Remember when cell phones started popping up everywhere? You could be at the grocery store and the guy in front of you would be on his phone while the cashier tried to get him to pay for his groceries. It always took this guy longer to retrieve his credit card because he was using one hand to hold the phone to his ear.A few years later, the idea of the bluetooth headset came out and instead of being extremely rude to the cashier, he looked like a complete lunatic to anyone on the opposite side of his earpiece. Standing there talking too loud and to himself. The credit card was more accessible but he gave up any illusion of not being a jerk.
Just as I was evolving to accept this form of annoyance, Apple had to release the iPhone 4 with its FaceTime chat. If you don't know what this new piece of technology is, then you probably haven't been exposed to it yet. You will. Let me put it this way: It's much worse than having to hear someone on his phone. Simply put, it's a camera that is on the same side as the receiver. A user can now hold a video chat right from his phone wherever he gets service.
I didn't think anything of it when I read about the iPhone incorporating this technology, but yesterday I was able to witness just how annoying it actually is to anyone not involved in the conversation. I was in line to see a movie and the guy next to me was holding his phone out in front of himself and talking extra, extra loud to make sure that the microphone was picking up his voice over the surrounding noise. After chit chatting for a bit, his wife leaned in and started yelling at the phone too. Isn't that neat?
As cool as the technological advance is, it really made this guy look like a pretentious punk. "Look at me and my retina display. Look how I can carry on a pointless conversation over video for no reason at all other than being on video." Again, it's incredible what Apple has designed. I'm amazed at how cool the idea of it all is, but do we really need this? Is this really what we should be spending our money on? You think this is bad? Yesterday, Apple announced the new iPod Touches will carry the same feature. I can't wait.
The family I work for (I'm a nanny now, by the way, to continue our Facebook thread. No more Wal-mart!) just got the iPhone 4 and we were playing with the video chat capabilities just to check it out. I mentioned that they could use it while her husband was away for business so their children can say goodnight to their dad and actually be able to see his face. So it CAN be used for cool, but I agree - using it just to use it is pretty lame.
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