Grant Sidaway - Fingertip Information

 Read more from Grant Sidaway.

I visited my daughter, Renee, in England last year. Was met by her and her partner, Paul, at Heathrow, they had arranged a rental car for me so we collected up the bags and we were off to the carpark were they had left their car. When inserting the ticket into the pay machine, before getting to the car, it told us where they had parked in case they had forgotten.  Apparently when entering the carpark a photo is taken of the number plate which is associated with the ticket dispensed from the machine. It then identifies where you eventually park the car... how handy is that!

Paul said the rental car company was a short drive somewhere adjacent to the airport, they had an address and a postcode. No fiddling about with maps, he just simply inserted his Blackberry into its cradle on the dashboard, entered the postcode and up came the map. More than that this Blackberry has GPS (Global Positioning System) built in, so it instantly became the route finder and told him the turnings to take.  The map was downloaded from Goolge Maps and GPS unit over from there.

A Blackberry is a brand of a “smartphone” which means it can be used to make calls, send and receive text messages just like a mobile phone. When in the car cradle it automatically connects by wireless to the car stereo, making it hands free when making or answering calls. It also connects to the internet, can access all websites, send and receive emails  and this model has GPS onboard. The catch phrase associated with credit cards was once “never leave home without it”. How true it is with this amazing device. If I had a Blackberry would I need a computer.... well maybe or maybe not.

Oh yes and it also has a good quality video camera and still camera along with a voice recorder.  It made me feel like a dinosaur carting around a laptop computer!

Our desire to have seamless technology seems to be with us already. How much I hear you say? The mobile company actually gave the Blackberry to him when he signed up for a 12 month contract and he has unlimited use for the equivalent of $85.00 per month, okay for some it could be a bit steep but wow the convenience for many it would be worth it!
 

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