![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A Little Computer That Makes Phone Calls
Apr. 24th, 2013 11:47 amI was going to post a big long Kilroy about how I upgraded our cell phones, but then I realized that nobody really cares about us upgrading our cell phones. Everyone over the age of 14 in most of the world has already had at least one cell phone upgrade. It's not all that exciting.
So I'll talk about my grandson, Igor the Younger, instead.
When I was shopping for phones our provider's site advertised their phones as "Wonderful little handheld computers. Some of them even make phone calls." Cute, and very true. As someone tweeted not too long ago, "My phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. They put a man on the moon. I shoot birds at pigs." It should come as no surprise that Igor the Younger enjoys borrowing my phone, and one of the considerations when I chose my new phone was what games I could load up for him to play with. If anyone has suggestions, send them along. Among others, I'm considering installing a game based on one of his favorite cartoons, a PBS learn-to-read effort called Super Why. And yes, Angry Birds is already there.
Meanwhile I still have the phone I replaced. It no longer has service and says "Emergency Calls Only," of course, since I ported my number to the new phone. I considered selling it, but the market for Windows Phone 7 devices that can't be upgraded to WP8 is pretty limited.
Then night before last as I was plopped on the bed setting up the new phone Igor was plopped next to me playing with the old phone, listening to a song by Trout Fishing In America and playing some game or another, and I realized that it's still a wonderful little handheld computer, it just doesn't make phone calls anymore.
So the next time he left it unguarded I hooked it up to the Zune software that manages the music and apps on the device, and everything worked as expected. I didn't try installing any apps, but I was able to update and delete music off the phone and the software recognized all the apps I had installed.
Now Igor the Younger wants to know if he can keep the old phone in his room. I'm sort of inclined to let him, after I turn off the Wi-Fi and uninstall anything that could cause damage or cost me money. He likes having music when he goes to sleep, and he seems to sleep better when he has his music when he's going to sleep (the soundtrack to Kung Fu Panda is a big favorite).
This kid is absolutely fearless when it comes to technology. I think of modern technology as a lever, an extension of my mind or body to allow them to do much greater things than they could do without it. He's going to look at technology as an ocean, an environment he lives in and navigates through, and pay about as much attention to it as a fish does to water, and for many of the same reasons. And he's going to look back at today's phones – excuse me, handheld computers – the same way I look back at the black-and-white TVs and five-tube radios that were common when I was his age: interesting relics of the past that foreshadowed an ability to do so much more.
So I'll talk about my grandson, Igor the Younger, instead.
When I was shopping for phones our provider's site advertised their phones as "Wonderful little handheld computers. Some of them even make phone calls." Cute, and very true. As someone tweeted not too long ago, "My phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. They put a man on the moon. I shoot birds at pigs." It should come as no surprise that Igor the Younger enjoys borrowing my phone, and one of the considerations when I chose my new phone was what games I could load up for him to play with. If anyone has suggestions, send them along. Among others, I'm considering installing a game based on one of his favorite cartoons, a PBS learn-to-read effort called Super Why. And yes, Angry Birds is already there.
Meanwhile I still have the phone I replaced. It no longer has service and says "Emergency Calls Only," of course, since I ported my number to the new phone. I considered selling it, but the market for Windows Phone 7 devices that can't be upgraded to WP8 is pretty limited.
Then night before last as I was plopped on the bed setting up the new phone Igor was plopped next to me playing with the old phone, listening to a song by Trout Fishing In America and playing some game or another, and I realized that it's still a wonderful little handheld computer, it just doesn't make phone calls anymore.
So the next time he left it unguarded I hooked it up to the Zune software that manages the music and apps on the device, and everything worked as expected. I didn't try installing any apps, but I was able to update and delete music off the phone and the software recognized all the apps I had installed.
Now Igor the Younger wants to know if he can keep the old phone in his room. I'm sort of inclined to let him, after I turn off the Wi-Fi and uninstall anything that could cause damage or cost me money. He likes having music when he goes to sleep, and he seems to sleep better when he has his music when he's going to sleep (the soundtrack to Kung Fu Panda is a big favorite).
This kid is absolutely fearless when it comes to technology. I think of modern technology as a lever, an extension of my mind or body to allow them to do much greater things than they could do without it. He's going to look at technology as an ocean, an environment he lives in and navigates through, and pay about as much attention to it as a fish does to water, and for many of the same reasons. And he's going to look back at today's phones – excuse me, handheld computers – the same way I look back at the black-and-white TVs and five-tube radios that were common when I was his age: interesting relics of the past that foreshadowed an ability to do so much more.
