In fact I don’t have an iPhone. I have a G Phone (a HTC magic (now)), running Android 1.6. But if I’d have said “Why I can’t live without my G Phone”, people might have thought I was on some Android crusade, which I’m not. This post is about “culture”, well ish…
A few weeks ago whilst on a “keeping the wife happy” trip to the theatre, I lost my then phone, (a HTC Hero, running android 1.6 – T-Mobile custom ROM). So I had to go back to the horrible old Sony slide out 9 button jobbie – true evil.
Worst phones maybe available, but it's bloody unlikely
Now I have never insured my phones, I reason that you get a new one ever year, so if you lose it just cut your loses and wait for your contract to be renewed. And anyway, insurance like this is a massive con right, £70 a year for a free “£350” phone. Unless you’re especially gifted, you’re only likely to lose once every 3 years.
So there I was with the telephonic progeny of Satan pressed up against one ear, and this funny, odd feeling in the other (- ear, and not, I’m happy to add the afore mentioned wife!).
Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I had mobophobia, but I did long for the old days. No podcasts on the way home, No Google maps if I got lost, no tunes to listen to at the drop of a hat. Not insurmountable problems I grant you, but why be without the “luxury” when its no great shakes to have it?
So there you go, I went and got a new phone. Now I have it all back, and it feels so good!! Podcasts, mp3’s, chess games, shazam, twitter, the ability to Sky+ TV programmes I don’t really want to watch form the comfort of the pub, and a practically limitless amount of other rubbish that I don’t really want or need. But I can have it, I can have it all, and now I’ve got it I don’t want to give it up!
so there you have it…
Me 0, Mobile phone companies 1!
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I have one of the shitty Sony Ericssons you mention (but a worse one) but use it *far* more for web/appy stuff than anyone I know with an iPhone does. Sure, they have a pile of useless apps installed, but they hardly ever use them. I’m just too tight to shell out more than £15 per month for talktime, texts & unlimited internet, so it’s a Third World Phone for me.
Humm and your from scotland you say …;-)
Good news is that I reckon you’ll be ablt to pick up a G1 for about 50 quid in 6 months time, which is an incredibly capable phone. I’ve had smart phones for about 3-4 years now, windows mobile what a bit rubbish, but dont think I’d go back to a “normal” phone now.
I got a Vodafone upgrade to a Magic a few months back. Cost me 70 quid and I’m very happy with it. I was tempted by the Dark Side, I’ll admit, but not so much that I could be bothered to wait for the O2 exclusive to end.
The Magic is a much better looking phone than the Hero, they are basically the same apart form than. The one thing that lets it down is no 3.5 jack which the Hero has.
O2 must be making a killing with the exclusivity on the iPhone, or they will be if they got their sums right.
Depsite being a PC guy through and through, I moved to an iPhone, and it rocks. (Granted, I was on Windows Mobile 6.0 before which SUCKED.)
Last week though, I was down in Seattle for the MVP summit. Being too cheap to pay the roaming data fees, I left the data services off… and that was painful. I might as well have had your Sony phone. No email, no maps, etc… All I had was phone and text messaging (granted with a full keyboard.) Felt like I’d gone back to the dark ages!
By contrast, back in Vancouver on Sunday to watch the olympics I was able to pull out the phone, look up a restaurant and get directions from exactly where I was to it on foot. Now that’s cool. :)
It’s amazing how quickly we get used to the technology, isn’t it?
LOL, how much does window mobile suck, it’s unbelievable!! I can believe we had to put up with it “back in the day” – (that’s like what 18 months years ago!!)
Roaming charges are a pain/gothca, I’ve heard a few stories like, well I thought I’d turned it off…
>>>It’s amazing how quickly we get used to the technology, isn’t it?
I guess the thing that surprises me is how much I actually make use of the thing, its not just a nice to have it actively adds value to my every day activities. I guess thats what the best tech does do.
I bought my milestone with no contract. got a pay as you go sim from asda (cheap as chips)(it runs on voda).
Cos we live out of coverage and I’m abroad a lot, I never used the allowance I paid voda so handsomely for, and then they backskuttled me on roaming. so now I have a swiss payg ( a tiny step up from your sony – but at least its not pink!)(is yours a hello kitty one?)
anyway I just bought a new skateboard with the money I saved.
I guess you won’t be getting an iphone now they have cleaned up the app store?
My one is black in fact, but it’s still rubbish! Yeah I mean what’s the point in that apple? spoiling every ones fun!!!!
This must be the saddest blog I have read in many a moon. A bunch of light-deprived blokes discussing which unnecessary mobile has the most unnecessary features … get a life guys!
Bob!!
You sound like my girlfriend! You know I never had you down as a technophobe ;-)
Don’t worry about Bob, Ross
He’s just bitter cos he needs a wheelbarrow to carry his phone, and no one rings him.
Here is Bobs phone:
http://www.retrobrick.com/1000.html
but he only uss it when his pigeons are ill.
@Ross, not a phobe, I just refuse to jump on a badwagon just because everyone else does. I don’t work for MS after all. Your girlfriend sounds a sensible lass, but then of course …
@Simon, your right, no one does phone me because I never switch it on. My mobile is my daughter’s hand me down from 3 mobiles (of hers) ago. I make it work as I want it to, I switch it on when I need it, and use it to contact others. Of course that assumes the other has theirs switched on Simon! I don’t feel the need to be always contactable, to email on my phone, to surf the net on it, or to run stupid apps on a tiny screen. I know how to read maps and road signs, I can find restaurants without needing a phone to tell me where to go, and so on.
Talking of pigeons, I helped a guy on a forum recently and he had Blandford on the example spreadsheet. As this is near me I asked him about it, it turned out he was a pigeon racer. Some of these birds can fly from his area (Chorley, Bolton, Stockport) to Saintes near Bordeaux and back in a day. Amazing stuff. I thought you would have been into that Simon seeing as you are from up t’north.
I believe that the RSPP (Royal Society for the Protection of Pigeons) still have an order out against Simon banning him from coming with 40 meters of any live Pigeons, hence no work in London. Nasty business around that.!
ROFL.
PS, is it wrong to ROFL at you own (terrible) gag?
PPS
@Bob, I love my phone, band wagon or not. Also I never carry a map, I cant read, period, and love tiny things, the jury is still out regards tha last point with our lass…ROFL*,
*Again with the ROFL thing!