An Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) expert, Mr Remi Efunsanya, has said that most users of smart phones are under-utilising their devices.
Efunsanya, who is the Chief Executive Officer, MDOT Solutions, told newsmen that smart phones had the power to influence people’s daily routines.
He urged users to find out the capabilities of their smart phones and leverage on them, so as to get the best out of the gadgets.
“In the next few years, smart phones will take over all other digital devices and will be the most common digital devices one may own.
“Users should not see it as only a communication gadget because some of the applications in a smart phone can help us to achieve things in a simpler and faster way,’’ the ICT expert said.
Listing some of the capabilities of a Smart phone, he said for an Information Technology professional, “it served as a laptop because virtually everything could be done with it’’.
Efunsanya said its regular internet access and applications could also be used to monitor the heart rate and measure heights, amongst others.
He added that as much as smart phones were useful, users should not be carried away with it as they had their own disadvantages.
According to the ICT expert, its disadvantages include hindering real human interaction, sometimes leading to serious accidents, and leading to breaches of privacy and security, if not properly managed.
Also speaking on the issue, Mr Abiodun Animashaun, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Braintech Technology, said that the emergence of the smart phone had effectively made most tasks done by man to be very easy.
Animashaun said modern-day humans were vastly connected to technology and social networks through their smart phones.
“Look around in the bus, the cafe, the malls, you will see the majority of folks with some form of Wifi-connected smart phones in their hands.
“A lot of people multi-task as they go about their daily lives.
“Technologists and software builders use smart phones most times to test and monitor their applications.
“It has never been easier to fire off a quick e-mail to a work colleague, to send a text with an embedded photo to a friend, or to video chat with a loved one,’’ he said.
Animashaun noted that the convenience of being connected to the internet, while on-the-go, made an active lifestyle much easier.
The ICT expert, however, warned users not to be too addicted to smart phones, saying that they were said to be dangerous to health.
“It has not been proven scientifically by researchers that smart phones are dangerous to human health, but it is better to be cautious.
“As you know, too much of anything good is bad,’’ he noted.
Animashaun said the Wifi (wireless internet connection) used microwave radio waves that were a non-ionizing form of radiation.