My not smart-but-not-so-dumb phone

Whenever I read the Personal Tech section of the New York Times I'm reminded why I call myself Muddling Marv.

Today, for instance, Sam Grobart has a wonderful article advising what gadgets to "lose," as he puts it, and what to keep. Guess what? I'm keeping all of mine.

In fairness, I may not be using all of them anymore but I'm not "losing" them for something I may never use at all. Sam suggests using "cloud" storage for files rather than a USB thumb drive. Hey, I finally figured out how to use the thumb drive and I don't particularly trust shooting my files into the air and having them land I know not where.

"Lose" my point and shoot camera in favor of a camera in my smartphone? No way, Sam. I like my point and shoot and I enjoy being able to download the pictures to my PC. And, by the way, I don't have a smartphone and not likely to get one soon. More on that below.

Did I mention PC? Well Sam says ditch it when it becomes out of date and get a laptop. That's been an ongoing debate in our house for some time but at the moment the PC is standing firm if not underfoot.

"Camcorder Lose it," he says. Well, I've got one so old it records on VHS cassettes if you can believe that. But we've learned that very few people want to watch someone else's videos no matter what format they're in. I'll keep the camcorder as a relic for the time being and skip the rest.

There are other items on Sam's list, such as digital music players, GSP units, alarm clocks (of all things) and books. Books? Oh, yes, beware the attack of the e-readers.

Sam says Many of the features on these devices are available on your smartphone. Like the smartphone is in everyone's pocket or soon will be. I find that a presumptuous assumption.

My cell phone takes and makes calls, text messages and even has a camera which I rarely use. Right now that's enough for me.

I may catch up to the modern world someday but right now I'm still muddling along.