I recently upgraded my mobile phone. This is always a very exciting time for me. As most phone contracts seem to last at least 24 months it is more exciting than Christmas or a birthday. These special occasions come along every year, whereas the biannual mobile phone upgrade is a much rarer occurrence.

I don’t know why, but I love mobile phones. The only thing that sometimes annoys me is the fact people can call you while you are doing something important. A few times it has rung when I’ve even been in the toilet. If mobiles didn’t interrupt so often they’d almost be the ideal gadget. This may seem contrary to the whole point, but what appeals about the mobile phone is its ridiculously high gadget quotient rating, rather than being easily contactable no matter what I am doing. Oh, also the fact that I can call other people even if they may be away from home in the middle of doing something important. That’s really handy.

Human beings are an intensely gadget-driven race. Just look at the space station. Not a great deal of practical use but, man, what a gadget! Or, take cutlery for example. It’s generally much easier to eat with your hands, but this wonderful tool means you no longer have to get your fingers covered in sticky barbecue sauce when you eat pork ribs. Unless, of course, you want to get messy so you can lick your fingers clean afterwards. This may not be entirely relevant to mobile gadgetry, unless you tend to clean your phone the same way. The coolest new gadget on my mobile is GPS navigation. This now means that whenever I get lost, I can work out just how badly confused I am. Unfortunately this still happens a bit as I tend to be half-way through most journey’s before the GPS has worked out where I am. I must get in the habit of turning it on sooner.

My new phone comes with many time-saving features. The calendar is great, it means I never need to carry a pen and paper because I can always jot a note or a date straight into my mobile. Not having a pen does make it difficult to sign cheques or paper forms, but I have thought of an even gadgetier way around this. I plan to emboss my signature on the back of the phone’s case. I could also carry a small ink-pad, thus allowing me to use my phone as an instant signature stamp. Another bonus of this fantastic new invention is that I will be able to sign my name in about one tenth of a second – I’d just whack my phone down on the piece of paper. This, of course, is so long as I don’t include the time taken to dig the ink pad out of my pocket, open it, moisten it under a nearby tap, rub the back of the phone on it, correctly orient the phone before stamping, and then also to wipe the phone clean after locating a piece of paper towel. Other than that it would make signing things a breeze.

By the way, you better not suggest this to Nokia before I do or I will personally call your mobile every time you are on the toilet, and pretend to be a wrong number from Finland.
Posted by A.Ready at 9:32 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 31, 2008