9 Gadgets That Smartphones Made Obsolete

Cisco recently announced that it would retire its popular line of Flip video cameras.

Some attribute the Flip's demise to the rise of smartphones' all-in-one gadget functions and HD cameras and video cameras.

Take a look through the slideshow (below) to see some other gadgets that cellphones have rendered obsolete. Do you agree or disagree with the items on this list? Cast your votes, and tell us in the comments if you still use any of these gadgets, as well as if you think there are other devices smartphones are putting out of business.

Then, view our slideshow of 20 things that became obsolete this decade.

 

What other gadgets have cellphones made obsolete? Submit suggestions by clicking "Add a Slide."

Find a picture, click the participate button, add a title and upload your picture

1 of 9

Voice Recorders

1 of 10

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Forget cassettes, batteries, tangled microphone cords, garbled sounds, and noisy moving parts. Built-in microphones and extra storage space makes it a breeze to record sound with smartphones and without need for an extra gadget.

7 Ways You Might Be Oversharing On Facebook

19 Wildly Specific Subreddits

The 8 Most Positive Blogs On Tumblr

8 Forgotten Technology Founders

Netflix Tips And Tricks

The Lost iProducts: Apple's Prototypes

Forget cassettes, batteries, tangled microphone cords, garbled sounds, and noisy moving parts. Built-in microphones and extra storage space makes it a breeze to record sound with smartphones and without need for an extra gadget.

comments(465)

featured comment

Reply | Share

timbohp said on 13 Wednesday 2011 am30 10:51 am: Still like my watches-love my phone, but believe it or not, its not with me every moment of the day. When it is, I don't always answer it when it rings. Imagine, I'm actually in control of my phone, not the other way around! :)

Total comments: 465 | Post a Comment

1 of 10

This Gadget

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

I still use that! Obsolete

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Gadgets

loading...

Gadgets

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[mpen]

10:46 AM on 04/26/2011

also:
Video Cameras: OK, so long as you don't mind often disappointing shutter speeds (wierd effects on movement result) and lack of optical zoom. The compact size, much greater potential capacity and ability to instantly send (or even broadcast live, with the right app) can definitely make up for it.

Point & Shoot cameras: No argument. But still not a patch on a proper midrange digicam yet - if only because of tiny CCDs, fixed-zoom lenses, and inability to attach to a standard tripod screw.

Wristwatches: Can you take your phone swimming, turned on into an important meeting, or 101 other places that a simpler armband timepiece can go (particularly if you get a waterproof one, of course) with impunity? Case, rested.

Torches: Point is moot until someone can tell me whether or not there is a phone - or at least an app - that can replicate the functionality BUILT IN to my old Sony K750... IE, it can turn the camera "flash" LEDs on and off at will to provide PROPER torchlight. Even an all-white smartphone panel doesn't really compare to that. And even so, it was a few shades off being a properly high power torch, and no replacement at all for a portable lantern type.

[mpen]

10:40 AM on 04/26/2011

Voice recorder: OK... but not higher end recorders, yet. The microphones are just too poor. Plus having a decent quality, easy to use onboard recorder is a fairly recent phenomenon. They've either been rubbish to listen to or hard to use, so far. Hence standalone DIGITAL voice recorders are still widely on sale.

Alarm clock: Partly. I use my phone in conjunction with my normal alarm clock. The traditional one is louder, has a radio that doesn't need headphones, and is a lot easier to manipulate whilst blurry from drink or sleep. Also it doesn't die after 48 hours if you lose the charger, making you late (But the phone can survive overnight if the power cuts out)

MP3 Player: Again pretty recent. Only in the last year or so have you been able to get affordable solid state storage in a phone to rival what a practically capacious MP3 player - even a yesteryear model - offers.
Also, try clipping your heavy, bulky smartphone on and going for a run, working in the garden or doing some other risky/energetic activity. It's fitting that the Sansa Clip is pictured because that's is - or was, until the latest iPod Nano came along (haven't trialled it yet) - my choice for a personal stereo to use in those situations (so long as you don't mind being limited to about 12Gb).

Landlines: They survive power cuts, and weather disruption to signals or towers. Cellphone service (and batteries) doesn't. Not totally useless yet.

[Pks29733steel]

09:47 AM on 04/26/2011

Yeah if I want to drain down that 'non user replacabel' battery in the 'I-Phone'. Other phones you can go to your carrier or office supply store and buy a replacement!!

[Pks29733steel]

09:40 AM on 04/26/2011

GPS, how about a 'hard copy' MAP!

[Pks29733steel]

09:38 AM on 04/26/2011

If I'm going to a event (party, wedding, get together) I'll take my camera. Better quaility, bigger memory!!

[Pks29733steel]

09:35 AM on 04/26/2011

Ummm... My house is burning down. Where the land line would connect me to 911, a cellphone call might not. If a local radio station is running a contest for say 'tickets to a concert' your cellphone call might get a 'system busy' (all the towers are busy with those radio listeners that want to win the tickets) while your home burns to the ground!!!

[Pks29733steel]

09:31 AM on 04/26/2011

Why would I want to waste my cell phone battery listening to music when a very small mp3 player does the same and saves me from buying another phone battery. I pitty the 'I-Phone' users that use their phone as a music player. Their batteries are 'sealed' inside. No way of going to your carrier and spending a few bucks to buy a new battery!!

[Pks29733steel]

09:28 AM on 04/26/2011

Cellphone as a watch? No, I prefer a wristwatch. It's easier to turn your wrist versu getting your phone (either out of a pocket, case or handbag), looking at your phone and replacing where your phone was!!

[Gronkie]

08:46 AM on 04/26/2011

I still use a separate MP3 player. In fact I use the Sansa clip featured in the photo. I use it for two reasons - running to music or listening to audio books. If I'm running, it is lighter and easier to carry than my phone, and I don't worry about it getting all sweaty. Running beats up a phone as well, and the Sansa clip is cheap and I've run through a few of them. As for audio books, I generally listen to them when I'm traveling in the car or working on a project in the yard or around the house, and I don't want to just burn up the battery in my phone. The fully charged battery in the Clip will last for days, it seems. I keep my clip and the headphones in an Altoid box in my pocket at all times. I also like a separate video camera and digital camera for important things like business shots or videos, although eventually I think the phones will end up rivaling the stand alone models.

If I happen to spot a UFO, the phone will do in pinch!

[Pks29733steel]

09:22 AM on 04/26/2011

I agree, why run down (or have to buy a replacement) your cell phone when a very small and lightweight MP3 player will do the same!!

[infonographist]

05:58 PM on 04/22/2011

Few of them are obsolete, the others not so. I like following the proverb of "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Now after using your single smartphone for music, video, searching the web, photos, videos, gps etc. it could eventually run out of battery when you need it the most. Or once you lose that device, now what? You have nothing else.

DSLR for the range and quality of photo/video no phone can match. A dedicated music player because some people take music seriously and can differentiate between lossless from 128kbps. A GPS for the car so if someone calls, the passenger can pick my phone up while I can still keep my eyes on the road and listen to directions. Dedicated gaming like 3DS or NGP (later on) because you'd rather have a gaming experience like at home while on the go with better graphics and more actual gaming. Etc. etc.

I'm a guy so a little extra weight to carry isn't that hard for me. Just stick my DSLR and mp3 player with my headphones in my messenger bag. Always good to have a bag on you...just in case you find $100000 in bills on the floor and need someplace to put it. haha

[Dino Johnson]

01:30 PM on 04/22/2011

wow, what a bunch of old farts.
-if you're a serioius photographer, yea of course you want a fancy camera. but for the other 95% of us, the excellent camera on the iphone makes a separate camera obsolete.
-the alarm clock on the iphone is better than most dedicated alarm clocks, i set it once years ago to wake me M-F but later on the weekends and I've never had to lift a finger since. It's PLUGGED IN at night, just like an alarm clock, so that's not an issue.
-the iphone holds THOUSANDS OF SONGS, plus radio stations and pandora. carrying around an additional mp3 player is ... whatever.
-iphone voice recording apps are better than dedicated voice recorders, with more features and editing and the ability to share and email immediately, mix in written notes, etc.

the notion that the iphone does many things but worse is mostly wrong. it's a mobile computer, and can do many of these things better with added features and usability. but by all means, keep lugging around multiple gadgets if that's yer thing... but for the majority of people they are truly obsolete, as the article states.

[Gene Evangelist]

08:14 PM on 04/17/2011

And Ironically, with text use growing, they are almost making talking on a phone obsolete too.
Gene Evangelist

[XIRUS]

04:13 PM on 04/16/2011

it's strange, but this article is quite accurate for me. i bought a voice recorder, alarm clock and wristwatch that have not been used since getting an iPhone.

[Alexis Elizabeth Drob]

05:59 PM on 04/15/2011

I never even got to buy a flip camera and already it is being replaced by an all in one gadget what a shame. Guess Im not getting the flip afterall.

[ukdem]

01:52 PM on 04/15/2011

None of these items are even technically obsolete. People still use all of them and with some good reason. And regardless, the title of this story implies that it's sort of observational (ie, let's look at what effect smartphones have had on other gadgets) but really, this article is making arguments in favor of not using these items anymore. Why would you argue in favor of aspiring photographers using a smartphone camera rather than a relatively affordable, dedicated camera?

[HighDesertBob]

04:57 PM on 04/15/2011

I agree completely. I have a camera on my flip phone but I choose to use a real camera because I prefer a quality photo. However, I have used by phone for a flashlight. About 10 years ago the power went out on us at night and I used my old Motorola phone to help us find out way out of the room into some light.
Of course, I haven't used a watch in years, mostly because I don't really care what time it is. Also, nearly everything we buy these days has a clock on it.
First Fan!