"The portmanteau ‘garakei’ referred to a thing of beauty found only on a handful of islands, much like some Galapagos birds."
I thought it referred to the idea of "separated evolution", as in the Japanese cell phone evolved differently from the rest of the world, bucking the smart phone trend (for a while).
I'll tell ya, I was one of the last ones to get onboard with iPhone (James, you'll appreciate this). I didn't want to conform, and I thought a big slab of rectangular glass lacked panache.
So I decided to replace my old galakei with a new one, rather than go with the iPhone 5 that was all the rage at the time. But by then, they had been so chipped away and downgraded that there were no cool models left to choose from. Just a couple years prior there were a million different stylistic options. But by the time I wanted to pull the trigger, there were like 5 models to choose from, all designed to comfort the elderly customer afraid of the future. But since I didn't need gigantic fonts and a simplified number pad (yet), I caved and bought the apple.
C'est la vie. There were nice horses and buggies for sale once, too, at a reasonable price!
You're right about 'garakei' but what we are saying is two sides of the same coin, imo. I think the Japanese were very proud of the advancement and beauty of their phones, so when they chose a word to refer to them, a word that encapsulated the idea of their isolated evolution, they went for one that evoked the aesthetically pleasing birds of the Galápagos Islands.
Regarding smartphones, I like them and quickly embraced them. They make it easy to call my parents from abroad, and participate on social media from any place. What I don't like is people addicted to them wandering about not looking where they are going, and people fiddling about with iPhones instead of talking to each other.
"The portmanteau ‘garakei’ referred to a thing of beauty found only on a handful of islands, much like some Galapagos birds."
I thought it referred to the idea of "separated evolution", as in the Japanese cell phone evolved differently from the rest of the world, bucking the smart phone trend (for a while).
I'll tell ya, I was one of the last ones to get onboard with iPhone (James, you'll appreciate this). I didn't want to conform, and I thought a big slab of rectangular glass lacked panache.
So I decided to replace my old galakei with a new one, rather than go with the iPhone 5 that was all the rage at the time. But by then, they had been so chipped away and downgraded that there were no cool models left to choose from. Just a couple years prior there were a million different stylistic options. But by the time I wanted to pull the trigger, there were like 5 models to choose from, all designed to comfort the elderly customer afraid of the future. But since I didn't need gigantic fonts and a simplified number pad (yet), I caved and bought the apple.
C'est la vie. There were nice horses and buggies for sale once, too, at a reasonable price!
You're right about 'garakei' but what we are saying is two sides of the same coin, imo. I think the Japanese were very proud of the advancement and beauty of their phones, so when they chose a word to refer to them, a word that encapsulated the idea of their isolated evolution, they went for one that evoked the aesthetically pleasing birds of the Galápagos Islands.
Regarding smartphones, I like them and quickly embraced them. They make it easy to call my parents from abroad, and participate on social media from any place. What I don't like is people addicted to them wandering about not looking where they are going, and people fiddling about with iPhones instead of talking to each other.