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Smartphone upgrade results in chaos, frustration
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MY previous mobile phone contract expired three weeks ago. So I signed a new deal that allows more data usage and armed myself with the latest phone model with a 5-inch screen.
All in all, I paid more than 5,000 yuan (US$800) and wished to enjoy much improved user experience. However, my pursuit of a better mobile life was not as smooth as I had hoped.
When I got the phone at an outlet store of a domestic mobile giant, I found several pre-installed applications I don’t need but cannot delete because they are on the “trust list.”
Although I didn’t use these apps, they annoyed me by sending unwanted advertisements or connecting to the Internet without my permission or even awareness.
Once I touched an advertisement bar by accident, I had no idea that I triggered the playlist of an Internet television site.
An online video show played automatically, until I switched on the screen again half an hour later and was astonished by what I saw.
It was more than I could bear and I made a quick decision to root my new phone. Unfortunately, when I linked the phone to my computer, a butler app I had installed in my computer took immediate control of my phone and asked me again and again to root the phone system.
I didn’t accept it but instead downloaded a widely recommended app to root my phone. But the result is nothing better. The new app became the master of my phone immediately after it was installed, while several app icons suddenly appeared on the home screen.
Almost at the same time, the butler app also sneaked in thanks to another inattentive click I made and was authorized to take over control of my phone call and text massage functions with its own alternatives.
‘Cell Phone’
Furthermore, almost every new app I installed in my phone acquired the authority to spot my location, access my contacts or even listen to my phone calls.
I was so frustrated and then remembered an award-winning Chinese comedy-drama film, “Cell Phone.” The popular 2003 movie revolves around two successful men whose marriages were wrecked when their wives uncovered their extramarital affairs through traces left in their mobile phones.
More broadly, the film explores the role of mobile phones in interpersonal relationships in modern China, where the rapid development of information technology is having huge impacts on the way people communicate.
Compared with the technology a decade ago, the situation nowadays is deteriorating. Smartphones are taking control of our daily lives.
Taking a photo or recording a video or surfing the Internet with a mobile phone seemed amazing 10 years ago. Now, many of us use the gadget to hail a cab, book flight tickets, pay bills or go shopping.
In Shanghai, when you wish to find a vacant cab during rush hour, it can be a tough task if you don’t have a smartphone with a cab-hailing app installed.
Behind the apps are IT giants who try to build their commercial empires based on mobile applications.
They analyze our shopping list to improve their sales promotion or spend billions of yuan for free taxi rides to establish the acceptance of mobile payment system.
More and more functions covering almost every aspect of our daily activities are integrated and become apps on our smartphone screens.
We check credit card bills through the apps. We book film tickets through the apps. We make restaurant reservations or purchase coupons through the apps. Someone may even do their jobs through the apps.
One day, our whole life may be set up on smartphone apps.
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