the joys of yestertech

My oh my. While I wait to turn my Palm into a Treo 650, an activity made more complex by the merger of my wireless carrier into another carrier, I started fiddling with my humble Nokia 3560. I'll be damned if I can't already send and receive email with it. That amused me for the better part of an hour when I was running errands at lunchtime. Eventually, I even figured out how to store email addresses in this phone.

Similarly, in discussing the upcoming upgrade with my spouse, the Nordic God, he allowed as how he really would like to have a phone that could be dialed by speaking to it. This is actually a great feature which really increases safety when driving. Although the Nordic God is truly an expert driver, a goddess worries sometimes, you know? Further investigation into his current phone disclosed that his phone (hint: it's the one on the right) already has this capability. I just need to enable a five-dollar feature on our phone service, which I can do, naturally, by Internet.

Point one: it's amazing how often we long for new technology when we haven't fully exploited the old technology yet.

Not only can I do emails (and chat, for that matter), I could--if I had a wireless internet provider--actually surf the Net with the telephone that I already own.

I could surf the Net, that is, were I willing to do so with a screen exactly one-and-one-quarter inches by one inch.

Point two: just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. And that's why I actually do need that Treo.