its still exiting, but its also starting to become a royal pain in the ass. all the shiny new gadgets, the cell phones, pdas, computers, mp3 players, they dont just work, they need updates, hacks, upgrades, battery replacements, etc. juggling all these gadgets is taking up more and more of our time.
and they have succesfully invaded public space, with cell phones ringing, iPods thumping, pdas shining everywhere…
we might be headed for some anti-tech times. and while most people will simply stop using their gadgets, others are getting quite militant in their anti-tech stance with the help of, ironically, more gadgets.
tvbgone.com sells a small generic remote control that neatly fits onto a keychain and that enables to switch off tvs in places where they disturb, in airports waiting rooms, pubs, banks… this is mostly a prank gadget.
cell phone jammers are much more invasive. effectivly blocking gsm waves they can create a disturbance in cell phones functioning properly within a certain perimeter. while this might “make sense” in certain situations, prisons with restricted cell phone use, or maybe movie theatres (apparently awhile ago there was quite a legal struggle in france to decide whether this was legal), swiss sunday paper le matin yesterday reported that the number of such signal-shields imported illegaly into switzerland is increasing. these gadgets have been around for awhile but apparently people must be starting to use cell phone jammers on trains, in bars, anywhere they want some peace of mind.