Should you really have to explain user interface features to the kids?

Last night, I upgraded my Nexus One to Android 2.3.3, aka “Gingerbread”. (I was lazy and waited for the automatic over-the-air update.) The update went without a hitch, but one of the features is just a bit retro: when you hit the power button to send the phone to sleep, the screen shrinks horizontally to a single white line and then goes black, just like a very old cathode ray tube television set. Okay, it’s amusingly retro to those of us who are old enough to remember televisions that did that, but is that really the way to show off your cutting edge technology?

(While as a matter of personal style, I’ve been known to use sounds from the original Star Trek series as alerts, I wouldn’t recommend that as a default.)