Kevin Ch'ng's Blog
Kevin Ch'ng male Junior Writer
A person who is imbibed by the beats of music. Still a novice in his journey to become an audiophile, he samples music from all genre but prefers Electro, Trance, Techno and surprisingly, 80's New Wave. Tech wise, he seeks out all things mobile and loves the concept of bringing a piece of technology wherever he goes.
It wasn't too long ago that the time of mobile phones begin to take a shift to the smartphone era. Take a walk down the street, in a mall or even hanging out at your favorite mamak joints and it isn't a surprising sight to see people brandishing their touch screen wonders. Back in the early 90s, if anyone was caught looking at their mobile phones and started to laugh hysterically, they would have been marked as insane, but clearly insanity is all the rage these days.
Of course, with innovations constantly jeering its predecessors for having lack of certain functionality caused the desire of mobile phone makers to cram a whole lot more into the future models of smartphones. But just how much will it be before we consider all these additions as being too much?
I remember when I first had my mobile phone when I started out in college, the Nokia 6610. Though it may not be closer to the monochrome display screen mobile phone age, it was one of the first few phones that did not have a camera and its primary functions were still making and receiving calls as well as sending text messages. It was capable of handling Java-based applications and games, such as the readily available Stopwatch, colored version of Snake & Ladder and downloadable Java games provided by mobile operators.
Just a few months down since I had the Nokia 6610, newer models such as the upgraded version of Nokia 6610i had incorporated cameras with about 1.5MP to 2MP depth of image capture capability, affording another base feature to the phone that has become a norm in the phones we see today.
It became a trend for phones to add more knick-knacks, which are ultimately seen as a must-have for all phones and for the consumers as well. Aside from the basic utilities such as stopwatches, alarm and calculus-based apps, more and more social media related apps become the facade of the default smartphone interface.
I do however agree that these additions are colossally useful, even if you are not very into the social media scene but let's face it, apps just don't stop there. Countless of apps found in the Android Market, Apple's App Store and even Nokia's Ovi Store show that the mobile content business is thriving, but do we really need an app to tell us what we are going to look like in 10 years or the explosive amount of games that pops up like daisies everyday?
We can all agree that games like Angry Birds has its charms and plays well, mainly because it involves more than just being a game to pass the time, but to make use of physics and mathematical calculations in the process. While there are educational fun to be had, there are apps that won't be just as beneficial such as the Hold the Button iPhone app or even Jacket on? Jacket off? for Android.
Apps are just like spices. For some, adding a tinge would boost flavors in which making them taste better but has an inverse effect on others. All in all, it is entirely up to the individual to consider if overloading on apps is a must but as for me, I am inclined to think less is definitely more.
