GILBERTO ROGEL / TORONTO /
On January 2006, ten years ago, the world was perplexed when the famous Steve Jobs unveiled one of his flagship products, the Apple IPhone, the electronic device which reinvented the phone communication and now is the king in this field without any close competitor. The IPhone not only was so new with unique features but also rapidly became to be one of the icons of the modern human life around the world.
But wait a minute, before 2006 our life was different, perhaps better or worse, we do not know certainly. In a matter of fact, people older than 30 or 40 years always has shown more resistance to the technological chances but not now. For example, I would like to bring a joke between a friend of mine and his wife. As she recalled, one day they were camping in a beautiful and remote place about two hours from Toronto.
As my friend usually does, the first thing he did that time was walked around with his Smartphone on hands looking for the best spot to catch wireless signal. Fortunately for him his effort paid off, he got an email with a positive news which he was expecting for long time. My friend, who older than 45 years, gets everyday many e-mails, dozens of text messages, innumerable phone calls, some Facebook posts, etc.; which without a doubt are part of his normal routine.
“Always connected, always on-line, always on the move, 24\7, On-call available all the time, wherever you go, whatever you do, of course have its cons, your life never will be the same, for better or for worse” says street people.
Today more people (young, grown-ups, seniors) embrace the new technology with their mind and soul open for whatever happens. Only to think that they going to missed, maybe an important text message, a business email, a tweet for loves one, or a post about cat playing piano, or better still a news about our crazy-narcissist-maniac neighborhood President is more than ridiculous.
Back before IPhone era Canada and the world were dominated for a company based on Waterloo, Ontario, maybe if you are older than 30 years you remember it, Research In Motion (years later just BlackBerry).
For many years, the devices made for this company were synonymous of business level, political status or more simply people REALLY busy, maybe you remember The Blackberry and its model Bold, Pearl, Torch, especially the Curve and, finally the Classic, to say some, with its unique trade mark, the tangible keyboard.
Seeing BlackBerry rise to the heights in a short period and control the telecom world for more than two decades it was an amazing Canadian proud, a national pride. The Waterloo company, very well-known for its security data features and communication reliability, imposed their name a high level on the most important arenas, as was noticeable when former President Barack Obama, literally, fought back for kept his personal device for long time.
However, no all that bright is golden. Years later in a blink we saw how our national tech company felt of the highest podium as an airplane nose down, a totally disaster; reasons many: not connected with the costumer’s desires, not on guard for the rise of competitors, particularly Apple, an international conspiracy, who knows.
Nowadays, honestly, I still keep my Classic Blackberry, perhaps for my nostalgic feelings or my internal desire of being quite “normal” or outdated on a world that change every second. Being digital is not easy, perhaps in short time I must get rid of my Blackberry and get a new smartphone, it might be time to discover new apps about web design, or waste my time Youtubing, Facebooking, Twittering or Googling, is part of the modern life.
