I am sitting on my berth in a compartment of a train which is scheduled to take me to my village. In my hands is my smartphone which have become the best companion of my life. And with me is my dad who is traveling along with me and who is familiar with the power of the little gadget I was holding in my hand.
Suddenly my gaze took me outside the window to the crowd on the station. Almost everyone could be seen with a phone in their hands. Some talking, some looking at the little screens while other busy passing time tapping their phones in the waiting area.
It was then when it struck me something. There used to be a time when people used to buy phones to talk and talk, and just talk. Phones were practically no other purpose. And they used to pay large amount of money just for that. Well, life have changed today. Changed to an extent that it's nothing short of a miracle. Today talking is just one of the thing we can do with our smartphones. Today we have the kind of power that one could never imagine just a decade ago. Thanks to smartphones, we now have the power of Internet in our pockets, palms or wherever it could be carried.
I am a geek. One of it’s definition goes something like this, “A knowledgeable and obsessive computer enthusiast”. Well, I am not sure about the knowledgeable part but I sure am an enthusiast. I like to make the most of the power which the world of Internet has vested in us. But that means I am as good as I am near an Internet enabled computer. That's where the power of Smartphone truly comes into play, and the “fun” really starts to kick in.
It’s just been a few months until I migrated from a basic “just-talk” phone to a smartphone, and since then I have never looked back. My smart phone coupled with Internet on-the-go have provided me the possibilities that was previously unheard of!
Let’s start with the most fundamental aspect of the existence of human, “Communication”. My phone provides me emails right where I need them. My friends can be in touch with me wherever I go and whatever I do. The other day, mom sent me to take some vegetables. I being not so fond of cooking, got confused between the some items. All I had to do was to take a snapshot of them and email them to my mom's email. She immediately recommended me which of the two options to take, and I was happy as a guy ever be when his phone helps him to buy veggies!
With a feature known as instant photo upload, every snaps that I ever take is backed up securely to the cloud using Internet and which makes sure none of them ever get lost.
With this Internet service called, “Foursquare”, discovering new places have never been more fun. I can tag a place and write my review about it. When one of my friend goes to the same place, he can see my review and can know in advance about what I liked about the place! This is awesome!
What’s best about Internet is that physical boundaries doesn't matter! I can talk to someone from different city just like I can from my friends overseas! And when I let my dad video conference with my brother in England he can't resist that smile which makes me feel proud of the power I hold because of Internet.
Suddenly, a sizzling sound brought me back to the train compartment. I observed a kid who was playing Angry birds on his father's iPad. That reminded me of the most fundamental aspect of mobile devices, “Entertainment”.
What makes Internet on my phone most exciting is the amount of entertainment that it provides. I can listen to my favorite music streaming live from Shoutcast. I can record, edit and upload how my little cousin learns to walk and share directly with my friends all through my mobile! Instantly I receive comments from all of my relatives who are amazed by the improvement of my little cousin because they are also always within my reach from the palm of their hands.
Nothing can beat the sheer excitement which I get from online games. Competing with friends across the globe was never possible without the Internet. And my smartphone just makes it accessible from wherever I am. I don't have to wait to get to the theater before watching a movie. I can schedule my plans right on my phone while I am traveling! This makes entertainment so much fun, that sometimes I feel blessed for having my phone with me!
My mom would agree that I maybe have got the worst memory of the lot. I forget so many things. Like the items of the list which I have to shop for. I tend to forget about the assignment that I had to complete for my college. But I rarely forget things now. Reason? My smart phone. The best companion for people today is their smart phone. It’s with them all 24 hours of the day and every day of the month. And my smartphone is too smart to let me forget anything! All I have to do is to set a reminder. And it automatically synchronize the reminders with my online account. So when my phone is lying somewhere else I get a notification on my PC about the task which is too important to let go by. And hence I rarely forget anything!
(Keeping aside writing this article, since I forgot to add a reminder for it :P)
Anyway, back in the train my dad was lost in their own thoughts. I asked him to share what he was thinking. And he shared with me the little story which happened just one day before.
I was with my dad at my home. And we had to urgently book a couple of tickets to our village. But thanks to the power cuts we had no way to do it! Time was running out. Seats were filling up. It was then when something hit me and I flipped my phone out of the pocket. Fired the mobile browser and quickly booked the tickets for me any my dad. But all was not good.Tickets were in waiting!
Today morning I helped my parents pack the luggage and headed to the station. My dad was worried about whether we would get the seats. But I was trying to make him feel good since I was constantly keeping a tab on the status. And just about few minutes until we had to reach the station, I told him the good news. Tickets got confirmed. He smiled and together we went to board the train without any worries.
“Well dad”, I said to him “You already know how can I go on and on about the fun that I always seem to have from my little phone. But I think we should just enjoy the ride for now”. He nodded with affirmation, and with this train started to hit steam. Slowly and slowly train began to pick up pace.
Watching the face of my dad once again reminded me of how he always becomes amazed by the amount of power that Internet gives me. Cause in his time nothing of this magnitude was even remotely possible. I remember the first time I showed him our house from satellite picture. He was elated! And I told him we can trace entire world from the screen in front of him. We can never get lost because of GPS. And we don’t have to unroll heaps of maps just to find a particular place! All we now have to do it to click a button and just “search” for it! And “zap” within a few seconds we can get any information right under our thumbs.
Mobile Internet is a rebirth for me and my dad. And exploring it together with my dad is the biggest fun of my life!
As the train was picking up pace I exclaimed to my dad once again... “Here dad,” pointing to my phone, “We can see which station will come next before even we reach there as well as I can tell approximately 'when' we would reach there, and what is the best thing of that place... ...”
My dad took the phone from me and kept it inside his pockets. He told me, “Just be quiet son. Somethings are better to explore watching outside the window...”
This time I had no choice but to agree!!
This blog was primarily written for the contest on IndiBlogger named, "Internet is Fun". My Entry: http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=140876. For information on how Vodafone can provide the best ingredients for Fun through Internet visit, www.vodafone.in/fun.
