone! Hell, I'll buy another GTX 780 for that money, just for the joy of installing it in my rig!
Hey GamingFTW! I started playing WatchDogs a few days ago and what you're suggesting sounds familiar enough! ;-) Too bad you can't do all that stuff in real life. Wait, wait, wait! Let me rephrase that: Good thing you can't do all that stuff in real life!
I guess I should think about starting this thread as a therapy session and it started with a, actually not 'a', but THE breakthrough. Haha
You see, I was doing a lot of that with my old phone. I guess it was somewhat 'smart', but of course, not to the extent of the new One.
I perfectly understand where you're coming from, as I still use some of those functions myself. But as a whole, it's just frustrating!(not as dramatic as it sounds, it's mostly an observation and willingness to understand what I already know) Like TropiKo said and I know, it's because I compare the 'mobile' experience to the PC experience.
I avoid doing on the phone what I usually do on my PC, unless there's no choice. For me my smartphone is kind of an information multi-tool that enhances both my offline and online lives, as opposed to being a device that I dedicate my full attention to (PC).
And well, at least for me, a smartphone is vastly more convenient than any feature phone could ever be.
I disagree, I use mine virtually every day for work purposes, and I know other people who do the same, its really good to instantly know when you have an email, or look something up without having to open a laptop or find a desktop.
Regarding the games, you are probably right, I couldnt find anything great. Main thing is the CPU for loading pages, screen size, DPI, battery life and whether or not it has expandable storage space.
I mean, large touch screen phones have their benefits. Im rocking a Galaxy S3 with a ZeroLemon battery. I use it for alot of surfing, including here, I use it for my fantasy baseball, I use it for email, I use it for facebook and watching most of the youtube videos I watch.... GPS....its endless....Don't be discouraged, you will find a use for it.
My PC is mainly for productivity, and for gaming.
EDIT: Oh--- Try doign some emulation on your phone--- playing GBA and DS games or PSP-- with the actual experience of NOT being tied to your computer.
I agree that mobile games are usually absolutely fucking horrible compared to PC games, but there are some decent games: XCOM, Color Zen, Eufloria, Horn, Assassin's Creed Pirates, Walking Dead Assault. You can also download some emulators, but touch-screen controls mimicking real ones feels very awkward.
As far as apps and making your phone close to a PC experience, well PC will obviously be king but there are some great and useful apps out there:
Music: PlayerPro or PowerAmp - both apps have pretty much all or at least most of the features of your popular music programs on PC
Video: MX Video PLayer - basically the VLC of Android - plays any and all video formats. There are also Netflix and Hulu apps which sometime work even better than their PC sites.
File management: Solid Explorer - about as close to a proper file manager as you can get. Pales in comparison to your regular windows explorer, but it works, slowly and very unintuitively (compared to W.E), but still works.
But there are many other useful apps and features which work better on a phone than on a PC: there are a few remote control apps out there (I use WatchOn); graphic and scientific calculators; news and social media apps, maps, clock and watch functionality, customization (customizing Windows is a complete and utter pain in the ass).
As Dissentient said, it's a universal information (and multimedia) multi-tool. It won't replace your PC but it's a definitely better than a feature phone.
For me the phone is really only used for things when I don't have access to a computer. Of course I use it for a lot of things that are really only done on the phone (phone calls, texts, gps). All games at least the popular ones are cow clickers and are made with making money rather than providing a good game and making money from a good game (besides touch screen for most types of games is bad).
The only way I could see making it somewhat tolerable is hooking up a controller through usb and getting an emulator and playing console games that way (on your phone); because most nes and snes games are still really fun and way better than strictly mobile games. But yeah I'm with you on wanting to use the comp over phone for pretty much every task its faster and less of a headache.
I don't understand why people buy the super-expensive smartphones instead of the Nexus phones which cost less than half as much (depending on the model), run pure android (no BS bloatware to slow your phone down), get the latest OS updates first, and have really good specs (latest ARM quad-cores, sufficient storage etc.). My friend has a Galaxy S4 and it does nothing better nor offers anything compelling over my Nexus 4 for the couple hundred dollars extra it cost. I just don't get it.
That being said, I agree, many mobile sites and apps are crap and I usually don't use them. Some are ok and work well, but others are just horrible.
If you don't do that much with a phone, you're better served with a cheaper model.
I really prefer doing everything on the PC, and I only use my phone when I don't have access to my PC. Phones are actually very convenient when you can't use a laptop. I often read messages on my phone, and reply them later on my laptop if they don't need an immediate answer. But I agree that a lot of mobile apps and sites are just terrible. There's definetely a lot to improve.
well... the mobile experience is compromised because it is designed to do everything and be everything to all people. only apple have come close to producing a mainstream device, but that is because of help of telecom payment plans and an existing ecosystem of OSX pc's/itunes.
yeah, samsung are big enough to try the mainstream solution, but it is inferior to apple as a mainstream device (i say this as a samsung owner). everyone else is failing to some degree or another. not secure enough for business, too fiddly for consumers, but cheap and accessible.
I hope the other manufacturers will finally start to specialise and give us phones where the hardware and the software is fit for a type of purpose, use profile or niche. blackberry was on to something with their focus on office professionals (secure, typing focused, reliable). then they went mainstream, overextended themselves and were crushed.
until then, you just have to choose something that is close to what you need and then tinker/tailor it to suit you.
you wouldn't use your 3 monitor gaming rig to take notes while travelling on business and you wouldn't use your work notebook to play watchdogs... horses for courses, no?
I used to play a lot of games on mobile. Tilt to live, cut the rope, flappy bird, angry birds, tiny wings are just a few. They're usually just 'filler' games for me when I have nothing better to do.
I recently got a HTC One M8 as well[one week ago!](had an iPod touch 4 & 5 before), and it has the same function as what my iPod Touches used to do, but with calling and texting(never carried around my old featurephone).
I use my One m8 for calling, texting, social networking/messaging, e-mail, web browsing, and video watching. I play games on it about once a month or so. If I want to play games, my desktop is the place to play them.
Mobile gaming absolutely sucks, in my opinion. Iv never been one for mobile gaming. Iv never even been a huge fan of regular portable-console gaming, i.e the Sony psp, Nintendo ds, etc.
If im in a public place without my computer and am bored as sh*t, i might download the occasional $2 app/game on my iphone, but usually after 10-15 minutes of playing it, i say to myself "screw this crap" and just delete the game anyway because its just truly not a good experience.
I see people everyday non-stop on their phones playing crappy games like candy-crush, minecraft pocket edition etc and i ask myself "Just how on earth can the stand playing that crap?" The number one question im always asked by people is "dude! Why you have no games on your phone?!?" and i give them the straight up answer of "gaming on mobile phones sucks".
The only apps i ever usually have on my phone are little things like youtube, snapchat, tapatalk, google+ etc (dont flame me for actually liking google+ please) and the Basic emulator which is a great little app to piss around with.
My phone is jam packed full of music anyway so its not like i want to waste valuable memory on games im never gonna play.
if you are in a public space and are bored... look around you, soak up the atmosphere, enjoy having nothing to do, or, gasp... actually talk to another human being.