There was a time when I actually got by without actually having smartphones and being able to get in touch with people when they were not home. If they were not home, I would not get a hold of them. End of story. Hard to believe, right? I think it was about 24 years ago I got my first cellular phone. It was huge! Weighed a ton and was so bulky it took up half my purse. Did I care? Heck no, I was so proud to have that phone. All it did was make phone calls. That's it. I felt better when I was on the road though knowing if something happened I could always make a call or if I was out I would not need to find a pay phone (yes those actually existed back in the day, putting a quarter in a slot to dial a number and talk for 3 minutes before you would be interrupted to put more money in the slot or get disconnected). Or having to need change to put in those pay phones because dollar bills were not going to work! Either that or you had to call “collect” which means that the person you called would end up paying when their phone bill came in and it was a lot more than a quarter!!
As time went on, the phones got smaller, lighter, thinner, and then you were able to text people messages, thereby eliminating the need for me to pretty much speak to anyone which was fine by me. Then came the internet and the smartphone. The screen was so tiny there was no way I was even going to attempt to get the internet on my phone – plus the fact that my phone still had only the standard number pad which would mean to type in any words I would have to hit the button up to 3 times to get the letter I wanted. That was a pain in the butt. No thank you. So I waited and then the phone came that had an actually keyboard on it. Yay. Now you were singing my song. The screen was still pretty small though and I would have to scroll so much to see anything so again, not worth it for me. Then they made the screens bigger and well, the rest is history. For me anyway! I have not been able to do without having my phone with me ever since and I will admit, if I do not have it I feel like a part of my body is missing. I am way too dependent on being able to keep track of what is going on or to make calls or text if I need to and I actually get withdrawal if I *gasp* forget to bring it with me when I leave the house (which does not happen often but once in a while, and it is not pretty!).
Then I saw a commercial on TV that caught my attention. It was someone wearing goggles and I was wondering what the heck this commercial could be for. I did something I rarely do during commercials and paid attention, and it turns out it was for virtual reality, which I have heard things about and was always curious but never had the occasion to try it. Now my interest was piqued again and I started looking into it, but it was pretty expensive for my budget.
When I found the Alcatel Idol 4 smartphone, the first thing that caught my attention was the price. So affordable compared to other phones which can run hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and running on the Android platform which is one of the main platforms and have hundreds of apps you can get (which is another thing I like to do, download a million apps when I really only end up using maybe 10). But wait, icing on the cake, this phone actually came with VR goggles. Now I was really sucked in. I could get a phone and the VR goggles so I could experience this virtual reality thing myself without taking out a loan!? Sign me up! Plus the phone has all the features that I would want and expect from a smartphone so it does not feel like I am missing anything, plus I get the added benefit of the virtual reality experience!
You can get more information about the Alcatel Idol smartphone with the VR goggles included here. And if you are feeling generous, what a great gift for someone of any age!
