Much as I hate to admit it, life has changed since february 14th. Since the iPhone came into my life. I had been dithering about buying a new phone for months but when the matter was taken out of my hands and I ‘found’ a brand new iPhone 4S under the quilt (thanks to Rahul’s enduring love for creating surprises!) my first reaction was self doubt. The first few days I was floundering to do simple things, even type on the touchscreen. Having used a blackberry the past couple of years, I missed push mail and bbm.
But slowly and surely, the apple interface has won me over. I now live my life via my phone. The major value add is the ease of surfing the net and of reading on the phone screen. Because this is now effortless, I access all the information I want to on the phone. The second pleasure has been the benefits of the touchscreen in using social networking sites. The third is a great camera. I now read, process info, write some of my blogs, and share my info via my phone. It’s not like my BB didn’t do these. It did. But a personal device is not about capability; it’s about how intuitive it is and whether it is able to draw you into its fold, take on the role of being an extension of you.
With my limited experience, I see my new phone growing on me. No inanimate object has ever done this to me before, not even the iPad! I also see this as a new way of living and experiencing the environment in which I live. It’s me and my phone working as a team now, recording things we see (people, built environment, nature through pics), hear (I use voice recordings to capture what my teachers demonstrate in music class or the way a tukda is to be spoken in kathak, in meetings to record important discussions), think (write notes, blog, emails), and share (connect via Facebook, twitter, chat apps, etc).
All this is helping me do many activities in real time rather than struggling to bring my thoughts to bear at the time of the day I finally get to sit at my computer! I know I seem wide eyed in wonder about this seemingly ordinary experience in these tech-driven times. But what the heck, I’m going to record this state of wide-eyedness in real time too. Happy belated birthday and a big thank you, Mr jobs!