i smiled today at 11:52 AM


NOKIA has come out with some new phones, again. SONY ERICSSON too, but the new phones are really beautiful. I think MOTOROLA also just came out with some new features as well.

Anyway, they're all just phones.

As long as you can call out and SMS, it's good enough.

Haha, nonsense! If you are one of the many people who keep saying that, people will laugh at you because you are not being honest.

You're smiling now, aren't you?

Nowadays, phones are no more just phones. It's life put into a battery-charged gadget that, without it in your pocket, you'd would feel like your heart was no longer ticking. That bad? More or less, wouldn't you say?

You've got phones with video features - watch movies, video clips, MTVs, any moving image that exists. Phones now let you watch TV channels too, anywhere, with "widest" coverage. Phones now can tell you which direction to follow if you are lost on some highway. 5 years ago, that only existed in James Bond movies. We go online from our phones now - checking email, blogging, searching the net, cheating in exams (oops!).

Seriously, it's not even stopping or slowing down. I am not sure what to expect next in mobile phone technology. And it is moving fast.

At one time, mobile phones were huge. Really huge. They say you could throw your phone at a dog, and it would die, instantly, no mercy.

Then they got smaller, easier to carry, easier to lose.

Then when 3G came out, they got bigger again. Bigger, but still stylish nonetheless.

And now, everyone one, from a 2-month old baby, to a 110-year-old great-great-great grandmother has some fancy mobile phone. OK, maybe not that bad, but everyone seems to have one, and I mean like primary school kids, and even kindergarten children.

You know, back when I was in secondary school, the mobile phone trend was just more or less blooming in Malaysia. It wasn't a big deal if you did not have a mobile phone. I mean, if you look at today's society, this is what could happen....

STUDENT1: "I don't have a handphone".
STUDENT2: "HUHHHHH?!?!?!???!?!? Where the hell do you come from?????"

Sorry to those who really do not own your own handphone, you are blessed.

During my secondary school time, it was like this....

STUDENT1: "Eh eh eh, I brought a handphone to school!!"
STUDENTS WITHIN 1-km VICINITY: "Wuahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! See see see!!! So nice!!!"

Having a mobile phone back then was big news. It was rare. Students never brought a phone around unless their parents lent them theirs just to easily locate their kids when fetching them from a party, *for that night only*.

Back then, mobile phones were fancy, no matter what they looked like or what they did. Simply because they all had the same functions and looked more or less the same.

I remember even in my first year at college, my housemate had this phone (no colour screen yet, not very fashionable yet, not affordable yet).. and it was a simple phone, small, normal, BUT, you could use it to listen to the radio. And we were all fascinated, because, a phone that lets you tune in to radio stations. WOW! Then that phone had this button you could press to silence your phone ringtone if it suddenly starts ringing and you are in class or in a meeting (if you forgot to silent-mode your heart, I mean phone). And with that silly function, everyone was shocked that a phone could do that.

Now.

Huh.

You know what phones do now.

When Allister, my friend from long ago, had a phone with colour screen, he was worshiped by everyone. Because no one ever owned a phone with a colour screen back then. You had to be rich. You had to be, well, rich, that's all.

Now.

Huh.

You know la.

When I was studying for my computer diploma in 2002, this phone below was considered very modern, and if you had this phone, heh, popular ye shall be...

Even still, during that time, not everyone had their own mobile phone.

I even remember back in 2000, SMSing was not popular at all. Because there was actually no such thing really. I mean there was SMS, but no one bothered to use it that much. It only worked if you sent SMSes within your own mobile network. And still, not every phone had the SMS feature too. And most people had no idea how to type in a message using a phone.

Now, even when you are in the same classroom, you SMS.

Wait, now, there's bluetooth. Save your money, bluetooth a message over to your friend who is nearby. So much fun, isn't it?

Walkman phones, camera phones, GPS phones, PDA phones.....

Don't say you don't mind any phone as long as you can call out and SMS.

We all know the truth :-)