Dateline Jerusalem — It is said that a computer is only as smart as the person inputting the information or knowing how to retrieve that information. I admit I am computer illiterate. Since a smart phone is like a pocket-sized personal computer, I have become cell phone illiterate as well. I thought I could not live without a cell phone that enables me to make calls, send and receive emails, edit documents, take pictures, play games, perform any task a computer does. I realize I miss my simple no-functions cell phone that only allowed me to make calls. I am not the only one who wants to throw away the smart phone. Three close friends are as frustrated as I am. with their smart phones. We are “I hate this stupid smart phone!” we constantly tell each other. The smart phone has outsmarted itself.
So Much Is Homegrown
The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola. I am amazed at the various technology Israel has provided for cell phones and smart phones. Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. WAZE, a free G.P.S. navigation software for smart phones that can give walking or driving instructions that take into account accidents, traffic jams and other events that may delay your arrival at a destination, was invented in Israel, and just acquired by Google. TransChip, another Israeli invention, made taking pictures with cell phones possible by putting a high-resolution camera into a tiny electronic chip that fits in a mobile phone. Another Israeli recently invented StoreDot, a smart phone battery that reduces the time it takes to charge from hours to less than 30 seconds because it charges within the phone as you go. Another Israeli invention is Viber, a cross-over instant messaging VOIP application for smart phones. GetTaxi, developed by two Israelis, connects taxi drivers and their customers, allowing them to order a cab through their smart phones or through the cab company's website.
Regular mobile phones could only call people. Today the smart phone has many applications that allow it to function as a personal computer. It has a processor, RAM and Rom, just like a computer. A smart phone is a combination of a PDA with wireless connectivity that could send and receive emails, a cell phone with messaging capabilities. A smart phone connects to the internet so that a person could access and browse through a multitude of websites. No longer is there a need to carry both a PDA and a phone since the advent of the smart phone. The convenience of having access to your email account wherever you may be is a great temptation. The ability to send text messages using instant messaging services like AOL's AIM and Yahoo! Messenger can be addicting.
Why Bother to Hate?
Why, with all of these ingenious inventions, do I hate my smart phone and want to return to the dark ages of simple mobile phones and cell phones? My smart phone is too smart for me. Extremely sensitive. The slightest movement or airflow affects it. A friend, while talking on her smart phone, discovered that her ear accidentally caused her smart phone to dial her brother in another country, creating an unsolicited three-way conversation. Sometimes my ear presses the Hold button and my friends hang up because they think we have been disconnected. Another friend's chin put her smart phone on speaker. My chin often presses the mute button and sometimes disconnects my calls. One friend was playing a computer game on her smart phone while having a conversation with her husband who was sitting next to her. Suddenly he ran into the other room because his telephone was ringing. It turned out that his wife accidentally called his phone while playing her computer game. That same friend was playing a computer game on her smart phone when it somehow dialed her cousin and awakened him at 2 a.m. All of my friends complain of calls from people who allegedly are returning their calls. My friends claim they never called any of them.
My smart phone is the smartest phone of all. Although I keep it in another room on Shabbat because I do not use the phone on Shabbat, my smart phone was so smart, it dialed a friend all by itself with no one around to touch it. My air conditioner unit must have been working so hard that day that the cold airflow was all the pressure necessary to dial the smart phone. Or perhaps a smart phone is smart after all, so smart that it doesn't need humans to use it.
L'hitraot. Shachar