grumpyf1

Remember when mobile phones first appeared? Wow – you don’t look that old. The first civilian call was (kind of) made by Ernie Wise (yes, the short, fat, hairy-legged half of iconic comedy double-act Morecambe & Wise) on the 1st of January 1985. By the end of the decade, they were pretty common (phones, not Ernies), and now – well... try living without one. The model used by Ernie - a Transportable Vodaphone VT1, fact fans – cost about £2000. Ouch. Having said that, smartphones have been getting both progressively smarter and more expensive over the last decade or so. Roll back to 2010, and you’d have been pretty gobsmacked at the thought of paying £700 for a mobile. Now, the latest top-notch iPhone is in that expensive ball-park, and there’s more bad news for the bank account of anyone wanting the latest, smartest, tech. There’s a new kid on the block. The Samsung Galaxy Fold does what it says on the (alarmingly expensive) tin, and opens out to create one large screen, w...

If you are to survive the current times, occasionally you must get yourself a new mobile phone. It’s even better if you can work out how to use it. I can still remember one of my friends bringing his new-fangled mobile phone up the pub one night. I’d only ever seen them on the TV until that point, and it would be fair to say that ‘mobile’ was perhaps the wrong word to have used, as you needed to have spent several months in training beforehand to lift the massive telephonic brick. Attempting to put it in your trouser pocket would have resulted in severe injury or an arrest for indecent exposure. Come to think of it, ‘phone’ wasn’t a great choice for part of the name either, as the battery ran out in no time, and there was invariably no signal anyway. Even on the exceedingly rare occasion battery life and signal strength coincided, it was pretty unlikely that anyone would be calling you, as to do so would require them taking out a second mortgage or selling a kidney, and the...