new technology bliss
Aug. 17th, 2003 03:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baratronI have a new phone. It's a Nokia 6100.
Now, the thing is, I didn't really need a new phone. I've been very happy with my 8310. But my mum wanted a newer phone for her birthday. She's been managing with a 402 for the past 3 1/2 years, and it was getting silly. Her phone was too old to do predictive text or to store SMSs on the phone itself rather than just on the SIM card.
She's on Pay As You Go rather than a contract because she doesn't really use the phone to make calls - only to receive calls and send/receive SMSs. But Pay As You Go phones are stupidly expensive, because they're not subsidised in any way - whereas when you have a contract, you're locked to your provider for 12 months, so they discount the phones substantially. I'd been vaguely annoyed by WAP browsing on a screen with only three lines of usable text, so I decided that rather than pay £60 for a shitty Pay As You Go phone, I should spend £50 on a new phone for myself and give her my old one. She agreed this was a good idea, and so we are both experiencing the joys of new technology. Comparing the 8310 I've just given her to the 402 she had before is like comparing a Pentium III to a 486, or something.
The 6100's not perfect - irritatingly, although it has a small font option for SMS writing/receiving, you can't use small fonts in the WAP browser. So I only get five usable lines on the screen, plus the title of the page and the menu. But I looked at... just about every phone in the Orange shop, including makes I'd never heard of, and couldn't find anything that did everything I wanted. The Sagem myX-6 which had the best screen around was missing one of the useful calendar functions, and had a crappy D-pad that made my thumb hurt after five minutes of playing with it - let alone an hour of intense Dino Islanding. But the 6100 was a small phone with a big screen, that didn't seem likely to give me RSI, and was within my price range, so... We'll have to see how happy I am with it.
Eh, and polyphonic ring tones that are all completely shite! What is this, some sort of conspiracy to make me buy a new ring tone?! But at least it lets me customise my message alert, so I don't have to be one of 20 people on the train carriage who hears a "Nokia beep" and looks at their phone...
Oooh, the Nokia archive's delightful - this is the phone I had for two years, prior to getting the 8310. It was even that colour! But I had a bright orange lobster-shaped case for it. Which got nicked in a pub at alt.polycon 8.
I fully expect none of this post to make any sense to Americans.
Now, the thing is, I didn't really need a new phone. I've been very happy with my 8310. But my mum wanted a newer phone for her birthday. She's been managing with a 402 for the past 3 1/2 years, and it was getting silly. Her phone was too old to do predictive text or to store SMSs on the phone itself rather than just on the SIM card.
She's on Pay As You Go rather than a contract because she doesn't really use the phone to make calls - only to receive calls and send/receive SMSs. But Pay As You Go phones are stupidly expensive, because they're not subsidised in any way - whereas when you have a contract, you're locked to your provider for 12 months, so they discount the phones substantially. I'd been vaguely annoyed by WAP browsing on a screen with only three lines of usable text, so I decided that rather than pay £60 for a shitty Pay As You Go phone, I should spend £50 on a new phone for myself and give her my old one. She agreed this was a good idea, and so we are both experiencing the joys of new technology. Comparing the 8310 I've just given her to the 402 she had before is like comparing a Pentium III to a 486, or something.
The 6100's not perfect - irritatingly, although it has a small font option for SMS writing/receiving, you can't use small fonts in the WAP browser. So I only get five usable lines on the screen, plus the title of the page and the menu. But I looked at... just about every phone in the Orange shop, including makes I'd never heard of, and couldn't find anything that did everything I wanted. The Sagem myX-6 which had the best screen around was missing one of the useful calendar functions, and had a crappy D-pad that made my thumb hurt after five minutes of playing with it - let alone an hour of intense Dino Islanding. But the 6100 was a small phone with a big screen, that didn't seem likely to give me RSI, and was within my price range, so... We'll have to see how happy I am with it.
Eh, and polyphonic ring tones that are all completely shite! What is this, some sort of conspiracy to make me buy a new ring tone?! But at least it lets me customise my message alert, so I don't have to be one of 20 people on the train carriage who hears a "Nokia beep" and looks at their phone...
Oooh, the Nokia archive's delightful - this is the phone I had for two years, prior to getting the 8310. It was even that colour! But I had a bright orange lobster-shaped case for it. Which got nicked in a pub at alt.polycon 8.
I fully expect none of this post to make any sense to Americans.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 03:12 pm (UTC)I wouldn't mind paying for ringtones if they were any good, but most are far too high pitched. People take a perfectly decent song, and instead of making a ringtone of that song at the pitch it is on the record, make it an octave or two octaves higher. Ugh. Makes my head hurt.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 02:49 am (UTC)give me requests, and i'll put em on my WAP site for you to download for free.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 11:42 pm (UTC)if you have any requests, just stick em in this thread
no subject
Date: 2003-08-30 08:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 04:12 am (UTC)If you look carefully at the original contract you signed there will probulary be a clause that states that they can at their discresion, they can terminate your contract within the 12 months and request the phone back. This normally applies if you dont pay your bills.
If you decide to end the contract early You will have to pay the remaining of the line rental/subscription for the 12 months up front. They will not except the phone back in liu of payment.
This is standard for all the networks.
There are also quite a few phones out now on payg which have colour screens and gprs from about £100 it pays to shop around/ call charges on payg are also a lot cheaper than they used to be.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 05:49 am (UTC)the polyphoic ringtones are only midi files, so its not hard to make your own. ( for work i had to write a script to turn polyphonic ringtones from midi to mp3s embedded in flash files, so you can listen to them on websites)
bob puts on his pimp hat.
http://games.macrospace.com
http://uk.midlet.com
java games for phones or something :)
no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 03:08 pm (UTC)Now I just need some money.
Is that V-Birds DDR-type game still available somewhere?
no subject
Date: 2003-08-17 04:24 pm (UTC)would suggest http://www.vbirds.com ( evil flash stuff though)
http://cnweb.provx.net/ is godo for the other cartoon network games.