It’s the new iPhone 5C ... 6C ... 7C ...
Everybody ... well, a lot of folks ... are excited about this new iPhone that
was released this week. I must be missing something because the main thing I see
that’s different is it comes in different color and the price is higher.
Have you ever noticed how once you get something and learn how to use it, they come up with a new version that has some little bell or whistle you just have to have because everyone else will have it. One company now offers what’s essentially a camera with a built-in phone. And surely you don’t want to be the only one in the schoolyard without the newest toy.
I’ll admit the more I saw of what folks could do with their smartphones, the more I wanted one, but I was content with my no-contract, pay-as-you-go cell phone. Well, maybe not content, but at least I could communicate. Then, the folks here at Sixth and Hickory got some new equipment, including iPhones, and I finally had one.
It’s cool. You can take pictures, edit and share them. You can shoot videos. You can go on the internet. You can play on Facebook, tweet, write and check email. You even can watch videos and see HBO, although it eats up battery and data. You can use it as a GPS and get maps that show you as a little dot moving down the digital road. There are apps for ordering pizza by sending an email.
Oh, and you can make phone calls, too.
I will own up to the fact that I fiddle with the iPhone I have a lot. I’m still amazed by what it can do. It’s cool to watch as the blue dot representing you moves along the red line that’s a highway on the map app. While someone else is driving, of course. What can I say, I love gadgets, which accounts for the variety of as-seen-on-TV gizmos we’ve accumulated and disposed of through the years.
Even at that, I have to admit there are times when it seems we’ve become either too addicted or too dependent on our electronic gadgets. We’re always checking them, always talking on cell phones, sometimes to the annoyance of those around us. But, there’s just something so alluring about being able to hold in one hand the computing power that used to take up whole building, and, depending on what smartphone you have, more computing power than NASA used to put Neil Armstrong on the moon. And it’s used it to share pictures of grumpy cats and politicians in their underwear.
Still, it’s aggravating that these companies keep coming up with innovations and making the current ones obsolete, or near obsolete. Of course, that’s become the American way. It started with cars and appliances and their built-in obsolescence. Used to be almost anyone could tinker on a car or make a repair, then makers started computerizing and digitizing and micro-chipping them to the point it takes a specially trained mechanic to even change the oil.
Developments that have enabled manufacturers to make amazing TVs and stereos and coffee makers also have made them virtually unrepairable. Instead of fixing something, or replacing a tube (ask your grandparents), we’re supposed to get new ones. And it’s not just a matter of keeping up with the Joneses (never liked them anyway, except for Indiana).
We’ve become a disposable society because the folks who make things are making everything disposable. And if they can’t make them disposable, they make products so that even if the devices still work they won’t work with the latest innovations, which soon become necessary for the (insert device here) to keep working.
Sometimes, it’d be nice to have things the way they used to be, although being able to text, talk, take photos and surf the Web simultaneously with a smartphone is pretty cool. We’ve come a long way from tin cans and string (ask your grandparents).
Have you ever noticed how once you get something and learn how to use it, they come up with a new version that has some little bell or whistle you just have to have because everyone else will have it. One company now offers what’s essentially a camera with a built-in phone. And surely you don’t want to be the only one in the schoolyard without the newest toy.
I’ll admit the more I saw of what folks could do with their smartphones, the more I wanted one, but I was content with my no-contract, pay-as-you-go cell phone. Well, maybe not content, but at least I could communicate. Then, the folks here at Sixth and Hickory got some new equipment, including iPhones, and I finally had one.
It’s cool. You can take pictures, edit and share them. You can shoot videos. You can go on the internet. You can play on Facebook, tweet, write and check email. You even can watch videos and see HBO, although it eats up battery and data. You can use it as a GPS and get maps that show you as a little dot moving down the digital road. There are apps for ordering pizza by sending an email.
Oh, and you can make phone calls, too.
I will own up to the fact that I fiddle with the iPhone I have a lot. I’m still amazed by what it can do. It’s cool to watch as the blue dot representing you moves along the red line that’s a highway on the map app. While someone else is driving, of course. What can I say, I love gadgets, which accounts for the variety of as-seen-on-TV gizmos we’ve accumulated and disposed of through the years.
Even at that, I have to admit there are times when it seems we’ve become either too addicted or too dependent on our electronic gadgets. We’re always checking them, always talking on cell phones, sometimes to the annoyance of those around us. But, there’s just something so alluring about being able to hold in one hand the computing power that used to take up whole building, and, depending on what smartphone you have, more computing power than NASA used to put Neil Armstrong on the moon. And it’s used it to share pictures of grumpy cats and politicians in their underwear.
Still, it’s aggravating that these companies keep coming up with innovations and making the current ones obsolete, or near obsolete. Of course, that’s become the American way. It started with cars and appliances and their built-in obsolescence. Used to be almost anyone could tinker on a car or make a repair, then makers started computerizing and digitizing and micro-chipping them to the point it takes a specially trained mechanic to even change the oil.
Developments that have enabled manufacturers to make amazing TVs and stereos and coffee makers also have made them virtually unrepairable. Instead of fixing something, or replacing a tube (ask your grandparents), we’re supposed to get new ones. And it’s not just a matter of keeping up with the Joneses (never liked them anyway, except for Indiana).
We’ve become a disposable society because the folks who make things are making everything disposable. And if they can’t make them disposable, they make products so that even if the devices still work they won’t work with the latest innovations, which soon become necessary for the (insert device here) to keep working.
Sometimes, it’d be nice to have things the way they used to be, although being able to text, talk, take photos and surf the Web simultaneously with a smartphone is pretty cool. We’ve come a long way from tin cans and string (ask your grandparents).
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