The smartphone: Our new tool for sharing experiences

Attending Keith Urban’s concert in Philadelphia last night, my wife and I were lucky in our seat selection. Oh, we had marginal, average-priced tickets; near the back corner of the venue which had an end-stage set-up quite far away. But as the show neared conclusion, Keith carefully walked the entire length of the concert floor — flanked by security, of course — and walked up the steps near us where a temporary microphone rig magically appeared. For us it was the highlight of the night. It also shows how prominent camera-enabled, connected smartphones have become in the U.S., as nearly all of section 103 started snapping pictures.

Limited to the aging 5-megapixel shooter in my old Google Nexus One, most of the pictures I took are unusable. (Yes, I should have taken the myTouch 4G Slide!) But a few were good enough to share the experience. Thanks to the impressive Google+ Android app, all of my shots were uploaded in the background and I was able to quickly post a few during the moment. Aside from lacking picture quality though, folks on Google+ quickly noted all of the smartphones in the images. It seems like everyone was capturing memories, and I’m willing to bet that most were immediately doing as I was: Sharing those memories with friends around the world.

Whether you share on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, use a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android handset, it’s simply amazing to think about the smartphone’s rise to prominence in our culture over just the past few years. I saw my first Keith Urban concert before I had a smartphone although I remember trying to snap photos of him back then. I couldn’t share easily share the images, and to be honest, the fuzzy pictures weren’t worth sharing with anyone. But now? It’s actually part of our daily experiences thanks to superb image sensors, fast processors, smart software and mobile broadband.

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