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There are a certain number of us that must be on the phone at all times. Those who do this may or may not be aware of it. I would almost venture that a great many aren't aware of it as phones take over personal face-to-face communication more and more each day. But there are those who will walk around with a phone glued to their ear no matter where they are and while it shouldn't bother me as its their business, it really does bother me. It's mainly for the fact that mobile conversations are always, always louder than normal conversations, forcing me to hear every intimate detail of a discussion that I really shouldn't be hearing.       It may sound as if I'm talking about the US, but this phenomenon is also readily seen in Europe as well. I see a great many princessy girls walking around with the damned thing glue to their ear no matter where and it's always these inane conversations along the lines of, "Oh yeah. Oh my god. What? No. Really? Wow. No, really..." They make me think that these people are scared to be alone with their own thoughts for a second or they're so insecure that they don't want to appear as if they're without friends. I suppose maybe more of the later or maybe the former. The reasons are undoubtedly numerous, but never an excuse to pollute public spaces with blather.       For those of us in the US, it's not a big deal to have these conversations as monthly plans with tons of minutes don't cost much, thusly positing that talk is indeed cheap. For Europeans, it's a much different situation. Voice communication is incredibly expensive in Europe.       This recent article outlines the fact that in Spain, it is much more of an SMS culture than a voice culture. Even still, there are so many people burning through money on phones at a cost of upwards of 1€ a minute. Yes, that's mighty pricey.       Beyond the annoyance to me and beyond the cost to them, it's a scary thing to see in Europe. While in the US we seem to be quite happy to grow ever more distant with each other, sacrificing personal communication with the newest technology, but in Europe, it's quite sad. The cafe culture of Europe is a beautiful thing and a great reason why social life is much more healthy in European countries. To see this usurped by mobile phone communication is outright painful and as costs slowly come down, more chat time goes up. I don't really see what will reverse it, as the newer generations spend more and more time wired and less time physically together. We shall only wait and invariably see.

Something truly annoying about the US is that when you buy a new cellphone, it will almost certainly be locked in to a network and thusly termed a "locked" phone. These phones are not irreparably locked though and can be unlocked via entering a simple code, which varies per each phone. Those who want to, can enter this in to their phone and voilá, they have a phone (if GSM and tri or quad band) that they can use anywhere in the world except Japan simply by slipping in another SIM card.       Why the phones are locked in the first place is just plain frustrating and is solely due to corporate greed and stupidity. People who want an unlocked phone will go to the trouble of getting the code to unlock it. Those who don't won't bother. The phone companies in the US (and in general, the world) lock phones to prevent you from hopping from one company or another if there is supposedly a better deal out there, which in reality, there ain't. But, this is an ignorant train of thought. When one has a contract, one is stuck with their provider for one to two years. Usually, most of us don't switch providers even at the end of the contract because A) there aren't that many choices and B) it's a real pain in the ass. So, why lock my phone that I've purchased? Surely it must cost extra to brand, lock, and sell the phones this way, so not locking would save money. Those mobile customers who have been supposedly "trapped" (insert sinister mustache twirling here) leave anyways if they've had enough, regardless of the locked phone, so again, why?       In Europe, the locking issue is much the same, but instead of having to turn to shifty deals on Ebay like in the US, you can walk in to any shop and pick up an unlocked (or in Spain, "free" or "libre") phone. Major providers like, Orange, Vodafone, and Movistar all sell some degree of unlocked phones at their shops, which is something you'd never see in the US. In addition to these, there are countless electronics shops who have walls of the latest phones all in an unlocked version. Now, you have to keep in mind that you do pay a premium to get these unlocked phones. A phone that might be free with a contract could cost upwards of 200€ or more if it's super fancy.       But, it was because of this freedom of choice while in Barcelona on Ronda de San Antonio that I picked up a completely unlocked, unbranded, and brand new Sony Ericsson K530i to use as my new primary phone, while my Nokia E61 (a fantastic albeit very large phone) will become my secondary phone. I am bouncing around so much these days that I have become one of those cheesy jerkwads with two phones, one with my American number and one with whatever country I am visiting. And no, it's not one for my wife and one for my mistress; that's too French for my refined tastes.       The K530i isn't a super-insane, yogurt-making phone or anything, but it's solid, has good battery life, 3G support (basic mobile internet is much faster in Spain than in the US), and most importantly, it fits my ogre-sized hands well for texting. For the pleasure of having this phone and its features, I paid about 140€. It's not cheap, but it's not more expensive than in the US where and if you can find it.       That's the other problem with US phones is that with the exception of he iPhone, they're seriously behind on features compared to those in Europe. So, whenever I want a new phone, I look to Europe for the wealth of unlocked phones that they have here and the ability to make video calls on just about any phone above 50€, because we all know that we want to make video calls, oh and listen to the radio!

It didn't sound like much when I first heard about it. Someone calls you and then hangs up immediately before you pick up. You see the number and call them back. At least, this is what would happen in the US. This is a place where people have never-ending minutes on their cellphones and always find some way to pay their mobile bill, even if it is $500 like I overheard some idiot kid saying his was.       But, in Africa, things take on a different meaning. Everyone apparently has a cellphone, just not the money to use them. So, this "beeping" method is used and for those that I know who have lived there, it's a massive pain to deal with. My friend, Kim goes in to a greater amount of detail. You see, if you're white and your number gets out, you'll get flooded with calls as an expat living there. Read his article for all the grittiness.       This is also have some economic repercussions which Reuters has covered as well. While I'm of the opinion that cellphones are a pretty unnecessary technology, in a countries where landlines are few and far between, they're one of the few ways that people seem to be able to stay in contact with one another. So, at some point they'll have to figure out some way to deal with this flood of junk on their network. Maybe making text messages free or next to free? I will have more of a firsthand experience of this when I get to Africa next year.