Over the past few days, I’ve been in touch
with some old feelings from childhood - those feelings of anticipation in the
lead up to Christmas Day or your birthday - the feeling you have when you know
what you’re getting and you can’t wait to play with it.
In this instance, my new ‘toy’ is a Samsung
Galaxy tablet. I bought it as a tool for my upcoming trip to Europe, mainly as
a means of keeping in touch with family while I’m away, and to back up my holiday photos.
However, I’ve been inundated with friends telling me about the wonderful world
of apps that will assist me on my trip - maps, tour guides and every wonderful
thing you could possibly imagine.
So I’ve been exploring and loading up the
tablet with a lot of wonderful apps - an app to find an ATM, an app to find
Wi-fi hotspots, an app to find public toilets, an app to turn my photos into
postcards and send them on to family and friends. I can download apps to brush
up my French and find my way from one end of the Seine to the other. I’ve even
downloaded an app to lead me straight to the closest café. Of course there are
also thousands of games, books and movies to download.
Since buying the tablet, I’ve been on a bus
trip to the city - 6 hours each way - and had a chance to give some of the apps
a test run. I couldn’t test all of them as many needed an internet connection
which I didn’t have way out in the middle of nowhere, but many apps worked
without it.
My favourite game, Freecell, was the most
frequently used app on my trip, and I jumped in and out of my library a few
times, just browsing the books - a page here and a page there. How wonderful
now that I don’t have to worry about which books to take and which to leave
behind. How wonderful that I don’t have to consider weight and space. I can
actually take an entire library in my handbag.
Today, the anticipation was high again, as
I went into town to pick up another new ‘toy’ for my trip - a good quality
‘point and shoot’ camera. I’ve had fun this afternoon, becoming familiar with
the buttons and various functions, and love the quality of the photos it takes,
but the anticipation has been replaced with different familiar feelings from
childhood… those feelings of frustration when you get the toy you wanted but
can’t work out how to use it properly. If only I could get the Wifi thing
happening...
