An old mobile phone; a new discovery

When I bought the Nokia N73, I only wanted the use of a mobile camera at any time, anywhere. Little did I thought this would take me on a journey of discovery, gadget-wise. It just dawned upon me that practically everyone in the developed world carries a highly under-used and overpowered miniature computer in the guise of a mobile phone. I had a basic Nokia phone prior to this. It had a monochrome screen, no camera, no bluetooth, infrared, or wifi, and not even a music player. It was as basic as it could get (yes, it could send text messages). In contrast, my new N73 is a miniature computer-in-the-pocket.

The N73 was launched 3 years ago; a considerable antique in this age of mobile phones. Yet it is able to deliver lots more as an operating platform for mobile apps. You see, in addition to being a phone-cum-MP3 player-cum-camera, the N73 has an operating system, like all other smartphones. This means that one pick and choose various applications according to his needs. The N73 is built on an industry-wide standard OS called Symbian OS9.1, S60 ver 3. It runs on a dual ARM 9 220Mhz CPU, which is a CPU designed for mobile applications.

It is easy to find scores of Symbian applications, including many freeware, from the internet. This is just one example: http://www.symbian-freeware.com/. Now I no longer see my N73 as a camera phone, but a miniature pocketable computer that I have no qualms about carrying around. For starters, I have installed these freeware:
1. Five different Bibles (KJV, MKJV, WEB, BBE, and ASV).
2. One Bible dictionary and a regular dictionary
3. One collection of jokes (handy for parties)
4. A voice recorder that can automatically record phone conversations
5. A collection of English idioms
6. A book reader, plus a book by Josephus
7. My favourite arcade games: Sudoku, Tetris, and Space Invaders

The price? It cost me AUD$18 to add a 2GB miniSD memory card. With the above apps, plus 60 Mp3 songs, I have only used up 12% of the memory added. Still room enough for >2000 shots on the camera or a multitude of other apps. Just food for thought: lots of people are carrying a potential powerhouse in their pocket without realizing what they could do with it! Nevertheless, I won't browse the web on my mobile; for that I will use a regular PC with a big screen and high speed internet access)