Marveling at how much tech smartphones have replaced

I saw a news item flash across my iPhone last week noting the 16th birthday of the iPhone. And so I clicked on it and was reminded just how many items the marvelous device in my pocket had replaced.

It replaced my home phone for starters. I no longer have an alarm clock at my bedside either. I hung on to a specific model of cheap desk calculator until a few years ago when I realized the one on my cell phone was as good and as easy to see and use. I quit wearing a wristwatch all the time because I have my phone everywhere I go.

I never did buy a GPS device of any kind but I sure have embraced those capabilities made possible by my Apple iPhone. With Apple’s personal assistant Siri I can find and navigate to any location I want to go with a simple voice command. Granted, it has taken the joy out of getting lost and stumbling onto new and exciting spots, but I have been late for appointments a lot less often. It is amazing how accurate those drive directions really are – most of the time.

My music has moved onto my iPhone. I can even listen to stuff I recorded off of my vinyl even before I had an iPhone. I used to have to connect with those hard plastic earphones with a cord but nowadays I use Bluetooth and connect with wireless earbuds when I listen privately.

I have used email as a big part of my work life for the last 35 years or so. Now I no longer have to get to a computer in my office to check that email. In fact messaging, which seemed like a horrible idea when people started using it, has replaced many of those important emails.

I didn’t want to do the whole texting thing especially because my early phone keyboards before iPhone were hard to use with my fat fingers. As my associates and employees kept getting younger and younger I decided if I was going to communicate with them I needed to embrace texting. Thank you, Steve Jobs.

Pretty much anything I watch on television I can watch on my iPhone. I have like five weather apps that alert me to every lighting strike within 10 miles. I can get live radar and through a device on my porch linked online with my iPhone I can talk to whoever is at my front door from work or wherever I happen to be.

I get my news and even read this newspaper online, usually on my phone. I have alerts set up to notify me of every score and every move my favorite teams make.

I can look at my bank account and pay bills from my phone and I could do even more with it in that realm if I trusted society more. I can shop online and order my favorite foods all using this crazy little device in my pocket.

I’m not sure how many iPhones I’ve had over those 16 years. I keep mine a lot longer than most people. I’ll probably be buying another one soon.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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