Keep up with technology

I was happy with Nokia cellphones, but my contract recently was upgraded. I NEED to be able to use a cell phone whenever I run into trouble with one of my cars, and am stuck on the side of the road!

I upgraded my contract recently and changed from Nokia to Blackberry - at a slightly lower monthly cost. My Nokia handsets all had the keyboard where the first key was an "A", or a "B" or a "C" depending on how the phone decided it wanted to spell a word. My Blackberry has a QWERTY keyboard, and even though the keys are small, they are easily used. I like where if you select an "A" ir remains an "A" in either upper or lower case, depending on how long you depress the key!

When I was in the army, the year before Zimbabwe came into existance, there were maybe 3 computers in the whole country, and the army one was on the 10th and 11th floors of the Earl Grey building in downtown Salisbury as it was then!

If the wind blew strongly and raised a dust storm, the computer could not add 2 and 2 and come up with the right answer. Now I have a tiny computer that fits easily in my pocket, that is:-

A radio
A GPS
A recording device
A camera
A computer - access to Google
and, by the way, also a phone!

I used to marvel at how user friendly my laptop is, and am amazed that my Blackberry is likewise incredibly user friendly. As time has gone by in the last 2 weeks, hardly a day has gone past when I have not learned something new on my Blackberry. I do have a seperate Garmin GPS that I can charge with my cigarette lighter in the dashboard. Being LDS, this is the most that I will use the cigarette lighter! Even if I were not LDS, I would in all likelihood, not smoke!

I saw an after market attachment this week where you can plug it into the lighter socket and it makes 1 socket into 3! This may be handy if I need to charge my Blackberry whilst on the move, using my Garmin at the same time.

30 years ago, a computer was ONLY a glorified adding machine, that only worked in a sterile dust free environment, but now you can get, relatively cheaply, a computer/digital camera/phone and so much more - that fits easily in your pocket!

I LOVE my Garmin GPS - an aftermarket unit that sticks to my windscreen. It squalks when I need to turn, or even if I am speeding! I have enen found that it can even tell you the elevation of where you are! I was stunned that the satellite can pinpoint where I am on the globe to within 6 meters, and even what my elecvation is!

I often know instictively where to go - inbuilt GPS in every male - but it is great that the handset can direct you, confirming your instincts. This would have been handy when I was on honeymoon, in areas that I had virtually never been! Those were the first arguements that my ex and I ever had! She had a map (what are those?) but I had my male inbuilt GPS. We were never really lost, except my brand new wife was telling me to "turn here!" when I knew full well that we needed to go straight! Turns out, we always got where we were going.

I have also found that my Garmin can be set up to direct you walking! This would be great somewhere like Cape Town, where I spent a few days walking before my accident. There was so much to see in easy walking distance of the hotel that I was staying in, since I had flown in! Those were the glorious BC days - Before Crash! Cape Town has so much in easy walking distange in the city surrounds - nassuming that you can easily walk!