"Dream Your Dreams With Open Eyes And Make Them Come True"
The latest gadgets have always been capable of inspiring envy and lustful looks of desire. For people of my age this started with the usual school playground fare of things like games, toys and trainers. As we got older and technology advanced rapidly we moved into walkmans and discmans and various music related gadgets/status symbols. Then it became mobile phones. Initially it was just about having one, but as that became common enough it was what phone you had that was most important. Although as we become more mature these things become slightly less important, they have remained something of a status symbol and now the latest must-have gadget is busy making its mark and arguably driving technology forwards with it.
In its purest form the i-phone is the perfect combination of the mobile phone and the only two things that have come close to the mobile telephone’s dominance of the gadget world, the i-pod and the portable games console. There also exists a slighter lesser version, the i-pod Touch, with which you can look as cool and partake in most of the cool functions, but which will always ultimately lead people to be disappointed when it emerges that you don’t have the full on i-phone.
Now being a mac man at heart and believing that it is no coincidence that for the last few decades Apple have been a couple of blocks ahead in making sleek and stylish gadgets that appeal to the masses, the i-phone appeals to me greatly. I can’t deny that I want one. I think they look great and from a functionality point of view they seem to offer a personal flexibility and a level of technological interaction that nothing else can really compete with. Indeed, as someone who has been searching for a suitably desirable (and long overdue) phone upgrade for the last few years, you’d think the i-phone would be the answer to my prayers. In truth the only thing that has prevented me from parting with my money is a poorly timed return to unemployment and the feeling that it is a nearly-technology (the current cost-to-service ratio of mobile internet that the i-phone is so good for is currently not quite high enough to make it pay, and the i-phone is currently only available in somewhat limited form).
This combination of desire and resistance to purchasing has obviously brought on some gadget envy. As Apple have also introduced a much improved and, for me, ideal version of the one bit of gadget technology that I have invested in in recent years (an i-pod shuffle) I can’t help but feel that I am way behind on this front. Given my desire to be amongst their number I can even cope with some of the smugness that ownership of this much-coveted gadget can induce.
However, not all of my ill feeling towards the more gadget-advanced is misplaced. My problem with them was most neatly highlighted on my way to my weekly football match the other week. I sat down in the middle part of the carriage of a Northern line train and happened to see a man to my left playing with what I believe was the lesser i-pod Touch. Swiping his finger across the screen in that somewhat nonchalant bet-you-can’t-operate-your-gadget-like-this way he scrawled through his various options. But when I looked at the screen he was looking at a tube map. Now obviously the clever people at Apple have installed a tube map in the memory to enable easy planning and navigation of journeys around central London. However this man was sat on the tube… mere feet from a big version of the tube map designed to be seen from his seat… and yet he was scanning through the tiny version on his fancy gadget.
Now I am all for the use of clever bits of technology to make life easier but gratuitous unnecessary gadget usage just makes me think that you are an idiot.
In its purest form the i-phone is the perfect combination of the mobile phone and the only two things that have come close to the mobile telephone’s dominance of the gadget world, the i-pod and the portable games console. There also exists a slighter lesser version, the i-pod Touch, with which you can look as cool and partake in most of the cool functions, but which will always ultimately lead people to be disappointed when it emerges that you don’t have the full on i-phone.
Now being a mac man at heart and believing that it is no coincidence that for the last few decades Apple have been a couple of blocks ahead in making sleek and stylish gadgets that appeal to the masses, the i-phone appeals to me greatly. I can’t deny that I want one. I think they look great and from a functionality point of view they seem to offer a personal flexibility and a level of technological interaction that nothing else can really compete with. Indeed, as someone who has been searching for a suitably desirable (and long overdue) phone upgrade for the last few years, you’d think the i-phone would be the answer to my prayers. In truth the only thing that has prevented me from parting with my money is a poorly timed return to unemployment and the feeling that it is a nearly-technology (the current cost-to-service ratio of mobile internet that the i-phone is so good for is currently not quite high enough to make it pay, and the i-phone is currently only available in somewhat limited form).
This combination of desire and resistance to purchasing has obviously brought on some gadget envy. As Apple have also introduced a much improved and, for me, ideal version of the one bit of gadget technology that I have invested in in recent years (an i-pod shuffle) I can’t help but feel that I am way behind on this front. Given my desire to be amongst their number I can even cope with some of the smugness that ownership of this much-coveted gadget can induce.
However, not all of my ill feeling towards the more gadget-advanced is misplaced. My problem with them was most neatly highlighted on my way to my weekly football match the other week. I sat down in the middle part of the carriage of a Northern line train and happened to see a man to my left playing with what I believe was the lesser i-pod Touch. Swiping his finger across the screen in that somewhat nonchalant bet-you-can’t-operate-your-gadget-like-this way he scrawled through his various options. But when I looked at the screen he was looking at a tube map. Now obviously the clever people at Apple have installed a tube map in the memory to enable easy planning and navigation of journeys around central London. However this man was sat on the tube… mere feet from a big version of the tube map designed to be seen from his seat… and yet he was scanning through the tiny version on his fancy gadget.
Now I am all for the use of clever bits of technology to make life easier but gratuitous unnecessary gadget usage just makes me think that you are an idiot.