Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi, welcome to Hell! More people tell you, go to hell. Here, we welcome you. I'm in Hell, and I did it all without any tech from 2019. Why the hell did I end up in Hell? Oh well, it's actually quite simple. As the clock nears 2020, I've been thinking a lot about how much the smartphone has changed the world and us, in the last decade. So, I challenged myself to live with just 2010 tech for 24 hours. Does this not even have maps on it? I asked my producer, Kenny for some suggestions on where to go. I think you should go to Hell, Michigan. I grew up near there. And so, we got to packing. I gathered a bunch of gadgets I used in 2010. You hear that? Yeah, I'm bringing this. My BlackBerry Bold 9700, a Zune HD, a Flip Mino HD, a Cannon point and shoot, and a Garmin Nuvi for GPS. All of them surprisingly worked after I charged up the batteries. Okay, I am putting this iPhone in this drawer at my house, and I'm leaving it here for the next 24 hours or so. Challenge one, get to Hell. And took off for the airport to begin a series of four challenges Kenny had designed for me. Hell, it turns out, is a small township about 60 miles out of Detroit. That meant, a flight, a drive to stay at a hotel nearby, and then another drive to Hell. The flight part was easier than I thought. Look at all these people on their phones. No ticket on my phone, nothing to really do while killing time in line. This is Brick Breaker. It's so good. I was so good at this. No streaming music or movies. I really enjoyed using my Zune HD. Now we must get off the flight. We just landed in Detroit. Solid 3G service here. It's 21 degrees fahrenheit right now. The driving part, not as easy. All right, so what's going on here? No GPS. It thinks we are in Wisconsin. We're not in Wisconsin. These are in Wisconsin still. Turns out that Garmin didn't have the latest software update, which needs to be downloaded on a Windows computer to reach the damn satellites. So I went back to 2000. But it looks like we've gotta take 94 out of Detroit. Ah, Howell! The maps got me close, but not close enough. I had to call the hotel for directions. We're just a couple exits down. I'm so happy right now. The Holiday Inn Express in Howell, which is close to Hell. Tomorrow we will go to Hell. I asked the concierge to print me out directions from Howell to Hell. Do you know how to get to Hell? Just past the high school on Darwin road. I have been looking for Darwin for quite a long time. Okay, so that's gonna be down here on your left. Get ice here before Hell freezes over. This is it. Look. Challenge complete. Challenge two. Post a Selfie on Instagram. I really would like my head to block the pure. Try this again. Nope. Okay. Nope. My Selfie game was not good in 2010. Okay, now how to get these photos on to Instagram. This shall be a challenge. Is there an internet cafe in Hell? No, do you need to use the internet? I may need to use the internet. So you can just sign up to our WiFi. The WiFi on my BlackBerry wasn't gonna help, since Instagram doesn't have a BlackBerry app. So I hooked up the camera to my new friend, Vaughn's Windows PC. I'm gonna import them all to her computer. I have no idea where these are going. Then, I got to Googling. Here, wait. This seems like a hack. I finally figured out a way. A Google Chrome trick for developers that lets you force your web browser to be like a phone's web browser. That one's cute. Which one, this one? Yeah, that one's cute too. Yeah, that one's good. Hello from Hell. I did it. Challenge complete. I feel pretty good. I'm also starving. Challenge three. Review lunch on Yelp. It's slim pickings on restaurants in Hell, so I opted for the Hell Hole Bar, and I ordered a local favorite. So I'm gonna be eating the Patsy. Patsty. Patsy? What is it called? Pasty. This is called a pasty. This is a Michigan delicacy. I'm eating a pasty and it looks like a cross between chicken pot pie and an empanada. It's really good. Now posting my review was well, not really possible. There was very little 3G service in the restaurant. Like, the browser will load but I can't really search on the BlackBerry either. The bigger issue was that the BlackBerry 5 browser was so slow to load images and the site, and yes the iPhone 4 was out in 2010, but I still had a BlackBerry. It was only hours later, while sitting on the plane back home, that I was able to log in and post it. Challenge complete. Kinda. Don't get me wrong, most of my day in Hell was, hell. Am I even in the photo? But in many ways, it ended up being like heaven. I don't even want to take a photo of this. It's that good. It was nice remembering how we used to do things, like navigate the world with our brains or ask people to take photos of us. Best of all, it was nice to remember when social media feeds were just on computers and unable to distract us everywhere we are. I'm back from Hell, and here it is. I've made it. My iPhone. Would I do it again? Hell no. Greetings from Hell, Mom.
B1 US WSJ blackberry browser challenge pasty howell 24 Hours in Hell With Only 2010 Technology | WSJ 6259 191 Fibby posted on 2020/01/21 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary