Friday 8 October 2010

I was so much Older then...

When I was about 12 or 13 I used to have fanciful dreams of the future. This was, you understand, nearly quarter of a Century before 1984 which was looked upon from that distance with some trepidation as an Orwellian future of flying cars and Big Brother...I wasn't to know that flying cars would still be a dream in the 21st Century and Big Brother would be a tedious TV Reality show.

I used to daydream about the technology though.

I looked forward to a future where I could contact anyone in the World from a small device in my pocket instead of queueing up to use one of those red public urinals with bakelite telephones and a heavy mechanical "Button B" to press if the recipient answered. (And the recipient would normally answer with the name of their exchange and their three digit number!).

I looked forward to a future where I could track my walks and bus journeys on a visual map to see where I'd been and measure the mileage using some all-seeing eye-in-the-sky.

I looked forward to being able to access every piece of music ever recorded from a small hand-held device instead of having to go down to "Discland" to pay 37/6d (£1.75...the equivalent of £4,500 now) for a black plastic disc which was taken home and scratched with a needle on my vinyl covered Dansette 2 valve player.

I looked forward to a facility where I could access all the World's knowledge from a single small device instead of having to have a large wheelbarrow of Encyclopaedia Britannica with me at all times.

I looked forward to a device which would take photographs and show them to me instantly instead of my bakelite Brownie with 127 roll film which had to be posted to Gratispool in Glasgow who sent me tiny glossy  pictures 2 weeks later.

Anyway my dreams finally came true in February of this year when I was able to purchase my first iPhone. It's everything I ever dreamed of in a device, although I think it may now be trying to tell me something....



12 comments:

Z said...

Rog, love, you'll never be short of friends.

When I was a child, our phone number was Oulton Broad Four Oh. Once, I picked up the phone and was shocked to have a voice say "number please". I slammed it down and had quite a problematical telephone phobia for the next twenty years. I could answer calls, but not make them.

It's just occurred to me that I actually like making calls on my iPhone.

Zig said...

I wish I had an iPhone *sigh*

There was a phone box on the way to school and a mad dash to be the first to press button B to see if you could get the tuppeny bit returned!

I miss tuppeny bits
but I miss my iphone more

**sigh**

Timorous Beastie said...

I'm having a Twilight zone moment - have just come home from the theatre, where I saw 1984.

Dave said...

I saw 1984.


26 years ago.

Christopher said...

If that's what you dreamt then, what do you dream for the future now?

Roses said...

*puts head in hands*

I knew it. You and Z are about to have long love-in about the iphone.

Call me old fashioned but my mobile sends texts, makes calls and if I'm feeling daring, takes pictures. Just the way I like it.

Rosie said...

Call me old fashioned but I don't have an iphone or a mobile because I do not like telephones. But I did buy last years ipod, which similar to yourself, is a childhood dream come true.

Geoff said...

I use mine for the following...

Emails
BBC News App
Echofon for Twitter App
The Daily Mash App
and the Kindle App on which I am currently reading The Wind in the Willows, pretending I'm Stephen Fry.

I'm even sending texts such as "I am at L Bridge" or "Points failure stuck at Lewisham".

Madame DeFarge said...

Oh Rog! I'll be your pal. I use my iPhone to play Fingerzilla. Makes me endlessly happy.

Macy said...

Who needs friends when you've got an iphone anyhoos??
I use mine to read the Grauniad and HuffPo apps on the way to work.. and to watch videos on the way home.

Annie said...

Now you're just showing off.

(I want one.)

Rog said...

Z: I wonder if you answered the phione in a Broad accent?

Zig: I don't remember tuppeny bits, I thought that was just rhyming slang.

Timorous: Did you have drinks at half time? 992?

Dave: You were still at school, right?


Christopher: It really depends on my cheese intake.

Roses: I'm not sure I can make telephone calls on my iPhone...the battery never lasts long enough.

Rosie: Nearly all you need on a wifi link - apart from GPS. You probably know where you are though...

Geoff: I can't see you as St Fry. I can see you channelling Leonard Rossiter though... that would be his texts.

Madame de F: Does it use the vibrate facility?

Macy: HuffPo? I must give that a try...

Annie: Go to Tescos and get one!