iPhone "issues" (was Re: OT:Dell computers)

[Fairlight]

On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 11:30:39AM -0400, Richard Kreiss, the prominent pundit,
witicized:
> We "older" folks want a cell phone to be just that, a cell phone.

You know, I held that attitude for years.  "I have an 8.3mpx camera.  I
have a PSP if I want to game."  My first two cell phones were the plainest
Ericsson and Sony/Ericsson you could get from Cingular and AT&T.  But
that kind of model wasn't available when our last one died, so we started
browsing, and I fell in love with the Solstice for the onscreen qwerty (we
would text from our old phones...to go to email, our one concession at the
time) -really- quickly.  I was totally going to pass up the internet data
service, but it's now mandatory that you try it for a month with AT&T.  I
uhm, got the phone saying I'd cancel the internet service on it, and within
an hour I managed to convince the wife to keep the service because I fell
in love with the rest of the phone.

My attitude changed, definitely.

Although my 8.3mpx camera is still way better quality, and so is my PSP for
gaming.  :)

> The "younger" generation want an all on one tool.  The for the most part use
> the cell phone as a messaging device, TV, radio, and  music player.  Boy,
> how we have progressed, TV on 5" black and white screens enlarged with a
> large magnifying glass in front to 21" color sets, to 3" Sony walkman, to
> 65" or better flat panel sets. And now back to 3-4" TV on one's phone.  Now
> that's progress.

It is.  The new 3-4" resolution is actually higher than the old 5".  :)  

> My wife and I have been out to dinner and watched 6 young women having
> dinner "together".  I say that in its loosest terms.  They were sitting at
> the same table, not talking to each other, but on their cell phones.

Well that's just plain rude.

> Today's young people, in many instances, are not learning any social skills.
> They text but don't talk.  Words can't convey the  same message as the
> spoken word and seeing the face of the person speaking.  No wonder there is
> rage on the part of some of these kids.

I don't blame that on social media or technology, I blame that on lousy
parenting.  As long as you learn the real stuff first, you're good to go in
any situation.

mark->