It's the pace of change.
From Leicester Mercury

Two old baked bean cans tied together with a piece of string used to be considered the height of technology in telephones... well, it did when you were three years old.

Since the days of Alexander Bell, they've evolved into something far more spectacular and, if you are a techno-phone phobe, slightly more scary.

Take tomorrow's Flora London Marathon. Mobile firm Orange is providing a free texting service which will give family and friends up-dates on their loved one's performance around the 26-mile race.

Each runner will have a special chip attached to their trainers and will be able to select three numbers which will automatically get messages sent direct to a handset.

For all of you who want to get more out of your mobile, here are 10 things that you probably didn't know the new generation of phones can do.

1. Storing texts Text messages used to be stored on the sim - the nattily named subscriber identity module. It's the card that holds all the information like telephone numbers and allows you access to the mobile phone network. But the sim could only hold up to 10 messages.

With new handsets, messages are stored on the phone memory, which means you could hold up to an astonishing 1,000 texts.

2. Predictive text Don't wear your fingers out tip-taping away. Use the built-in-dictionary. Magically, it predicts the words you want to use.

3. Train times Many phones have WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). This allows users to access information instantly via their mobile phones.

WAP is a basic form of the internet, which allows you to select different types of information.

Stranded at a train station? Access WAP and you can find out when the next train is due and plan your journey.

4. Cinema times WAP also lets you find your nearest cinema and you can arrange what time and showing you want to go to.

5. Update and Backup New "smart phones'' are coming into the market, although at the moment, Orange are the only network to sell them.

If you've got one, Orange has developed a service where you can save all your phone numbers and software on the network.

This means if you ever lost your phone or had it stolen you can get all your information back with ease.

You need to set up a user name and password, as you would when setting up a new e-mail account, and then synchronise your details with the network.

6. Personalising your phone You've got options of screen savers, but if you've got a camera on your phone, you could use it to create a personalised one.

With most phones, you can also go on to websites and download your chosen ringtones.

7. Check your e-mail More and more phones now have access to web-based e-mail like hotmail, yahoo or any other one you can also access via the internet.

It's more technical to set up, but if you're confused you could go down to your local dealer for help.

Once set up, you can send and receive mail on the move.

8. Listen to your music Listen to music or the radio via your handset.

Some new phones come with radio and on others you can download Mp3 files.

These are music files that you play on your mobile.

You can either download them from a website directly on to your phone or download on to your home computer and transfer on to your phone.

You will need to just pay a subscription and download as many Mp3s as your phone will hold.

9. Java games While away the hours playing games on your mobile. It's great fun and with all the downloadable java games, there's more choice than ever. You might have to pay for some of them, but if you look around, depending on your network, you can download them for free.

10. Diary plan There's no excuse to miss a birthday, appointment or meeting. Most phones have an alarm system attached to their calendar which gives you a quick reminder.