Sunday, February 21, 2016

Technology (Nerd Alert!)


As I read another story about Samsung Smart phones and their next phone would not have usb-c
built into it, but the port would be water proof with out a little rubber flap to seal the port (and eventually fall off)  the new Samsung phone was going to water proof..
Thus protecting those people who seem to pour liquids over their phones, or keep in places
that could be subjected to a bath.
But it got me thinking about how far technology and cell phone have come in the past 10yrs.
Back in the mid-90's I worked for a paging company that as a small division of Ameritech,
and there were meetings about the future of the telephone and what we know today
is the Land Line..
And they were talking to us as if the world as we knew it was coming to an end..
That the day was going to come where we wouldn't need an answering machine,
because we could take our home phones with us and we could even get phone calls
from our cordless house phones in our cars miles away!   WHAT?!  no way!
That was just crazy talk!   lol  what else could happen? flying cars?
Well, that was around 1995, about that time I got my first Motorola Flip phone.
with 100 mins for $30 a month, and long distance was another $10 month.
But roaming charges were brutal!  but yet, I could get that phone call in my car,
away from the house, in any major city!
By 2005 it was decided to eliminate the land line in my house.
Nobody called it, the only calls we got on it were from solicitors..
and the extra taxes we paid for that line..  it had to go.
But being raised with a land line,  it was hard to cut the cord!
My wife and both had grown up with one, and even though it wasn't being used.
it took some time to mentally prepare to get rid of it..
Today I have a wall jack in my kitchen and the Grandkids have asked what that was for?
If you look around, there are no pay phones on street corners any longer.
They have been removed from everywhere..  I was in a rest area in South Dakota
and the bank of pay phones were gone, the sitting area for them was still there, but the phones
were gone,   another change with cellular phone..
But now look at our cell phones,  they are more than just a phone to make calls on,
they are mini computers all in the palm of our hands..
We can check weather, sports, news,  banking, my friend Todd and me used them the fall of 2012
to look at motels on TripAdvisor.com while on a motorcycle trip.
They have build in GPS, they are mp3 players or you can stream music on it,
take pictures and instantly share them on line or text them to people all over the world!
With in minutes people on the other side of the world can see a picture you sent them.
all on a device we call a phone does so much more..
But even our desk phones at work have changed..
We can be assigned a phone number and log into any phone in the office
and receive phone calls as if were sitting at our assigned desk.
With the power of the new fangled IP Phones,    you can unplug it and take it across
the country to another office in the network and receive your phone calls.
there a software for your computer and a headset and you can answer your phone through
the computer.
The phone has come a long way since Bell said over a line "Watson come in here"
And I doubt anyone could have imagined what would transpire from the simple phone
Even Martin Cooper the first person to make a cell phone call on a device he developed,
couldn't have imagined how that device would change the world as we know it
So as you pick up that Android or iPhone and make a call or send a text,
stop and think about all the power you hold in your hand.. you hold more power
in the palm of your hand than the Apollo Astronauts had when they took fligh
and landed on the moon!
Crazy stuff isnt it?