The amazing cellular phone

The cellular phone is undoubtedly one of the most practical technological inventions of our time. It has equalled, if not excelled over, the household refrigerator in terms of usefulness and indispensability. Yet many cellular phone users do not fully avail of the gadget's wide range of practical benefits. To them, the cellular phone simply means voice calls and text-messaging. Such functions are only tip-of-the-iceberg, so to speak.

The cellular phone is many, many things else aside from its being a mobile phone and a beeper plus. (Beeper plus because it does more than the ordinary one-way beeper, allowing for convenient text communication exchange through a function called SMS or short-messaging-service.) The device is also an alarm clock, an appointment reminder, a calculator, a stop watch, an electronic calendar etc. Some models even come with a tuner for listening to radio broadcasts. And, lately, there's the phone camera that enables you to take both still photographs and moving pictures!

There are also extra features for managing calls: caller ID (allowing you to screen incoming calls, thus giving you the option whether or not to take the call), call diverting (enabling you to redirect incoming calls to another phone when your cellular phone is unavailable at the moment), call barring (when you want to block certain people from calling your phone), call waiting (holds a caller on the line when you're still on another call), automatic redial and speed dialling, and many other features designed for your utmost convenience. There's also an inbox that stores important calls that you're not able to take at the moment, which you can retrieve at a later time.

There is no doubt about the indispensability of the cellular phone in our modern everyday life. It has become something we can hardly do without, not only as a necessary tool for connecting with others, but also as a personal companion with its built-in games and other entertainment features to drive boredom away (while waiting in line at the doctor's clinic, while commuting and at other instances where there is just nothing else to do). The gadget is also becoming a distinct fashion statement-people change cellular phones the way they do shoes or even a pair of jeans, depending on the image they want to project. In addition to its wide array of functions, size is a most incredible thing about the cellular phone. It is so handy-it easily fits in the palm of a hand or the side pocket of the pants. It won't even look like it's there. It is so small (and getting smaller all the time) that it's hard to imagine how such diminutive device is able to do all that it does.

While the cellular phone service is definitely a new lifestyle expense, the cost need not be too much of a burden to the wise user. Many centavo-wise prepaid-service subscribers average only between hundred-fifty and two-hundred pesos per month, relying mainly on SMS or text-messaging to communicate and using it sparingly. Nevertheless, they're always available for incoming calls. Minus the user's vanity, even the most heavily used cellular phone can last up to ten years or more, so long as it is handled properly.

However, such extent of functional longevity is seldom attained because people always want to keep up with the latest product models that regularly come out in the market. With its many uses and convenience features, the cellular phone is our modern-day version of the fabled magic wand. Like anything, it is upon us users to exercise prudence and responsibility in order to make this wonderful device truly beneficial, rather than detrimental, to us and others. It's all up to us really. After all, we give the prompt to make the device work.