When you have a chance, sit down, pull out your cell phone and take a good hard look at it. Then ask yourself if you know everything it can do. I certainly don’t know about my phone, so I said to myself, “Let’s grab the instruction book and actually read it and see what this thing is capable of doing.” That’s right, read the instructions, something we men never do! Right Ladies?

So I find the box it came in, looked inside for the instructions and it’s not there. What could I have done with them? I keep everything so they’ve got to be around here somewhere. “AHH, what’s this?” It’s a 16 page booklet, 8 different languages, that’s one language per two pages. The two pages in English basically tell me to use my new phone and go to the internet site listed for full instructions. So wait…go to the internet on my phone….where’s the instructions on how to do that? This is my first phone with internet capability. Yes! I’m trying to get into the 21st century…I really am!

So I went to an actual real life desk-top computer and typed in the proper website for this instruction guide for my new phone. I want to know everything! If somebody says they don’t understand something about their phone, I want to be able to give answers this time. Not the other way around.

I type in the website and up pops the site. But wait…was it the model 520 or 521? I left the dang box at home and there’s nothing on the phone that gives me any indication of what the right model number is.

So I call the store, I ran through the whole story with him. Very nice man patiently lets me tell him everything and then says “Sorry I can’t help you, you’ll have to go through the corporate office.” “But it’s Sunday! Will anybody answer today?” I asked.

“They’ll be back on Tuesday, after the Labor Day Holiday.”

“Well isn’t there anyway of finding out now?”

“Try this”, he says….”Go to “settings” and click on “Phone info.”

“Wait….o.k. I found settings, but there’s NO ‘PHONE INFO’ on here.” We go through three or four more when I come across the “about” file. I clicked it on…Yes! It’s the 520.

“Got it!” I exclaimed.

“Well there you go sir. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

“No…thank you very much for walking me through it.”

Alright, back to the website. Here it is! 116 pages!!! Well no wonder they couldn’t get all that into that little tiny box. This is like a novel.

I’ll never forget the first cell phone I saw. It was the size of a small shoe box and the friend who owned it absolutely loved it. And do you remember the “bag phones” with the antennae you had to screw into the unit? Then the phones started getting smaller, flip phones as small as a matchbook. Then they started growing again. First you could text, then take pictures, and 10 second videos. Now you can take videos until your storage runs out, download and play games, you’ve got your own photo lab in your phone now, clock, calendar, timer, calculator, listen to radio, watch TV and movies, check the weather.

And you can get on the INTERNET! Except I have to read 116 pages first! Or maybe I could ask somebody…