Thursday, July 17, 2008
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Thursday, July 17, 2008 |
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Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | Photo Gallery |
| Fielder’s Choice Technology My two teenagers can send text messages in their sleep. But I can put them to shame when it comes to a computer keyboard – thanks to a high school course in typing almost 30 years ago. That actually bothers me, but I guess it’s another sign of the times. Last week Apple unveiled its new iPhone 3G. It’s advertised as “twice as fast.” And like many cell phones these days, it does much more – surfs the web, downloads e-mail, gives you directions via GPS, plays music and so on and so forth. I wonder if you can watch ESPN. I’m sure it’s coming. I thought I had to have one of the new iPhones, but I was wrong. I’m somewhat of an Apple addict, but more so when it comes to computers. We use them each week to produce your newspaper. But I didn’t want to wait in line for the phone. Maybe later, when the lines die down, or maybe I will update some other way. Or maybe I will just keep the one I’ve got. I have the then famous flip phone from a few years back. It’s been dropped a time or two on the pavement, but it still works. I actually learned to text a few months back. I’m not fast, but my teenagers were impressed. I just can’t understand why they want to text their friends instead of actually talking to them. “Just call them,” I say, time and time again. I can take pictures, too, with my cell phone but I don’t do it much. The advancement of technology continues to amaze me. I grew up in the country back when our home phone was on a party line. I guess about 13 years ago I got my first “bag phone” for the car when I was serving as publisher of the newspapers in Aberdeen and Amory and driving back and forth between the two cities. I thought I had hit the big time. Then I advanced to the smaller phone, with no bag, and I got one of those Alabama Crimson Tide covers for it. I was definitely riding high then. Cell phones are a good advancement, but they’re bad, too. Driving beside people on the interstate last week in Memphis who were holding their cell phones and steadily talking scared me a bit. Being in the lunch line last week with a gentleman who used the Bluetooth method bothered me. It was like he was talking to himself, and he did it all the way through the line, and he wasn’t happy with the person on the other end. I don’t like it when I go out to eat at a nice restaurant and someone at the table next to me gets a loud cell phone ring and begins talking loudly to the caller. As great as cell phones can be when it comes to keeping up with teenagers and telephoning in times of danger, sometimes they just need to be turned off or least put on vibrate. And our TVs are changing, too. Full-power television stations nationwide must stop using the old method of transmitting TV signals known as analog and begin broadcasting exclusively in a digital format by February 17, 2009. High definition TV is here. Some stations have already made the upgrade. Our main TV in the den is about eight years old. It’s a flat screen but it’s not razor thin. In fact it’s the heaviest television I’ve ever owned. And I’ve moved it twice since its original purchase. Saturday, Pam and I looked at some new flat panel TVs - 32-inch, 40-inch, 46-inch and even bigger. I’m just not sure I want to spend that much money, and I’m not sure I want to move that huge Sony Trinitron again, even if just to another room. I can’t even believe I’m even making decisions concerning digital TV. I grew up with one of those huge antennas attached to the house, and we did good to pick up three or four channels. I didn’t experience cable television until I went to college. But I like the thoughts of bigger and better TV, particularly when it comes to ball games. |
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