Hey folks, Valkor here. You know today’s technology can have a positive and or a negative effect on the way we work, live, play, basically improving or hurting the way we live our lives. On the plus side technology can be helpful in how we communicate, how doctors perform surgeries, and even how we cook our food. Or it can be a negative in that it can disrupt the things we enjoy doing most. One of those items that have both a positive and negative effect on us is, the cell phone.
Basically the cell phone was created so that people can communicate with one another without the hindrance of a wire or being stuck at one location. When Cell phones were first introduced, I believe the military had the technology first; soon it went to anyone who could afford one. Today cell phones are readily affordable and come in plenty styles and shapes to choose from. Not only that but they come loaded with extras to keep you occupied when your not talking on the phone such as games or surfing the web. Another nifty feature of the cell phone is the ability to completely customize it to your liking. In some cases you can change the outer shell or face of the phone to an assortment of designs. You can also change the ringer of your phone so instead of hearing the standard ring, you can get a cool sound like a dog barking, or a spaceship zooming by, you can get midi music of popular hits and now you get actual songs, real clips, that will announce incoming calls. You can change the image or wallpaper of the phone to a variety of still or animated images. And if your phone has a camera in it, you can use the pictures you take and make that as your backdrop. There are tons of other options such as antennae rings, antennae danglers, antennae lights, keypad lights, backlights, front lights, shiny things, clips, and holsters; all this to make your phone suit you. Now where is the negative effect in all this? This brings me to my main point and this is something I will call “Valkor’s top 5 extras we don’t need on a cell phone”. This is for the common, average, every day user, as most professional users really don’t resort in drastically decking out there phones. But a lot of options we have on cell phones, honestly I feel we as the average every day user really don’t need or should really have a need for.
5) Ring tones. Ok there is a reason why this one is at the bottom of the list. I feel that there is a need for ring tones as I myself love them. The fact that I can change from the standard ring to a sound that I like, is fine. However there are those that abuse this gift. With that being said, people ring tones exist for a reason and we don’t have to go crazy with them just because “we can”. I like to impress my friends too with the latest (insert you favorite artist here) ringer, but there is a time and a place for it. A movie theater is not the place to test out your ring tones, on a quiet crowded bus or train, and when the time comes that we are allowed to use cell phones on airplanes, please do not go crazy there either. Again a time and place for everything, but let’s show a little courtesy eh?
4) Streamcasting television and video. CNN on the go? What about clips from ABC’s LOST? Wanna see some American idol clips? Phones that have the technology to stream video into them are here and frankly I’m not with it. Because soon you can watch a movie or actually watch tv… on a small, tiny cell phone screen? Who is this technology for? Isn’t there media players and wireless televisions that can do this on bigger screens? I can’t imagine watching Star Wars on a super tiny screen, though I am sure image and sound quality will improve, I just can’t see a cell phone being a serious media player. So let’s stick with phones being used for what they were made for and toss this gimmick to the side lines.
3) Mp3 players. I’m sure the technology will get better when cell phones are able to hold more space and possibly have a longer battery life to support this feature, but for now I’d rather save my battery life for talking rather than listening to music. Buy an actual MP3 player to do the music playing for me and put this feature to rest… for now.
2) Digital Cameras. Ok this one is a bit touchy I know. I think the camera phone is a great gimmick, definitely comes in handy with spur of the moment shots where you don’t have a real camera handy. And I chalk this one up the same way as the ring tones. Use it but don’t abuse it. It has been shown that having a camera phone comes in very handy when certain scary situations start to go down or you wanna capture a friend’s most embarrassing moment for future blackmailing (hehehehe), but the upskirt camera thing? No. Taking pictures of people in compromising positions? No. Taking pictures of yourself in compromising positions and showing it off? No, unless you are Eva Longoria. Then yes you can and send them to the email below please. The camera phone was meant for fun not for people to get there perverted jollies off. If you wanna do that stuff, keep it to yourself.
1) Finally and this is the all time number one feature no cell phone should have unless you’re someone who can use this in your line of work: The two way pager. This has got to be one of the dumbest features you can pass down to the average Joe. Here’s why I say this technology is wasted. Situation 1) One day, I’m at the train station waiting for my train to come when suddenly a woman breaks out into conversation on her cell phone. She’s talking to this guy and asking him if he received her text message. His voice is pretty much inaudible, but he must not have gotten her text because she says “let me try texting you that message again”. STOP! Why are you sending text if you are talking with this person, AT THAT MOMENT? Now I know some of you might be saying “But Val, she could be testing to see if he can get that message.” True, I’ll go with that, however the conversation went on for 5 more minutes, the message was not being received and at no point were the words “I’m just testing this out” being uttered once. Again 5 minutes, two way conversation about a text, no resolution? What the hell was the point? Situation 2) and even Krush can attest to this. I was in my local movie theater, getting ready to watch a flick when every 5 seconds you hear a *Breep* noise and someone’s voice bellowing out from a phone. This was not just one phone, or even two phones, this was many, many phones. Some of which were people talking to other people, in the same theater!! You tell me where is the justice in that? No one needs a two way pager phone. No not even families because most cell phone companies have family plans where they can talk to one another for cheap. I can understand if you are a construction worker and you wanna communicate with your workers, fine? Working on the stock market floor? Sure. There’s a place for everything, but the common folk don’t need it.
This list will continue to grow as cell phone features keep growing. There are some extras which will be very useful and some that will completely suck. I find the GPS capabilities very helpful, especially when you’re traveling. However I don’t see the Swiss army cell phone being something that is very practical. I’m all for the future, but I want to see it in better