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Fri 13 Aug, 2004 06:12 pm
Well, I finally bit the bullet, and bought a new cellphone. I had my dinosaur of a phone, a Nokia, for nearly six years. No, it didn't give me six years of service. About two months before the end of the original three year guarantee, it died, and I got a brand new, (but already out of date) replacement.
It did what I wanted it to do, make and receive calls, or leave a message. My only concession to technology was to pick a ring tone that was not the default.
My new phone (sans camera..........if I want to take pictures I'll use a real camera"), has a book about an inch thick. It has wallpapers for this and that, different rings for Aunt Tillie, and the guy who trims the shrubs. I can set the ringer to vibrate, and make a godawful noise at the same time.
I was dealing with the oncoming hurricane Charlie when my husband and I went to the mall. I passed the Verizon counter. Now I had been looking to change service providers for awhile, so I figured that this was as good a time as any.
I wanted to check out the sound of the phone, but guess what? Because of the storm, the Verizon network in my area was down. So, with a leap of faith, I bought the phone, sound unheard.
I went home, and each time I tried to make a call, I kept getting this strange message, and no connection. Gullible that I am, I figured that the system was still on the fritz. The next morning, I called customer service. The lady on the line checked my account. The first thing that she said to me was that my phone was not programmed. Great. Since the line had been down, the salesman could not program the phone at the time, but he neglected to tell me that I needed to do it.
I had checked out epinions, and one of the things that they said about the phone, was that it was loud. (This is the LGVX4500). I really didn't know that I could put a cellphone a couple of feet away from me, and still carry on a conversation.
I had a few glitches, and between the phone, dealing with my mother, and the impending hurricane, I was really in a frazzle. Every time that I flipped open the phone, some idiot asked me to give it a command. There are a couple of answers that I gave that jerk that would be stricken from A2K! 
Seems that I had set the phone to voice recognition, and no matter what I did, I could not get out of that mode.
Also, I see that the latest in hucksterism is to download ringtones, for a price. LG gives you 16 for free, but they are mostly rather obnoxious. I have no desire to pay to have "It's Raining Men" emit from my cellphone, so I am just going to have to accept one of the free ones.
At one point the ringer was so loud that it could have been mistaken for an ambulance, in in times of a hurricane, that could definitely make one nervous. In addition, it was vibrating merrily. (I probably could find a use for that 
).
I finally figured some of it out, got a decent ringer, and volume. It will take me awhile to fine tune, although I do like the picture of the orangutan that is my wallpaper.
I think that I have an alarm clock, can E Mail, and download from the net. Who needs that?
What IS it about these phones, that they have to do everything but shine your shoes? Do you have a cellphone, and what features do YOU use?
I don't have a cellphone.
I did have one for a long time but I discovered that I really did like to be unreachable. Ditching the phone helped my staff become much more competent, to boot!
Mr. B., on occasion, thinks I should get one for emergencies. These days, with Little Mo here, I hardly travel far from home so I insist I can handle whatever life deals me.
Good for you, Boomerang. I have wished for one when traveling, though. It would help with getting together with people in a strange town. Anyway, I usually arrive somewhat disoriented from the trip and get lost easily.
roger- When we drove out west last year, the cellphone was invaluable. I would get those discount motel coupon books. When we came near to where we wanted to stop, I would call, and ask if they were accepting the coupons that night. Very handy!
Also, I will be driving home, and will order Chinese takeout, a few minutes before I get to the restaurant. It is ready as soon as I arrive.
My phone has all the trimmings but I don't even use half of them! The way I see it a phone is for communicating and nothing else.
Why pay so much for a phone that only replaces the functions that we would happily carrying on doing before the rise of all these so-called must have extra features! I don't use the e-mail, download or the camera features at all.
I'm a bit anti-technology at the moment.
My cell is my alarm clock in the morning, I don't use the "camera", I never surf the net( too slow, too expensive), download wallpares, ringtones, games and whatnot? Nope on that too. I do use it to organize phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and the calendar I use frequently.
I could live without it, but I don't want to!
Good luck, Phoenix!
I have no cell phone for obvious reasons, but I am still mourning my dear departed Wyndtell. Didja know the text pager originated as a device for the deaf? It did, and I had one of the very first ones, then the next-generation one, which at about hmm 6 years old now is ancient but exactly what I wanted, no more no less. No color, no Internet access, just emails to and from anyone at any time, vibrating notification of new mail, hip holster, and a couple of excellent features I actually used, like connecting to a special email AAA service, and text-to-voice relay calls (if I HAD to contact someone with no email, could type a message, send it a particular place, and a [hearing] relay operator would call the number and leave the message.)
One time I was stuck in a parking lot while sozlet took the rest of a much-needed nap and emailed Jes to chat. :-) The AAA thing was an absolute godsend more than once. When I was stricken with morning (24 hr, really) sickness, I stayed in bed and communicated with my staff all day via my Wyndtell.
What I miss most though, since E.G. is almost always in front of a computer during the day, are all the little uses; telling him we decided to stay at the playground for another hour, telling him about a great find at a garage sale, should we buy it?, etc., etc. Plus connecting with deaf friends, since everyone but everyone has one and it's the primary means of non-F2F communication these days. (tty? pshaw.)
Well that was quite a tangent, sorry. It's only $15/ month for service but the device itself costs, and we can't afford it right now. (The choice was new computer, which I desperately needed, or a slew of other stuff like new Wyndtell.) But as technology goes, the Wyndtell rocks.
I still have no cellphone, though I've talked about getting one for years in case of emergency. I picked up a couple of brochures about the pay-as-you-go kind yesterday. That appeals to me more than signing a long-term contract for something that I may never actually use.
I had a motorola cellephone for about 3 years, which was a gift from my aunt who used it for 2 years or so I used it only to receive calls since it was for 'pre-paid' cards and I never put any money in it.... apart from that I used it as my watch...
But last week I bought a new Nokia, still one-colored but got me all excited because of the text messages, games and ringtones... I suppose the emotion will die in a few days... but it kept me from getting bored yesterday on a Christian play thanks to 'Snake II' and a couple of friends...
I think I'm actually right in the target group (male, 24 years old) - but I don't have a cell phone. And as for the reason I agree with boomerang and say what I always said:
- a cellphone gives one the advantage of being available all the time.
- unfortunately, it also has the disadvantage of beign available all the time.
If I'm underway I don't really need to be reached. And if someone calls me while I'm away and it is urgent, that someone will call again.
I also often hear "well, if you don't wanna be available, you can always turn it off!"
To which I respond "well, if I have a phoen which I always turn off when I'm not at home or in another place with telephone or internet.. why should I buy one? What's the point ofhaving a device that makes you always available if you turn it off?"
If I'd ever get one, it would be a techie stuff one, though :-) I woudl want a Symbian smartphone where I can run self-written programs, play games and things like that :-) A friend of mine has the Sony Ericsson P 800 - somethign liek that would be it.
He he, so you want my phone huh (a smartphone, you can play Doom on it)?
No, I don't want one... but IF I want one, that woudl bw what I'd get :-)
What I do have is a PDA - even if it's only an old Compaq Aero 2100 :-)
) 
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