images from http://www.ismashphone.com and http://www.mobileawesomeness.com. Image edited by Firenza Walker
At about 8:30pm Wednesday, I suddenly realized that as a commuting journalism student, it was imperative that I own a USB flash drive — immediately. So, I grab my keys and storm out of the house with the intentions of heading to the Staples right up the street. But, no; Walmart’s rollback prices got me again.
I thought about the possibilities: 4GB flash drive for $12.00 — oh JOY! So, just to make sure I had realistic expectations, I pull out my handy dandy Blackberry. I type in Walmart.com in the Browser and wait. I had anticipated sifting through the website’s huge pictures and many links on my mobile phone but was surprised when I was confronted with a very clean design consisting of a single search box, a “home” link and a “store locator” link.
“Wow, Walmart has a mobile site,” I thought, “These stores are stepping their game up. I wonder if Target has one?” Cool beans. So I drive up to the Walmart and head inside, only to find no flash drives, not even one. Disappointed, I stop at the Subway on the inside of the Walmart (that’s a completely different article for another day) and then head out the door. I decide to look up Target’s website on my phone’s browser. They, too, had a pretty decent mobile site. A little more links but efficient nonetheless. After contemplating Target and Walmart, I remember that there was a Office Depot down the street from my house. At this point, it’s already 8:58pm. I know that Office Depot was probably closed but just to make sure, I pull out the Blackberry again.
“Surely, Office Depot doesn’t have a mobile site,” I thought. Boy, was I wrong. They definitely do.
So I say all of this to say, WOW. Technology is really making it very easy to get information. Ignorance can no longer be an excuse. Knowledge is LITERALLY at your fingertips; it’s only a Blackberry or an iPhone away. If you do not have a phone with internet capabilities (a Blackberry preferably) then you might want to invest. I saved about an hour of running around trying to find a flash drive at 9pm all because I was able to access the internet on my cell phone. Needless to say, I never got my flash drive but I did get a great post from my journey!
Media Piece 