I’ve always had a fairly active imagination. When I was a kid I used to imagine having a tunnel in my back garden that lead to Australia – seems a touch impractical now I look back – how would I keep the molten lava from ruining my mother’s plants? Anyway, sometimes I like to let my imagination run away with me even today and one scenario I often consider is if I found myself sent back in time 20 years – what would I do?
Since I’m not the money-obsessed type I don’t bother with betting on the result of sporting events to make loads of instant cash. I also don’t feel the need to track down any old foes and sort them out “once and for all”. This is mainly because I don’t actually have any old foes. The temptation is also there to track the young John Conners down and tell him about some of the important things in his future as well as what choices to make to guarantee him success (such as telling him all the women that fancied him but because he was too stupid to spot the signals he completely missed out on). But again, it’s not something I’d do – he has to learn these lessons himself – he can kick himself when he’s in his 30’s looking back like me!
Or maybe I’ll drop in on the then down-on-her-luck J.K. Rowling and give her some motivational words that one she’ll change the world in a way that nobody else ever will!
One thing that I probably would do however is drop in on my mother. 20 years ago my brother and I were at school during the day and she’d have been on her own in the house – which is when I’d pay her a visit. I’m not entirely sure what I’d say to her but I suspect it would be the truth and for her not to tell anybody else that I’d dropped by.
Whatever I decided to do, I now know the one thing I’d bring with me. It’s a device that can prove to anybody that I’m from the future, it would let me listen to music when bored waiting for a bus and come in handy if I wanted to show my mother photos from her future (and to prove I am who I say I am). It is in fact my new iPod Touch. I think if I went back in time a mere 5 years people would think I was from 100 years in the future as it really is an amazing piece of kit.
Not only is it extremely thin and beautifully designed but the way it operates is like something out of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Rotating it around 90 degrees and seeing the picture or album cover rotating too looks cool on the advert but it looks amazing when you see it in the flesh.
I have mine synced with a good selection of my music and all the photos I’ve taken over the last 7 years (which live in Apple’s iPhoto on my Mac). It’s so cool if someone asks what I got up to at New Year and I just show them on the iPod. Or if they want to see some of my landscape photography I can hand it to them. Combining it with a telephone in the iPhone is just awesome – although the 18 month contract is just not worth it for me, I’ll wait for version 2. Also, since digital mobile phone networks didn’t exist 20 years ago it wouldn’t be much use in my time travelling adventures!
Technological improvements happen slowly, people who talk about revolutions in technology are either salesmen or over-excited techies. But if you compare consumer electronics in 5 year intervals over the last 20 years then you really can see the giant leaps and bounds that would blow people away if they could see ahead. I’ll be interested to see what the 53 year old John Conners who travels back in time 20 years has to show me! But I’ll never tell. 😉
I have to be honest! When you told me you had bought one and I actually clicked on what it was!!!! ;o) I thought “oh god he’s bought one of those!!!” then seeing it today at work I was overly impressed!!! I love the fact it holds all those photos on there and it has all the extra features like the rotating it’s an amazing piece of equipment and I may have to get one myself! :o)
Heh heh, sorry I’m going to cost you lots of money!
haha well I’ll wait and be sensible about it! I have to get a car first!
I got the iPhone and everyone, and I mean everyone uses one word when they play with it “Wow”. Apple have done it again where they have bucked convention, restarted the design process and got it right. I am inexcusably gadget mad and this wins hands down.
A new firmware upgrade is coming soon for the iPhone and I have no doubt that the Touch will get these improvement. How many other phone manufacturers improve on their phones and give you them improvements without buying the next upgrade.
I’m now in a love triangle with my Mac and my iPhone.
Paul
I must say Paul, I thought the iPhone was too much hype but within 15 minutes of iPod touch ownership I was convinced that the iPhone is if anything better than the Apple PR machine lets on! If the contracts were just a little bit lower or it was available on Vodafone then I’d have one already…
I’ve used a few Windows mobile phones and have always found them clunky and horrible to use. The iPhone just takes it to another level.
Perhaps you could instill in the young John Conners the importance of proofreading, as this entry is littered with typos and spelling mistakes! 😉
(Take no notice, I’m only jealous that you’ve got an iPod touch!)
You can blame my proof reader – my good lady – for that!
Great photo John – maybe now you’ve got the hang of lining up the shot you could try turning yourself into a famous album cover, like these:
http://yadogg.com/pictures/vinyl-sleeve-heads/
Ha ha, those are cool! I’ll have to have a look through my dad’s record collection (since I don’t have any vinyl of my own)!
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