Happy Birthday iPhone

It’s 10 o’clock at night and my husband and I are finally catching up after a long day. He’s telling me about a post he was not happy about on 14yoG’s Facebook page. It looked something like this:

<3

He was convinced that this symbol is the tech symbol for boobs. Yes. Boobs. I will not dignify tech/internet meme symbols with the word breasts. He’s lecturing his daughter about responsible Facebook posts when she whips out her phone and shows him this:

( . ) ( . )

OK, so now we’ve been schooled on what exactly tech boobs look like. Remember when we used to make our calculators say the word HELL upside down by typing in the right numbers? Yeah, this is progress. Evolution at its finest. Makes me proud. 

This story makes me think of the evolution of tech itself. Where we are as a society in the growth of the mobile tech industry. It’s growth for the sake of growth, and perhaps only growing so that we can display better porn symbols with our calculators (doesn’t everything eventually devolve into porn in the tech space anyway?). I’m reminded of my own Android fatigue that has evolved into smartphone fatigue simply because I’m tired of growth for the sake of growth. I’m tired of the endless string of black slab phones coming to market boasting 0.1GHz speed improvements over “last generation” models. I’m tired of manufacturers bringing slightly updated specs to market in the phone genre simply because they lack the creativity to do something really innovative in the mobile tech space. STOP THE MADNESS!!! Who’s driving this bus anyway? Who are the tech sites reporting on these phones as if they are mobile nirvana? Who are the people pining for phone after phone with barely perceptible differences between them? What is driving this lack of innovation that is being mistaken for a mobile tech bubble?

Guilty and guilty. I admit I bought a Thunderbolt, then 4 weeks later when the Charge was released wished I had that instead. It was shinier than the Thunderbolt (literally). Who can blame me. Verizon’s commercials convinced me it was way more Droidly than my weather challenged lightning phone. Must. Have. New. Phone. I admit I’ve had a long string of phone upgrades simply for the shinier model. I’d love to say the Buck Stops Here, but if you follow me on Twitter, you and I know better. I’m going to keep buying new phones with slightly improved specs, but at least I know why.

Apple introduced the iPhone and showed us the potential for what a phone can do. Wow. Just wow. All that power in one hand. Android cropped up, webOS, WP7... four years later and not one single innovation to rival the introduction of the iPhone. Every time I buy a phone, I’m hoping for that fix. I’m hoping that someone has done something slightly as interesting as Apple did four years ago. All I’m finding though, are more ways that everyone else is just trying to cash in on Apple’s four-year-old innovation. Happy Birthday iPhone.

Tech Dreams for Sleepless Nights

@thegadgetmomAmanda

Mental note, do not drink Coke after 3pm. Ever. Or, just don't drink Coke. Also, how come no one is around to talk to at 12:30am?

21 minutes ago via Twitter for MacFavorite Reply Delete
1am, Not too many around on Twitter. Thought about saying good night, but wanted to share my favorite tech dream. When I'm staring at my eyelids, instead of counting sheep, I like to pretend I've won the tech lottery. I get to pick out any tech for my friends and family. I run down which tech I'd most like to buy and picture giving it. iPad for my parents, new phone for my reluctant husband, iPhone 4 for my best friend who is still using a flip phone, Galaxy Tab for my sister, iPad 2 for @KrisLoves2Tweet - and a new Droid X2... by the time I get to my neighbors who are still sporting Env2's, I'm generally snoring.
What, doesn't everyone dream in tech? Quit staring at me, it's embarrassing.G'nite.

Detox Day 4 - Revelations

I have a small confession to make... I don't miss my smartphone. At all. Not even a little bit. I wish I could say I do, but I don't. This isn't to say that I don't LIKE smartphones. I do. Some will even tell you that I lust for smartphones. That would be true. But in my everyday life, I do not miss it one bit.


Know what's cool about about a feature phone? When I pick it up to use it, the battery is nearly always full. I don't have to charge it at night, but if I do, I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the day. All day. Not until 6pm day, the whole day until bed time. Who can say that about a smartphone? Any smartphone? What frustrated me most about my experiences with different smartphones is that with all my hacking and playing on them, they always seemed to crap out right when the kids' doctor was supposed to call, or some other important communication was coming. Using a feature phone has reminded me that the purpose of the phone is to make phone calls and text. Everything else is superfluous.


This next revelation is going to send @nkbme calling 911. Using a Blackberry isn't as bad as I used to think. Now, let me caveat that with a huge exclusion. A Blackberry isn't so bad to use if all you want to use it for is email, texting, IM. Any other tasks make me want to cry. SLOOOOOOOOOOW. And wow, ugly apps. But hey, I need email on the go, and work is supplying the Blackberry, so it enabled me to give up a smartphone (I know what you're saying, a Blackberry IS a smartphone, I would beg to differ).


Check this out - my smartphone history for the last 2 years:


1. iPhone 3G
2. iPhone 3GS
3. Motorola Droid
4. HTC Droid Eris
5. HTC Touch Pro 2
6. iPhone 3GS
7. Palm Pre Plus
8. Motorola Droid
9. HTC Droid Eris
10. HTC Incredible
11. Droid X
12. Palm Pre Plus
13. Droid X
14. Samsung Fascinate
15. Palm Pixi Plus
16. Casio Exilim (feature phone)
17. iPhone 4
18. Thunderbolt
19. Samsung Fascinate
20. Palm Pre Plus
21. Samsung Rogue (feature phone)


I think I can say with certainty, smartphones are a disease for me. I keep wanting to change, not just to get a better phone, but for a different experience. Sometimes I think for my Twitter buddies, it's like watching a car crash. You don't want to stare, but the destruction is mesmerizing.


Implications of a Non-Smartphone Life


No Google on the Go. How many of us realize the importance of being able to ask a question at any time and get an answer? I didn't. Until I didn't have a smartphone. Now I ask a question and I have to call a friend for an answer or, actually wait until I get home to a computer.


No smartphone means I never know what the weather is going to be. And when a storm is coming, I can't check out the radar and see how long it's going to last. #firstworldproblems


No smartphone means the phone on my camera is barely passable. This means that I have to carry a DSLR around with me. Guess what? My pictures and video are AWESOME. I forgot how much better a real camera is for taking pictures. Convenience aside, I'm enjoying improved picture quality.

No smartphone means no Google Voice. Not exactly, but certainly no convenient Google Voice. It also means that in the coming months, there'll be no Google Wallet. This actually physically pains me.

No smartphone means no mobile Twitter. This is the most painful of all the things I've given up. For me, accessing Twitter on a smartphone is the most natural way of using it. The phone's +/- 4in screen is perfect for the Twitter medium, makes it feel very personal and intimate. In order to use Twitter now, I'm limited to the brief moments I get on my computer - outside of work. This has led me to having to conquer my OCD tendencies of reading EVERY SINGLE TWEET in my timeline. Seriously. I get a little tick reading from most recent to older. And at the bottom of Tweetdeck's 200 limit, I sometimes shed a tear, but less Twitter in my life is much better than NO Twitter in my life.


So I guess this is the "other side" of the Twitter detox, I'll see you all back there. Just not as often...