Last week I wrote about the important role media servers play in the network. Today is St. Patrick’s Day and let’s see how SmartPhoneMan interacts with Media Servers. SmartPhoneMan is just like you and me. He keeps a smartphone on him all the time and has interesting apps downloaded that he thinks makes his life better or allows him to stay in touch more easily. Since it’s St. Patrick’s Day he has taken today off. He starts his leisurely day going out for a walk to get coffee. There is a line but he notices something new at the coffee shop – a kiosk. He decides to go over to the kiosk. It talks to him and he talks to it, and he orders his coffee and pays by credit card. The credit card is validated since they use a location based service to know where he is. He is his phone! He goes and gets his mocha latte and he finds he has kind of “jumped” the line since the kiosk put in his order when his credit card was validated, and likes that he doesn’t have to wait. His life is great and his smartphone helped make it like that.
As he’s enjoying his coffee, he’s checking his social posts. A funny picture reminds him he should call his sister, so he simply clicks and calls her. And even though she’s away from her phone, she knows it’s him because he has a cool ring tone set up for her, so she answers it. Once he hangs up, he goes back to checking social media. And he starts getting ads inserted into the social media sites. The coffee shop is telling him he can get 50 percent off a GREEN coffee. It knows he’s there, it knows he’s been there a while so why not see if he can spend even more money? So he does it, this time on the phone. He goes over again to get another coffee and it’s ready in no time. His life is great.
During this time, SmartPhoneMan also gets an urgent Short Message Service (SMS) from his pharmacy’s IVR. His prescription is about to run out and they have a new prescription ready for him. Even though it’s a bit out of his way, he’s in a good mood, it’s a nice day, and so he walks over there.
On the way home with his prescription, unfortunately he sees a fire at a business. Since there aren’t many people around, he takes action. He takes a small video and texts it to 911. Within a few seconds, he hears sirens so he knows it’s being taken care of. He waits for the emergency responders to show up and gives his statement.
He is in a rush though to get home. Next week, find out why and we’ll finish SmartPhoneMan’s day and see if he’s able to get some GREEN beer.
