Column: The wonders of technology

Talk about it

When I got my new car last August, the salesman told me my car had Bluetooth capabilities. Now, I’m not completely technology-literate, so I figured out that meant I’d be able to connect my cell phone to my car, and I’d be able to go hands free while talking to people on the road.

I knew I had this Bluetooth capability, but frankly, I had no idea how to make it work. Every so often I’d bump the button on my steering wheel, then swear at the canned voice when it prodded, “Pardon? Pardon?”

But now that I have to maneuver myself through rush hour traffic on occasion, I finally sat in my parked car one evening and pulled out the handy-dandy owner’s manual. Looked up the Bluetooth options. Followed directions.

And what do you know? It worked. My mother was the lucky recipient of my first call. She was not nearly as excited or impressed as I was with my newfound technical knowledge.

Now I’ve been making the most of my commute. Every morning, I wonder who I can call next. It’s great for scheduling doctors’ appointments or having heart-to-heart girl talk with a friend I haven’t seen in a while - you know, the kinds of conversations you don’t want to have in front of co-workers.

If my college professors had told me, way back in 1988 that I’d one day conduct an interview while driving, well, I don’t know if I would have believed them.

But I did, just a couple weeks ago.

Let me explain this much, maybe for some of you who don’t have Bluetooth in your cars: it’s awesome. A call comes in on my cell phone. I hit a button on my steering wheel and I’ve effectively answered my phone. There’s a microphone built into the ceiling of my car, right over the driver’s side. The voice of the other person on the line comes in loud and clear through the radio.

Yes, through the radio. Crazy. The music stops when the call comes in. I can control the volume by pushing up or down on another little button on the steering wheel.

So I was driving to work one day, thinking about the then-upcoming city administrator candidate interviews. I needed to talk to mayor Todd Larson. Because I now have a long drive to get my thoughts in order each day, I figured I’d better call him as soon as I got to work.

And then, I remembered I had a recorder in my purse. I pulled it out. I hit record to see how it picked up the sound off the radio. When I discovered it worked just fine, I went ahead and found the mayor’s number in phone’s contact list. I made the call.

I wound up leaving a message, but the mayor called me back a couple of minutes later. I hit the button to answer the phone and his voice came over the radio. I told him what my plans were and that I had a recorder in the car. I hit record, then asked him what he thought about the pool of candidates.

Boy, was that slick. I can’t even tell you how happy I was with the results. We only visited for about eight minutes but I got all the information I needed. Back at my desk, I pulled out the recorder, plugged in earphones and just pulled up the parts I needed from the interview. Easy-peasy.

I am, admittedly, somewhat technology-impaired. I get the whole computer thing. I’ve been through the evolution, going from a typewriter in high school to my present Mac (albeit, an ailing Mac). It’s all the other stuff that kind of stumps me once in a while.

But seriously? This Bluetooth thing has got me thinking - if I can have full conversations while driving with both hands on the steering wheel, I wonder what world of possibilities would present itself if I got an iPad? Of course, that it would probably take me six months to figure out how to run that, too.

Tags: opinion, commentaries, farmington