Smartphones. Why you should buy one.

In this day and age, I can’t really think of anyone I know who wouldn’t benefit from purchasing and using a Smartphone. Even my parents, who are now both in their seventies, would find a smartphone a useful device.

Your modern smartphone is a true multimedia device. Like having a desktop in your pocket, it’s space age technology, even further ahead than the Tricorder in Star Trek!

Let’s look at the features of a good smartphone and see how useful they are.

GPS

What a bit of kit! GPS is what really sets the smartphone apart form lesser devices. Now, you know where you are, wherever you are. And more importantly, you now know where you’re going. With applications like Heyway, you don’t even need to phone your friend to tell them where you are. Even better - you don’t have to speak to them to guide them to you. Google maps will take care of that. So, a crowded bar, lots of noise, a conversation with someone you can’t hear, to guide them to a bar you don’t know. Now a thing of the past.

Camera and Video camera

A camera and a video camera. Awesome. Back in the day, you’d see something in the street that was interesting, stand and watch a while and then later when you were in the pub, hold your friend spellbound with a fascinating rendition of the story, Peter Ustinov style. And sometimes you’ll still want to do this. Especially if you want to embellish the story. But, you now have the option to take a picture, or even a video of the incident.

Consider an incident I came across last week. I’m walking along Regent Street, minding my own business, as you do. I see a crowd around a shop just past Hamley’s. Like a Meer cat, my neck’s up and I’m looking for the action. It’s a shoplifter. He’s being held in a headlock by 3 security guards. Prada. I haven’t seen real life, quality action like this for days (I was in Brixton last week). There’s a lot of shouting and he’s actually doing pretty well considering he’s outnumbered 3 to 1. Quick as a flash, I whip out my iphone and start recording. This is just the sort of footage that can give you centre stage at my weekly meeting of geeky friends in the pub. The fracas continues for several more minutes. The handbag (yes, a handbag!) he’s stolen is retrieved and the police are called to take his details and make sure that he gets a warning and a holiday to the Bahamas for being disadvantaged and having to steal. And I get to hold court showing the video and explaining to my mates what an interesting, diverse and dangerous part of town I work in. Everyone’s a winner.

Storage

Not only do you take the pictures and video footage, with the large memory in a smart phone, you can store it. And that means that all the photos I take, or even the one’s I download form another camera, are always with me. Pictures of my family and friends and interesting videos of shoplifters. I can access them anywhere and anytime. Just like having a photo album in your pocket.

Music and video

With a smartphone you’ve always got your favourite tune to hand. And so there’s never a dull moment. I keep a copy of every tune I’ve ever liked on my iphone. From Steps Gold to The Saturdays. Over 2000 tracks. Rock and Roll. Or in this case, cheesy pop. And it get’s even better. If you’re a real luddite and you don’t read books, you can even watch feature films on them.

The Internet

The greatest invention since fire and access to it from a phone. Could you have imagined this in 1998? I hardly need to wax lyrical about the virtues of the internet, but having access to it from anywhere, at any time, well it’s more than the human race deserves. And never again is there an outrageous statistic or fact uttered in the comfort of the local pub that cannot be instantly verified. From football statistics to physics, the oracle is in your pocket.

Calendars, alarms and organisers

Of course, you can use your smartphone to organise your life. It’s killed off PDAs and alarm clocks. And you never need to have a pen and notebook if you’ve got a smartphone. And that can only be a good thing.

Applications or apps

Third-party applications. A genius invention that has driven the success of the iphone in particular. From business applications to entertainment and everything in between. Ranging in cost from the free to the ridiculous and in usefulness from the inane to the essential. There are now nearly 300,000 of them.

Telephone calls

Yes, even with a myriad of functions and capabilities, the smartphone can still make and receive telephone calls.

Thus the smartphone is the greatest invention of the 21st Century – so far. If you haven’t got one, go and buy one today. It will change your life. And if you don’t have enough money, sell something. Your spare TV, your old phone or your desktop. You could even try shoplifting on Regent Street. Just avoid the handbag shop near Hamley’s...

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