Mobile phone shops are still ubiquitous, despite the retail recession.
But they come & go. Some once-familiar names have gone. Old reliables have had a makeover. The current fashion is super-cool hi-tech minimalist with lots of glass – they could just as well be selling expensive handbags or vertiginous high heels.
One shop, which I don’t think has been on that site for very long, sprouted a large poster in the window – mobile phones from £9.99!
Intrigued, I went in for a look & came out the proud owner of just such a phone. I was expecting it to be pre-owned, but it is not, just nothing fancy, no touch screen or internet, out of date for today’s market. But it has more functions than the basic (£50) phone-for making-phone-calls which I bought five years ago & never really got on with. This one is smaller & lighter, its size & shape mean that it fits easily into my hand, even makes it natural to use my thumb.
Also it was the first time I have been served by a girl when buying anything technical. She was very nice – her ‘I’ll just leave you to get a feel of it’ before I decided to buy gave me confidence to just push buttons rather than struggle with the instructions.
She also raised her voice to LOUD, & informed me that she had written the number down in LARGE letters on the back of the top up card – in this case I did not at all mind playing up to the confused old lady image.
But new computer, new phone have brought it home to me how much we are all having to learn a new skill – touch. When to stroke, when to stab, or even just waft.
I ran into a problem with the first step of setting up my notebook, because the NEXT button, which appeared on what looked like a touch screen, was no such thing, as I realised it had to be pointed to & clicked.
We have just got so used to touch at the cash machine & supermarket checkout – even library books are borrowed & returned via touch screens these days.
You have to get used to their foibles - Sainsbury’s machines don’t respond to fingers in woolly gloves, for example.
My notebook computer screen seems oversensitive to the cursor & touch pad, often responding unexpectedly; I have learned for example to move the pointer orthogonally on lists of options, not diagonally, to avoid this hair trigger effect.
