What started off for me as one heck of an annoying Verizon TV commercial has evolved into a daily-occurring, real-world pain in the butt for me. The 'can you hear me now' phenomenon is taking my life by storm. Sadly, if you own a cell phone, you've been there and said this.
(Ring, ring, ring) 'Hello? Hey Matt, what's going on? What! You're kidding me! Frank lost how much at the casino? Matt? Matt? You there dude? HELLO? Can you hear me? OK?? Can you hear me now'?
Now of course you would substitute your personal dialogue and take mine out, but most likely you have said the dreadful words, 'Can you hear me now'?
Technology is constantly evolving, and companies like Google have created mind-boggling services like the virtual 3-D program Google Earth. Sputnik 1 was the first unmanned space mission, launched in 1957. And the world's longest suspension bridge in Japan contains approximately 181,400 metric tons of steel.
What does all that have to do with cell phones, you might ask?
If the first spaceship launch was 49 years ago, engineers are able to design bridges that are 1,991 meters long and Google has essentially compiled enough satellite data to make a virtual 3-D map of the entire planet Earth, then why can't they figure out how to make my cell phone work at College Library?
According to Wikipedia.org, after the '90s we evolved from the Information Age to the Nanotech Age. The Nanotech Age is so cutting edge, in fact, that Wikipedia didn't have a definition for it, and Wikipedia has a definition for just about everything.
The Nanotech Age sounds incredible to 'X-Files' and 'Star Wars' fans like myself. I mean, this sounds like androids, flying cars and supercomputers the size of a wrist watch. The 'Modern Marvels' TV show said that magnetic cars, television optical implants and bionic suits could be commonplace within 20 years.
If all of these tricked-out ideas are in the pipeline to be created, how is it possible that cell phone coverage today still sucks?
Did you know the first cell phone call was completed April 3, 1973? That's practically 33 years ago. I've gone through five different cell phones in my life and my coverage range hasn't changed in six years.
My buddy just showed me his phone that will play downloaded video files and songs, take pictures and low-quality video. The modern cell phone flexes a ridiculous amount of technological muscle and sooner or later could replace mp3 players, video camcorders and digital cameras. The potential is as vast as the creative minds that work for these companies.
I don't understand why they don't listen to their customers or even their own commercial. Before they add one more gadget to our phones that we could live without, perhaps they should evolve the cell phone's wireless technology. We can send and talk to a man on the goddamn moon, but I can't order a triple Topperstix from the basement of my apartment in the year 2006.
Well Verizon, can you hear me now?
