Dumbphones

Ok, so I can't do this every day. That much is clear.



João Gilberto - Me Chama

Anyway, I'm feeling a little apathetic today (boy, is that an understatement), and I'm hoping this will help. I saw an interesting editorial from the Guardian today about the "iPhone generation." First of all, this is some of the most quirky, British writing I've ever seen, so get your American selves ready to go back and reread a few sentences. And while a future in which everyone walks around, staring down into little screens, and occasionally bumping into each other is a little disturbing, I don't really think we're headed there. However, I think buried somewhere in all of the author's meandering wackiness are some interesting points. It's not very long; give it a read, if you get the chance.

I found this interesting because in a family of six, I am the only member with a "dumbphone" (I didn't know they were called that, and I have to say I'm rather offended) and I do see some of what she's talking about. My grandfather has a Blackberry and the other day at dinner my whole family plus my grandmother carried on a conversation about him for five minutes while he read his e-mail. He didn't hear a single word. I don't mean to indict anyone, though; it's the iPhone's fault for being so damn cool. In any case, my "dumbphone" is the only one that always works. I'll admit, I feel smugly satisfied about that from time to time. Oh, stop it, just go enjoy your hundreds of apps; I'll go play with my calculator.

Speaking of phones that do everything (and sometimes nothing), Google released its new phone, which can be obtained for one easy payment of $530 USD or loads of payments to T-Mobile over the course of two years. Wow, that's a sizeable mountain of money either way. People will still pay for it, though. Check it:



Yeah, I guess I'm shilling for Google's products now. I'm a pretty benevolent guy (and a huge celebrity to boot), and it looks like they could use the help; I think the trillion hits an hour they get from their search engine alone barely cover the cost of manufacturing one of these new phones, and I want to make sure they become the real life Buy N Large as quickly as possible.

On that note, here's a nice review round-up for anyone interested in getting one of these potential iPhone killers (ooh, he went there). I have to say, it looks pretty cool. I'm glad somebody went ahead and just fully ripped off the iPhone layout and all; those other attempts were just downright embarrassing (Ooh, it makes cool click noises; your days are numbered, iPhone!). They even ripped off the commercial: simplistic background, catchy tune, the device smoothly sliding around. My great-grandfather had a saying: "Good commercials a good product do not make." I confess, I didn't really know any of my great-grandfathers, but one of them could have very well said that at some point. Anyway, I'm starting to think he may have been wrong about it. I guess we'll see how all of this goes. Oh, me? I won't be buying one; I like buying groceries a bit too much. It's kind of a therapeutic thing for me.

Yeah, I don't care about Iran today...but I know somebody who does.