“Hello? Mummy, is that you…?”

I read a deeply disturbing story today – about a new mobile phone for 4 year olds.

Check out my new toy...

The Firefly handset has five buttons: an ‘on’ and ‘off’ button, two ‘call’ buttons – one with a picture of a woman, and one with a picture of a man which will represent ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’ and finally an address book button. It looks pretty much like a toy, so will appeal to the 4 year old market (if they even truly know what they want) – but the truth remains that it’s not actually a toy. It’s a real, working, mobile phone.

I find the whole thing quite bizarre, but I think the thing that worried me more was: When would you ever leave a 4 year old on its own!? Surely children of that age are always in protective care? Be it from their parents, their nurseries or schools – 24 hours a day. Luckily, the phone’s makers, an Irish couple, say that you can’t send photos or texts from it, although one handset can receive photos….hmm.

All in all, whilst I’m all for embracing modern technology, rolling with the times etc, I think 4 years old is just that little bit too early. In fact, WAY too early.

30 minutes on the Tube…

…can bring up some interesting finds. I enjoy people watching, as does pretty much 100% of the population, and for me one of the best places to do this is on the Tube on my daily half hourly commute into work. It’s for this reason I’ve decided share with you all my foray into the world of 30 minutes on the Tube.

Today’s 30 minutes…’When technology fails’

I often spot people casually whipping out their BlackBerry/iPod etc and then revealing one of a few potential faces. I’ve reduced it down to three basic faces:

Happy: Phone is working and all is right in the world

Surprised: Phone is not working much to owner’s surprise

Angry: Phone is not working and this causes rage in the owner of said gadget.

I witnessed the ‘angry’ face this morning. A businessman, aged about 30 I’d say, pulls out his phone to check his emails/text messages so far for the day. It’s a new phone, very stylish and modern. He tries turning it on – but to no avail. He looks around, and tuts, once, very loudly. He tries taking off the back cover, checking the battery’s in there, and starts muttering, probably some form of expletive under his breath. He tries turning it on again. It’s simply not going to work. And then, out comes the ‘angry’ face. It’s amazing how we rely on technology and mobile phones in particular, and when they fail it’s seen by some, possibly many, as an absolute catastrophe. The ‘happy’ face and ‘surprised’ face weren’t present on the Tube today, maybe they got off before I got on? Either way, they don’t travel as regularly as the ‘angry’ face – especially when mobile phones are involved.

Next time

MP3 players and such-like: musical etiquette on the Tube…