Navigating technology
Grandad July 14th, 2008
There is a strange passion these days for producing items that do things over and above what they are supposed to do.
Probably the worst example of this is the mobile phone.
A phone is a phone.
What twat decided it would be a brilliant idea to make it into a camera? If I want to take a photograph I will bring my camera, which is what I bought it for. Unfortunately, my camera is useless for making phone calls.
I was messing with my phone the other night and discovered that I can browse the Interweb with it [my phone, not my camera]. This came as a bit of a surprise, as I thought that was what computers were for. I poked around a couple of sites before both my battery and my credit ran out. Useless.
What next? Are they going to produce motorbikes that double as remote controls? Will my toaster be able to receive satellite television?
I mentioned recently that I had been coerced into buying a SatNav.
I don’t really have much use for it at the moment, because, in general, when I am going anywhere, I know where I’m going.
However…
The SatNav has a couple of nice little features. It has Bluetooth [whatever the hell that is], and it’s a radio transmitter.
This means that when it’s in the car, it can act as a hands-free yoke for my phone. So when I’m driving, I can chat away to people and hear them through the car radio.
It also means that I can load up loads of my favourite music onto it, and play that through the radio.
I did that last week. I loaded up some real music, as distinct from the crap they produce nowadays. I loaded up McGuinness Flint, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich, Manfred Mann, Canned Heat, The Hollies and of course Moody Blues, as well as a load of others. So now I can drive around the place blasting out great stuff from the 60s and 70s, which not only sounds good, but it brings back great memories too.
I now use my SatNav purely for the phone and the music. Navigation can wait for another time.
I wonder if it makes a cup of tea?
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