I like my new cell phone. It's red, slidey thing, a Nokia something or other, and it has all sorts of gadgetry options (Bluetooth, Flickr, and other things I can't actually use in India) that make it way cool. Ian got an iTouch recently, and the only thing it doesn't do is make calls. That would require an iPhone, which he has his eye on for next summer, because you know, his Razr just isn't good enough anymore. The iPhone does everything... EVERYTHING... so I'm not sure why he bothered with the iTouch in the first place. But while I kind of understand why folks would feel the need to do things besides call or SMS on their cells, what I'll never get is the ability, and the desire, to manage just about everything in your life over the cell.
In India, or at the very least in Chennai, it takes an act of God to get a SIM card. Where as other places you can pop into the corner store (for prepaid) or walk up to a TMobile kiosk (for account driven) to purchase a SIM card, here they are only given out through approved centers that ask for photos, copies of passport pages, proof of address, and first-born children. The last one is only a small stretch from reality, but you get my point. For this reason, we go through the Consulate to get our SIM cards, and apparently my SIM was previously owned because I get regular SMS updates on deposits and withdrawals from an ICICI bank account. Not my ICICI account. I don't have an ICICI account.
People do banking over their cell phones. I understand it's possible, but I can't understand why people do it. It seems so insecure, seeing as how I get a regular play-by-play of someone else's monetary activities. It's enough exposure for me to never want to do more than use my phone for it's original purpose... to call someone (though I prefer SMS to actual talking). That's plenty good enough.
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