Face Time - don't waste time!

I am convinced that the world is made up of two different types of people ; those with iPhones and those without.

I have recently crossed over to the other side and belong to that first group of absorbed screen strokers and wi-fi seekers. My iPhone provides me with hours of instructional fun. I am engrossed in this pocket cyber world.  I engage in “Cool App Speak” with other iPhone users.  For those of you without iPhones I will try not to sound too condescending when explaining the powers of this modern piece of equipment that is so much more than just a phone.

Firstly, if you know another iPhone 4 user, you can call them over a wi-fi network and they appear in your hand!  I recall the series of Thunderbirds that I used to watch as a child.  The Tracy family could contact their father through their portraits on the wall. Their eyes would flash and then they would come through in person, live, to talk about their adventures with their dad! I knew this would happen one day! With the iPhone, you must remember that you appear to them too in whatever state you may be which is why when my daughter wanted to introduce me to her new boyfriend in London and “Face-timed” me I had to decline the call as I was sitting in a hair salon with foil strips hanging unattractively around my face. Not a good moment for the boyfriend to “face” the new girlfriend’s mum! But how incredible to have that technology that transcends intercontinental borders and enables you to see your loved ones so far away and yet in front of you!

Then you press another button and you can take incredible photos and videos at any time and then press another few buttons and send them out to the universe via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. You are a little in danger of becoming a social pest with the array of photos you tend to find interesting and then inflict on all kinds of people at any given time but it will still provide you with immense pleasure on a purely selfish level.

So I have phone, photos and now also phonograph - My iPhone has stored 350 of my favourite songs so I can play them through my headphones, car stereo and travel speakers.

But the best part, and this is where you get separated from the crowd, is that it’s all about APPS!  These applications are a wide range of highly developed, specialized computer programs that help us to think, play and do so many interesting things on iPhones and iPads. On my iPhone, I can locate a restaurant, the moon and stars, tune my guitar, name a song, convert currency,  as well as play all kinds of games and inform myself of the best wines to buy on any occasion.  The list goes on. Whatever your hobby, your interest or your need for information, there is an App for it!


I didn’t want to sound like an advert but more a convert to this incredible, highly portable piece of technology. A highlight was that on my return to New York from London Heathrow I was given the option by my airline to either print my boarding pass on online check-in or download it on my phone.  Not hard to guess which I chose to do! Armed with my iPhone I go straight to the gates and at  security I hand it to the officer much to the bemusement of fellow passengers behind me.  Even the officer seemed surprised when his scanner read the barcode on my screen and confirmed my name and flight number. “Congratulations! This is the first time I have done this and it works!” he said to me as he handed me back my treasured accessory.  How cool is that!