By Patrick Avenell
SYDNEY, NSW: Father’s Day in Australia is timed to coincide with the start of spring, and with that, outdoor activities. One mobile phone company is therefore promoting its new Blackberry-style handset as the gift of choice for dads who want to stay in contact when a long way from home.
The i-mate 810-F smartphone (RRP $1,099) from Ingram Micro has a full QWERTY keyboard, impact resistant touchscreen, GPS, Wi-Fi, digital compass, accelerometer and Bluetooth.
Talking about this phone in relation to dad is global marketing manager Allison Caruk.
“For the guy who just can’t help dropping his phone down the toilet, running over it with his bike or putting it through the washing machine, the i-mate 810-F is the perfect option for dad this Father’s Day,” she said.
Caruk elaborated to say that this gift would be appropriate for army brats to give to their old man, before invoking the rarely used zeugma technique to emphasise its utility.
“The i-mate 810-F smartphone is totally foolproof. Built to military standards the 810-F is water, heat, snow, shock and pressure-proof, so Dad can surf the net and take it surfing with him. It is also idiot-proof: as it runs on Windows mobile it will be familiar to any Dad from their home or work PC.”
Zeugma is an incidence in writing in which the verb used in a sentence applies to two separate subjects. For example, the hip flask was weighing on both my mind and my pocket.