Finally joined the 21st century

[kanef]

Well, technically, I entered the 21st century already carrying a cell phone, and it might even have been a current model by an accident of timing.  And this isn't my first upgrade since then.  But one of the characteristics of the 21st century is that not upgrading every couple of years means making do with significantly less capability.  It's not

Comments

[mdlbear]

I really appreciate my pocket computer. Having a phone in my pocket is convenient, but it's not what I use it for most often.

That which we call a phone by any other name would ring as true

[kanef]

I'll probably use mine for other things more than for voice telecommunication too, but I'll probably continue to call it a "phone" to follow convention, because no other term is better. I don't think I'll be using it much to do computations, either. (Not explicitly, I mean; I know of course that everything that it does, including the UI, has powerful computations behind it.)

I've been experimenting with pressing the home button (it's an iPhone 5) through my pocket and calling out "What's the temperature?" or "What time does the sun set?" or "Is it raining?"

For fun, I've also tried "What's tomorrow's weather forecast for Buffalo?" I'm halfway planning to go on a hike new Year's Day or Saturday, while it's in the mid teens C (upper 50's F) here, and try out some other commands like "How cold is it in Buffalo", "Play 'Buffalo, CA'" and maybe even "Call Rand" or "Call Adam".