THE hype that prefaced the launch of Apple's iPhone 6 used to be reserved for the latest blockbuster movie, an album release by the likes of the Beatles, or, in more recent times, a new Harry Potter novel.

You can now, of course, watch Gone With The Wind, listen to the White Album and read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on your smartphone, but few would argue that the experience is as wholly satisfying as the old-tech original.

Certainly in the case of the first two examples, they are much more solitary experiences. Such gadgets both cosset and cocoon us; yet at the same time they can expose us and pressurise us.

For many people, the stresses of work come home and on holiday with them with the advent of email anywhere and everywhere. A recent survey showed 58 per cent of smartphone users said they do not go an hour without checking their phones; 30 per cent of users check their phone while dining out. It is the chip that has become ubiquitous.

The iPhone 6 is a thing of beauty and a technological marvel - as, indeed is the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. But perhaps we should all remember that while it's good, to text, tweet and Like, it's even better to talk.