| Smartphone |
October 17, 2019
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| It was about three years ago when he first bought a smartphone. Although he was behind of everyone else in getting one, he never felt it was a necessity. His non-smartphone is called 'gala-kei' in this country. 'Kei' is from 'keitai', which means 'cellphone', 'gala' is the abbreviation of 'Galapagos', referring to the isolated island where certain rare animals exist only there. Owners of the old style cell-phone would say, "My cell-phone is a 'gala-kei'." Maybe 'gala-kei' owners thought that smartphones are too time consuming. But, on that day three years ago, when he passed by a smartphone counter in an electric appliance shop, he saw a poster that showed a smart phone's monthly cost. It wasn't too different from his 'gala-kei's. He became curious and asked the clerk for a cheap and durable one. The clerk recommended one. He said that it was water proof. Although the price wasn't so cheap, he decided to buy it. Soon after he started to use it, he realized that this product wasn't 'human friendly'. When he got a call, he had a hard time to  answer because he would miss-push buttons, and the call would drop. Sending messages wasn't easy either. He would accidentally make a call instead of sending a message. It seemed that the smartphone wasn't any better than his old 'gala-kei'. One year had passed. He was still complaining about the complex usage of his smartphone. But one day his complaining suddenly stopped. When he went to the coast-side for sightseeing, he dropped his phone into the sea. He quickly grabbed it, and dried it out, but it didn't work. He soon went to the shop where he had purchased it and complained to the clerk, saying it should have been waterproof. The clerk explained that waterproof meant normal usage under rain. He gave up his argument and asked how much it would be to repair it. The clerk said that it wouldn't be so different from the price that he had bought it. He was angry, but it couldn't be helped. He remembered that there were secondhand smartphones in the video-rental shop he often went to. He went to the video-rental shop and bought the cheapest smartphone. It was a lot cheaper than his old one. He wondered whether it would work suitably, but soon he found that it was more than that. Instructions on the phone read that they would initialize the phone, but, as for apps, some apps that the former owner had used might remain. The former owner seemed to be good at using the smartphone. The old owner had downloaded a lot of useful apps ~weather report app, news app, an app about things in fashion, a 'QR code' reader app, train transferring app, a calendar app, etc. Thanks to these apps, he now felt that his real "smartphone life" had started. But this phone had some weak points. The memory was small. So he had to erase the 'cashe' often. The radio waves were weak, so some apps didn't work well. But on the whole, he was satisfied with this phone, especially thinking of the cost performance. But after two years, the phone started to have some trouble. It sometimes didn't "wake up" from sleeping mode. It was troublesome because when you wanted to call, the screen didn't appear easily. Maybe he would have to give up the phone when thinking about the price. He went to his smartphone contracting shop, (this time he didn't think about a secondhand phone), and asked a clerk to recommend a less expensive one, he didn't care about the maker or new models. The clerk showed him two phones, and he chose one. It was navy blue, and the cover material wasn't sleek, and so it seemed not to be slippery. At home, he was setting the basic functions of his new smartphone. Thanks to his former secondhand one, he got used to operate a smartphone. But soon he felt that something was wrong. He went to the box that contained his old gadgets, and took out his old smartphone that was dropped in the sea. He compared them closely. Their colors were different, but their shapes were identical and the maker was the same. In fact, the phone's name was the same! He bought the same one that he had complained so much about! What a bonehead. He weakly laughed. But, it couldn't be helped. He went back to setting the basic mode. After that, he started to search for the apps that he had used on the secondhand phone. He also searched for other useful apps on the web. He downloaded some apps that didn't work suitably before. This time they worked. He downloaded a new screen saver picture. He downloaded a new ringtone. Although he wanted to find the old one, but he couldn't. Anyways, he liked this new cool one. After a while of managing the phone, he realized that his new phone wasn't bad at all. Maybe the first time around, his knowledge about phones were just too basic. And, the secondhand phone gave him some knowledge. Maybe, dropping his phone in the water was actually lucky for him. He was a positive thinking person, and now looked forward to his next stage smartphone life. |
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*abbreviation :省略形
*durable :耐久性のある
*drop :途絶える
*can't be helped :しかたない
*initialize :初期化する
*as for :関しては
*cashe :キャッシュ
*sleek :すべすべした
*slippery :滑る
*ringtone :着信音