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The biggest mindblower for me is that now it's difficult to find someone who doesn't have a mobile phone. (And not the über-geek who rails against the whole purpose, but someone who can afford one but doesn't want one.) It's just so ubiquitous. Didn't they have a model where you carried the battery like a briefcase and the phone was coiled to the battery? (I seem to remember one from an old "Rob Base/EZ Rock video.)
I love my phones. I love knowing that anywhere I have a signal, I have a line to my friends and family and work. I don't like when people want to abuse my line of communication, but I don't always have to answer the phone. "Leave a message and I'll get back to you when I'm ready." (That's what I'm thinking, not what's on my outgoing voicemail message.)
The brand-identity examples you bring up, BobR, are slightly different in this case because there never was a mobile phone brand called "Cell" like there are tissue companies like "Kleenex" and cotton swab companies like "Q-Tip" and photocopy companies like "Xerox." I do understand your point, however, but here there is no company trying to get people to stop calling "cell phones" "Cell phones."
I'm not aware of the argument of cell phones are no longer what they are. Isn't "cell" short for "cellular" (and not that stupid movie!) which refers to the transceiver towers?
A cell phone is different than a WiFi PDA because you get to hear the other party's voice (and by extension, their timbre and emotions) and you get instant communication.
I'm more inclined to consider the Treo a cell phone over the Blackberry, but I'm not sure if that's because the Treo looks more like a phone or if it's because of my Palm OS bias over the RIM OS (or whatever it's called, Symbian or something?)
Either way, our way of life is irrevocably changed from when I was a kid, and my children's life is bound to be even more techy. Sounds silly, right, but the growth curve is climbing ever steeper that I'm starting to worry if I'll be able to help my kids with their 3rd grade homework where they'll be asked to write a program that graphs the state capitals over distance from the Equator.
And I don't even have kids yet.
POL9A
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