Sep 20

If Fresh Prince Had A Cell PhoneThe idea for this article came when I was watching an old episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air the other day. Will was in a bar and delivered one of the funniest pick up lines I’ve heard in awhile. He walked up behind some very attractive woman, put his phone down in front of her, and said, “Why don’t you put your number in that before I don’t want it anymore more.” Obviously, no one makes things sound cool like the Fresh Prince, but you’d have to be a total troll to not to at least get a smile with that one.  (Note – Will didn’t really have a cell phone when he did it, but that’s how the cell phone version would have gone down.)

Will Smith makes it look easy on TV, but a friend of mine actually pulled this next one off in real life. Tom, we’ll call him, swung by the local Wal-Mart on his way to the bar, and picked up the cheapest pre-paid phone he could find. When he met us at the bar, he loaded the phone up with a 20 minute card and then called his own phone, declined the call, and then saved the number as “The Chosen One.” As the night went on, we had forgotten about the whole plan in the making until Tom said, “There she is. The hottest girl of the night.” Before we could ask what was going on, he was on his way over to her table. When he got there, he smiled at her, took the cell phone out of his pocket, put it on the table in front of her, and said, “I’ll call you later,” then walked away. We were all impressed that he had the balls to attempt such a pre-meditated hail Mary, but our awe turned to worship when we found out that they talked for an hour later that night and then met up for dinner the following.

These two are just straight up awesomely bad pick up lines that require a cell phone for the full affect. Number one: “Pardon me, but I lost my phone number. Can I borrow yours?” Number two: “There is something wrong with my cell phone. It doesn’t have your number in it.” If you decide to actually take these out into the field, you’d better consult Will Smith himself for some delivery tips.

If you are up for doing a little acting, this one should definitely work, especially if your potential pick up is on the shallower side. This pick up routine works best if you have a phone that gets a quick Internet connection. When you are at the bar, bring a buddy and work your way within earshot of your potential pick up. Once in place, visit http://popularitydialer.com/ from your phone, where you can program the website’s auto-dialer to call yourself. Schedule the website to call you every 45 seconds or so. The website allows five free scheduled calls, which should be more than enough to get the point across. Once your phone starts ringing, get ready to drop the following, “Ah man, I hooked up with this girl the other night, and she will not stop calling!” Follow it up on the next call with something along the lines of, “This must be like the 20th call today.” If you can get creative enough with your reactions, your desired pick up should be unable to resist commenting on the situation… and there is your window. Note – If you do not have internet on your phone, just have your buddy dial you repeatedly from his pocket.

This last one is of my own creation, but it involves a bit of risk and relies heavily on timing. You also need a wingman. If you see a woman you’d like to pick up, you need to make sure that you get a seat at the bar next to her. Before you do, however, re-program your buddy’s name in your phonebook to read: “You are really cute, please answer me.” After you’ve been sitting next to the woman long enough to have established yourself as a non-threat, wait for her to turn away and then place your phone as close to her drink as possible. Make a quick exit to a place where you can still see the girl. When you are sure that she has noticed that you’ve left your phone, call your phone from your buddy’s. Once she answers, you’re on your own.

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Sep 20

Buy Art Using Your Cell PhoneI’m sure there are millions of things that the average cell phone user does not know about cell phones and what they are being used for, but here are five facts from recent news:

  1. 1. You can use your phone to buy art – A new cell phone app allows you to bid on and purchase fine art, and jewelry, from your cell phone. Art auctioneer Saffronart hopes to take advantage of technology to boost the declining sales in fine art. The application, which is reported to be the first of its kind, allows cell phone users to preview items being auctioned and when they want to place a bid on an item, they simply text the bid via their mobile phone. Saffronart has an auction coming up this fall during which art collectors may use the app to bid on works by contemporary Indian artists Akbar Padamsee, Subodh Gupta, Surendran Nair, S.H. Raza, and Manjit Bawa. For more information, visit: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090904/lf_nm_life/us_india_shopping_1
  2. 2. You can use your cell phone to order the paper – The publication, The Economist, is currently offering a new service to its readers in New York City. Instead of having to walk to the newsstand to pick up a copy of the publication, you can now order a copy to be hand delivered to your door, online. If you register with The Economist, you will receive an outline of Friday’s issue’s headlines on Thursday night. If you are interested in purchasing the issue, you simply reply with a yes, and the issue will be delivered to your door by 6 a.m. This New York trial requires that you go online to order the delivery, but a previous trial in London allowed you to order by simply replying to a text message. The Economist plans on offering this text feature by the time the program goes nation wide in the US. For more information, visit: http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=138789
  3. 3. You can use your mobile phone to redeem coupons – Companies like 8coupons, Cellfire, Yowza, and Zavers are now offering coupons from thousands of major companies via text messages. Instead of having to cut a coupon out and carry it to the store, you can now simply show the cashier the text message and they will enter the code in the message, allowing you to receive your discount. Most of these services allow you to choose which types of companies that you receive coupon texts from so that you don’t receive coupons that you are not interested in. For more information, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/technology/29coupon.html?_r=1
  4. 4. Cell phones are now better than sex and chocolate – Humanity has become so dependent on their cell phones that a survey carried out on behalf of Lumison shows that out of the one thousand British people polled, seventy five percent of them reported that they could not do without their cell phone for more than 24 hours. The survey then asked which of the following would you rather give up for one month: Chocolate, alcohol, sex, or your mobile phone. 62 percent said chocolate, 23 percent said alcohol, 8 percent said sex, and 7 percent said their mobile phone. For more information, visit: http://www.techdigest.tv/2009/08/mobile_phones_-.html
  5. 5. Over 50% of American 12 year-olds have Mobile phones – Richard Mullins of the Tampa Tribune reports that surveys from The Pew Internet and American Life Project show that 51% of all American 12 year-olds now have cell phones. This figures have spiked since 2004, when only 18% of 12 year-olds had cell phones. As these children age, the numbers continue to climb. Currently, 72% of all 14 year olds in America have cell phones. For more information, visit: http://www.xchangemag.com/hotnews/More-Than-Half-of-All-12-Year-Olds-Have-Cell-.html
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Sep 20

Zack Morris Cell PhoneEveryone knows that what made Zack Morris cool, aside from his looks, his charm, Kelly Kapowski, and his ability to freeze time, was his cell phone. Admit it – anyone falling in the age range of pre-teen to college student when “Saved by the Bell” was on the air would have killed for the ability to order a pizza to detention with that phone. But did you know that Zack’s phone (Motorola DynaTAC 8000X) was actually, in the US at least, the very first cellular phone?

Advances in “mobile” technology began in the early 1900’s and led to developments in radios, walki-talkies, car phones, and “bag phones,” but the true era of “cellular” technology began in 1947 when several engineers decided that towers should be placed at each corner of an imaginary hexagon, which would create a “cell” area (the inside of the imaginary hexagon) of wireless service. Because the FCC would only approve enough bandwidth for a limited amount of people to have service in one cell at any given time, the hexagonal cell system eventually allowed (not until the late 1960’s) service for a call to be transferred from cell to cell as the person walked/traveled through a city.

It wasn’t until the 70’s when what is considered to be the first cell phone call was made. In 1973, Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola made a cellular phone call to his rival Joel S. Engel at AT&T’s Bell Lab’s from the first DynaTAC – Zack Morris – cell phone. Though Motorola gave Zack what every kid dreamed of, it was Bell Lab’s who gave Chicago the US’s first city wide commercial cellular network, which was approved by the FCC in 1983. Cell phone technology grew through the 80’s and produced several analog phone models, which are commonly referred to as the “First Generation” phones/technology.

The second generation of cell phone technology (2G) began in the 90’s with the birth of GSM technology, which began in Europe and is now the technology used by companies like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Nextel, who use SIM cards in their phones. CDMA technology, which is used by companies such as Sprint and Verizon Wireless also began in this era. It was in this decade when cell phones began to really drop in size and when the word’s greatest cell phone, the Nokia 5190, was created. Remember how badly you needed to get to the mall to pick up that new green keypad to match your Camouflage faceplate? It was also during the 2G stage of cell phones when the text message was invented. Suddenly, silent study hall became a giant flirt factory via the SMS.  Oh, and remember how cool that phone in the Matrix was? That was a 2G phone from Nokia, but the real version (how could you do this to us) did not automatically slide open. The spring was added for the movie.

Currently, 3G or third generation cellular technology is what everyone is talking about. 3G seems to be more of a goal or a theory, and whether or not companies have truly achieved what “3G” is expected to be is constantly debated. Several different standards of what 3G is have developed, and several forms of service technology, like GPRS and Edge, have technically delivered some of what was expected to be 3G technology. Third generation technology is what has delivered things like high speed web browsing, streaming television, and all the other incredible things that BlackBerrys and iPhones can do. Other aspects that are now commonly incorporated with cell phones like cameras, video recording capabilities, and Bluetooth are also attributed to the 3G era. 3G and the ability to access the Internet at a high speed have enabled companies like Blackberry and Apple to literally change the world on a daily basis. Did you know that there is an application for the iPhone that uses GPS to lead you to the nearest pizza place in your vicinity? Another will show you the closest public toilets, and it rates their cleanliness and privacy. The possibilities that 3G, and the fabled yet inevitable 4G for that matter, provide are literally endless. Just imagine what Zack would have been able to pull off if he had an iPhone.

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