first

When do you give your child a cellphone?

May 3, 2011
By Peter van der Merwe

What’s the “right” age to give your kids their first cellphone? I’ve asked a lot of people that question over the past few weeks, both through our online survey and face-to-face, and the answers have been … well, surprising.
The bottom line is that there’s absolutely no consensus. Most people (29%) think 10-12 sounds like a [...]

Remembering my very first Nokia

June 29, 2010
By Donovan Jackson

Whether you use one today or not, the chances are awfully good that at some stage in your cellular life, you had a Nokia phone. The first one could call my own was a Nokia 6110 given to me by my brother. He had already upgraded to a newer model, so even at that point, [...]

A life measured in gadgets

June 21, 2010
By Peter van der Merwe

I remember my first cellphone well. It was a Nokia 1611. The size of a paving stone, and only fractionally more functionality. As a stay-at-home dad doing some freelance writing on the side, I would check it frequently, hoping it would ring. Which it didn’t. Not very often, anyway.
That was back in 1995. Ah, those [...]