Smart phones do just about everything these days

SEBRING - When it comes to communications, there was a funny bit in a 1978 Superman movie in which mild-mannered Clark Kent looked for a place to change as Lois Lane's life was on the line as her helicopter was about to topple from a tall building.

Open kiosk-type phone booth

Clark looked puzzled as he entered an open kiosk-type phone booth. By the time the film was made the enclosed phone booth was a thing of the past.

Rodney Eroh, 36, of Avon Park, said Thursday that's what prompted him to buy his first cellular telephone, in addition of an emergency. He's bought a few generations of telephones since at the time.

Eroh said he enjoyed modern communications innovation because he is able to interact with other people, even with an old friend he hadn't seen or spoken with in nine years.

"You've got the ability to have a wireless cell card that you can have Internet, even share Internet to several different devices like a laptop," he said.

The truth getting those cell cards

"Some people are to tell the truth getting those cell cards and using them for their primary Internet connection at home. So if they go away on vacation they can take that with them and use that with their laptop."

"There is a point when it's got to be as a matter of fact important to have to be that much in contact with someone," he said. "We used to go all day without talking with people because we didn't have phones with us. How would people live but if they didn't have it?

When he went to the Apple computer store to get his wife's iPod straightened out, he saw sales people who had devices attached to an iPhone, to do all the barcode scanning and read credit cards.

Complete transaction right there

Each employee could do a complete transaction right there and then without returning to a sales counter. He thought that was a in effect useful business tool.

In 2006, they decided to close his auto repair business in Hollywood and move to Sebring. He moved in April that year and opened the Classic Car Depot in Sebring. She moved in July.

Best was going to give Oshinsky her notice, however he wouldn't accept it. He didn't want to train a new person. Oshinsky sought the help of a telecommunications advisor that found a solution; a Samsung, Voiceover IP phone or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). IP stands for Internet Protocol.

"It's such as if I'm sitting there," she said. "I can pick this up and hit his button and I'm talking to him in his office as if I'm right outside. So when the calls come in I take them here and do whatever I do and if it's for him I can hit him on the intercom and tell him who is on the phone, drop it and he's got it."

"That phone, I can take to any phone jack, anywhere, and it will find that phone down there. It is on a static IP address. Any phone anywhere," she repeated. "I can go to anybody's house and it will find."

"He said, 'Who would ever have thought that two old relics like you and I would be on the cutting edge of research,'" she recalled. She's been at it about four and a half years, however her schedule is down to 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. So she's semi-retired, she said.

"Everything is right here," she said, "Internet, text messaging, my Facebook, my Twitter, my YouTube. One cool thing I love about it is the voice commands when I'm driving."

"Pretty nice," she said. "It probably does things I don't even know about on here, nevertheless I can record video, I can take pictures with this, show things on media. If I take a picture of you I can put it on Facebook. I don't even have to log onto Facebook. I could take a video of you and put it on YouTube without even a computer; just using the phone."

"I get e-mails on here, maps, GPS, if I'm lost. Whatever you need an app for it's out there, whether you have a Droid, which is what I have, or an iPhone. I can download music; I can download an application; I can download music for free. The maps is an app. At heart, news and weather; you can download news and weather."

She's got her business calendar in there. She likes her computer because it's a bigger screen. Her phone comes with a touch-screen keyboard and a physical keyboard.

"I travel a lot," she said. "I'm out of the office, I have meetings. It's as well helpful if I don't make it to the office at 9 a.m. I can nevertheless keep in touch with everybody. To tell the truth I didn't get into the office today until 11 a.m., now I was responding to e-mails by phone. I could just e-mail them back real quick."

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet, according to Wikipedia. Skype has as well become popular for its additional features which include instant messaging, file transfer, and video conferencing.

"For me one of the things about new research is as in the near future as you buy the latest and greatest whatever, or greater, there's something bigger and better," she said. "So it's outdated as before long as you get it.

Picture of a bug or something with his smart phone

Mikel said being able to take a picture of a bug or something with his smart phone and being able to e-mail it, or send a text message to the boss for some advice, has been a lifesaver.

"I do not think that I could survive without my computer and my new smart phone," he said, "and I am so happy to have it; it has come in handy so many times and to have the power of the Internet right there at my hands at all times, it just blows my mind."