Sunday, June 20, 2010

Why I Love Touch Devices, Especially My iPhone and iPad

Today I was thinking how nice it would be to have a land line telephone, that had the same touch screen capabilities as my iPhone and iPad.  One gets spoiled with the touch screen technology and one finds that other devices in her life seem archaic at most.   Most younger adults would say, why have a land line?  And I do agree that most land lines could and should be eliminated and replaced by a smartphone or cell phone or a voip device.  But I want one that has a touch screen. 

Granted there are a series of menus and buttons on the cordless phones in my house, that do perform some of the same simple touch operations found on my iPhone.  I just find that as I get older, the eyesight becomes infinitely worse for reading small print and distinguishing buttons on a cordless phone.

Alas, it would be nice if all current analog-type devices could be magically transformed into a touch device.  Will that be in our future?  Will I be able to operate most devices in my home and office with touch sensitive buttons and screens that can be read without dragging out a magnifying glass and turning on a near by lamp?  

Do you know how spoiled you get, when you can have one hand held device to perform so many of the frustrating tasks that seniors face as they get older?  Have you tried to set an alarm clock on an old  device that has push buttons?  Do you fear that you will miss your doctor appointment or oversleep for that flight to Paris on the vacation you planned and paid hard earned big bucks?  Do you find yourself unable to call someone on your land line, due to the fact that you mis-dial their phone number, pushing wrong buttons because they are so small or you are unable to see the redial button icon?

I love the ability to use that one device, be it my iPhone or iPad to do so many of the tasks that other devices perform.  It is nice to know that I can carry one compact device, to serve as a book, research tool, library, alarm clock, game machine, photo slideshow frame, post office, phone, recipe book, bible, sound machine, streaming radio, CD player, remote for my piano, shopping cart, GPS device, still and video camera, educational tool for grandchildren, weather station, stock manager, answering machine, just to name a few.

I can't help but thinking that even with all the advancements, I have seen in my lifetime, I still want to see and experience more of these technical strides.  I sort of feel like Wilma in the first animated situation TV comedy, The Flintstones ... with some of the best technology around, but so wanting more. 


Flintstones... Meet the Flintstones,
They're a modern stoneage family.
From the town of Bedrock,
They're a page right out of history. 

Let's ride with the family down the street.
Thru the courtesy of Fred's two feet. 

When you're with the Flintstones,
have a yabba dabba doo time,
a dabba doo time,
we'll have a gay old time. 


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WOW! I never realized that an Ipad or Iphone has so many capabilities! Great blog Joan! Love ya Laura