Also on Friday, in a shocking turn of events, I bought a new mobile 



buy the phone plus a SIM card that you're going to throw in the bin for 


Suffice it to say, I how have a completely working but unused SIM card 
as well as a new phone. ;-)

The phone is a Nokia 2760. (It was the only flip phone in the entire 
shop that said Nokia on it.) I say "phone"... In truth it is of course a 
telephone. You use it to make phone calls. However, it seems to be under 
the sad delusion that it's a video camera, or perhaps some sort of MP3 
player... Very odd.

Still, at least it's a Nokia. Among other things, that means it has a 
menu system that normal human beings can actually, like, *use*. With 
stuff grouped together *logically*, and even in a sensible ordering, 
with the most commonly used stuff at the top and so on. It also means 
you aren't forced to use that retarded "predictive text" thing that my 
last phone had and you couldn't get rid of.

In addition, this phone has a colour display. I'm not really sure how 
that's useful, but it's certainly more pretty. It even appears that I 
could change the background image on it to... say... some POV-Ray 
creation. That is, if I had some way of getting the data into the phone. 
(It looks like the only way to do that would be to possess some kind of 
Bluetooth interface device.)

Best of all, you can adjust the volume on this phone to the point where 
phone calls are actually *audible*! You can *hear* what the other person 
is saying to you! I cannot begin to emphasize how useful this is. My old 
phone had a volume adjustment, but it didn't go up nearly high enough. 
You can hear it in a library, but if there is even a tiny amount of 
background noise, you just can't hear a damn word.

Actually, this phone has a "speaker phone" mode, where anybody within a 
few feet can hear it. Which is an interesting idea. Just don't 
accidentally trigger this feature while trying to use the phone 
normally! ;-)

The phone is roughly the same size as my old one. Maybe slightly bigger. 
But it's thinner. And it doesn't have an arial sticking out of it to 
prevent you removing it from your pocket. And it actually appears to be 
fairly solidly built, so it's hopefully not going to *break* in five 
minutes flat.

My old phone had such a flimsy hinge that it eventually wore out. And 
the arial soon snagged on things and got cracked and broken. And now 
much of the silver paint has worn off, revealing the off-white plastic 
underneith. And worst of all, the battery life has declined to the point 
where the phone is nearly unusable. My new phone looks a tad more 
solidly built, so at least it shouldn't fall apart quite so quickly.

Well anyway, at the end of the day, it's a telephone. You use it to make 
and receive telephone calls. (And the odd SMS.) Unless to social life 
takes a dramatic upward turn, I doubt I'll ever use this device all that 
much. Still, at least it plays Soduku. (No, I'm not kidding...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> The phone is a Nokia 2760.

  I was expecting a computer nerd like you to buy the Nokia E70.
(And if you weren't so anti-Apple, the iPhone.)

  (While it doesn't beat the iPhone in any way, I just love the design
for a keyboarded phone. When closed, it looks and feels like a regular
old-style cellphone. When opened it has a full qwerty keyboard, and
space-optimal at that.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:

>   I was expecting a computer nerd like you to buy the Nokia E70.

Maybe it wasn't on the shelves of the particular shop I happened to be 
standing in? I didn't exactly scour the country. I just happened upon a 
half-decent looking phone and bought it. ;-)

Hmm, that's interesting. Googling the model number, I get pictures of 3 
or 4 apparently different devices. However, none of them appears to have 
a way to cover the keypad, so if it was in the shop, that'll be why I 
didn't buy it.

> (And if you weren't so anti-Apple, the iPhone.)

Very shiny, but I wonder how many seconds it'll stay like that once it's 
been in my pocket with sharp keys jangling around in there, and once 
I've put my greasy fingers all over it. ;-)

Also, being Apple, I imagine it tries to be an entire digital 
entertainment system. (With a price to match.) I just want a telephone. 
You know, to make phone calls with.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Hmm, that's interesting. Googling the model number, I get pictures of 3 
> or 4 apparently different devices. However, none of them appears to have 
> a way to cover the keypad, so if it was in the shop, that'll be why I 
> didn't buy it.

  I don't think you get the idea. The phone closes (like if it was a lid),
after which it looks like a regular old-fashioned cellphone. The qwerty
keyboard is then inside. Here's a better picture of the phone, in its
normal and opened states (and an in-between state when being opened):

http://www.handy-discount.de/nokia/nokia_e70_silber.jpg

> > (And if you weren't so anti-Apple, the iPhone.)

> Very shiny, but I wonder how many seconds it'll stay like that once it's 
> been in my pocket with sharp keys jangling around in there

  The glass is very hard. And why would you put any device in the same
pocket as some metallic sharp objects?

> and once I've put my greasy fingers all over it. ;-)

  Do you seriously think they didn't think about that? The glass surface
is specially laminated with exactly that in mind.

> Also, being Apple, I imagine it tries to be an entire digital 
> entertainment system. (With a price to match.)

  It's actually one of the most popular handheld game consoles nowadays.

  It has several cool features for games: Not only the touchscreen, but
it can detect its own orientation with respect to the ground with a
gravitometer (which allows the game to react when you tilt the device)
as well as an accelerometer, which allows the game to detect if you
move the device and do something accordingly.
  From what I have heard the gravitometer is very accurate, allowing it
to detect even small changes in tilting (in all possible directions).

> I just want a telephone. 
> You know, to make phone calls with.

  Why not use the same device for other fun things as well?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

> And why would you put any device in the same
> pocket as some metallic sharp objects?

I only have a limited number of pockets usually, so my phone always goes in 
the same pocket as my keys.

After daily use for over 2 years, the only signs of wear on my current Nokia 
is the silver Nokia logo on the back starting to flake off.  Given that 
phones are only designed to last for a couple of years, I think that's 
pretty good given how badly I treat it ;-)

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:

> After daily use for over 2 years, the only signs of wear on my current 
> Nokia is the silver Nokia logo on the back starting to flake off.  Given 
> that phones are only designed to last for a couple of years, I think 
> that's pretty good given how badly I treat it ;-)

Heh. I wonder - do they deliberately design phones to break after a 
while? (After all, this presumably will encourage you to buy a new one, 
which is much more profitable.)



Or is that related to the previous? ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

> Heh. I wonder - do they deliberately design phones to break after a while?

Not as such, but all the testing is designing to simulate 2 years "in the 
wild".  Hence the phones are designed to pass these tests and nothing more 
(although in practise it's always a bit/a lot more).  For instance we have 
to ensure the brightness of our displays remains above a certain limit after 
what Nokia have decided is 2 years use.  After that they don't care what 
happens.



They didn't use to either, my first phone was a Motorola brick for 80 GBP, 
and my second was a Nokia 3310 for around the same price.  Of course if you 
want the latest all singing all dancing phone, it does, and always has, cost 
a lot more.  There have always been cheap ones available though.

Post a reply to this message

>> Heh. I wonder - do they deliberately design phones to break after a 
>> while?
> 
> Not as such, but all the testing is designing to simulate 2 years "in 
> the wild".  After that they don't care what happens.

Fair enough...


> 
> They didn't use to either, my first phone was a Motorola brick for 80 
> GBP, and my second was a Nokia 3310 for around the same price.  Of 
> course if you want the latest all singing all dancing phone, it does, 
> and always has, cost a lot more.  There have always been cheap ones 
> available though.

Interesting. I was told (I mean, this was a while ago) that if you sign 
up to an expensive monthly contract, they throw in the handset for free, 
but if you buy the handset on its own, it's hundreds of pounds. So I was 


Also, what's with all these "locked" phones? What's all that about?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> Also on Friday, in a shocking turn of events, I bought a new mobile 


I'm still one of those folks who refuses to get a cell phone. (Actually, 
I have a cheap prepaid one for emergencies, but that doesn't count). 
Don't know about the UK, but I just think they're way overpriced here 
and I have no intention of getting into a contract. And I don't like 
their practices, the cell phone culture, etc.

And get off my non-existent lawn!

-- 
This shepherd asks his dog to please go and round up the sheep and see 
how many there are...
The dog obediently rounds up the sheep and tells the boss, "there are 40
sheep out there."
The shepherd says, "Are you sure?  I thought there were only 37"
The dog sheepishly says, "But I rounded them up."


                     /\  /\               /\  /
                    /  \/  \ u e e n     /  \/  a w a z
                        >>>>>>mue### [at] nawazorg<<<<<<
                                    anl

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> Also, what's with all these "locked" phones? What's all that about?

It keeps you from using the phone with a different carrier. Since the 
carrier subsidized the phone, they "lock" it to keep you from buying a 
cheap phone from them and then using it without paying back the subsidy.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

Post a reply to this message