How ol' Alexander Graham Bell would look upon our telephone addicted world today?...I have no idea. But the fact is, in today's world, we are entirely dependent on the technological descendants of his monumental invention. And, that addiction has turned most everyday people into a stark-raving cult of mobile phone junkies.
Personally, I lean towards being a somewhat "anti-hipster" when it comes to trends. I like to stick to the fringe and scorn the masses as they flock to their new "it" thing, whether it be the latest clothing fashions, the hottest cars, the newest music genres or the evangelical praise of $5.00 a cup burned coffee pushed by people titled fancifully-enough "baristas".
But I broke down this month and in the course of just 2 weeks, I ordered and now own 3 different cell phones.
Yes, me, a person who even keeps his home land-line phone set with the ringer off to avoid the egregious interruption of a phone call. A veteran of almost a total combination of two decades of call center work. Work demanding the non-stop shackles to an evil phone system. The very idea of a ring became a 4-letter word in my book.
I had a cell phone in the past, of course, before Koyaanisqatsi. When I was an assistant manager at DM, it was pretty much expected to be available at a moments notice. Through the company's discount plan I hooked up with AT&T wireless in 1998 and got this little gem:
Let me tell you, this phone had flawless reception, simple user-interface and unbelievable durability. You could have run over this thing with your car and it would still run fine.
Each of the three phones I now have could take a lesson from this baby.
Here's why I have 3 though:
It started with a desire to at least have something for emergencies and convenience. After the recent car accident, I thought it would be prudent to have a phone in the least for just such a situation. During the aftermath of the accident, there was some time wasted and awkward begging to be done on my part in order to contact someone who could assist me with a ride home from the towing company's lot. Turned out the tow truck driver was nice enough to get me home but it would have been immensely more helpful had I had a cell phone.
I don't want a 2 year commitment so I researched the various Pre-Pay providers. Boost Mobile looked like it would be the best so I went to Best Buy and bought this phone for $30 along with $20 in airtime:
It's an okay phone but the screen resolution is somewhat poor, the sound quality is just okay and I felt I could afford better. (The picture of it looks a lot better than it really is.)
At work, we all received a $100 bonus each for the quarter (just for filling out a survey), but it had to be awarded in a gift card (figures). I chose to have an Amazon.com gift card. I used it to get a much better cell phone that I could use with my Boost Mobile account, a slick-looking Motorola KRZR K1:
Problem was, it's a GSM phone, and even though my Boost phone came with a SIM card which led me to believe it was GSM compatible, it's not. Boost Mobile operates on Nextel's IDEN network. Oopsie!
So now to use my new phone which not only chewed up my $100 gift card but cost an additional $45.99 from my debit card, I had to hook up with either AT&T or T-Mobile which use the GSM network. (It's an unlocked phone so I could go either way)
Well, with the Go Phone Pay As You Go plan, I get unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile, and Ric is on AT&T, so it works out great. You may think-Great, if you only talk to Ric, then it's totally free cell service? Well, no. With this plan it's a dollar a day each time I use the phone. But, when analyzing how I would potentially use the phone, it works out to my advantage overall.
Now to get the Go Phone service you have to buy a phone. And the cheapest was this, available for just $9.99:
I haven't used it to make a call yet but for the price it doesn't seem to be that bad.
Nothing like my Cosmic Blue baby though...
Of course, I'm gonna keep the KRZR and use the others as mere backups. The i425 though will likely be the one to go since I am not going to "re-boost" and thus, in a month or so, my plan will cease to exist. That's how the pre-paid world rolls.
Would I have not wanted to buy an iPhone? Well, of course. It would be the bomb, let me tell you. Several folks at work have it and it is all that and more!
But it doesn't seem to (yet) be available, legally, as an unlocked option...which means you would not only pay the admittedly worth-it price of $200 for the phone itself, you'd have to commit to a 2 year plan at a minimum (for the 3G iPhone) of $80 per month. (Not including taxes). So, can I afford $2120 for a cell phone? Um, I could buy 2 really good computers for that!
Well, here's a video featuring what I might have gone with since, like everyone else, I might want the most diverse options and overall utilitarian features from my cell phone. One day they will all be designed to do everything we could ever dream of them.
Personally, I lean towards being a somewhat "anti-hipster" when it comes to trends. I like to stick to the fringe and scorn the masses as they flock to their new "it" thing, whether it be the latest clothing fashions, the hottest cars, the newest music genres or the evangelical praise of $5.00 a cup burned coffee pushed by people titled fancifully-enough "baristas".
But I broke down this month and in the course of just 2 weeks, I ordered and now own 3 different cell phones.
Yes, me, a person who even keeps his home land-line phone set with the ringer off to avoid the egregious interruption of a phone call. A veteran of almost a total combination of two decades of call center work. Work demanding the non-stop shackles to an evil phone system. The very idea of a ring became a 4-letter word in my book.
I had a cell phone in the past, of course, before Koyaanisqatsi. When I was an assistant manager at DM, it was pretty much expected to be available at a moments notice. Through the company's discount plan I hooked up with AT&T wireless in 1998 and got this little gem:
Let me tell you, this phone had flawless reception, simple user-interface and unbelievable durability. You could have run over this thing with your car and it would still run fine.Each of the three phones I now have could take a lesson from this baby.
Here's why I have 3 though:
It started with a desire to at least have something for emergencies and convenience. After the recent car accident, I thought it would be prudent to have a phone in the least for just such a situation. During the aftermath of the accident, there was some time wasted and awkward begging to be done on my part in order to contact someone who could assist me with a ride home from the towing company's lot. Turned out the tow truck driver was nice enough to get me home but it would have been immensely more helpful had I had a cell phone.
I don't want a 2 year commitment so I researched the various Pre-Pay providers. Boost Mobile looked like it would be the best so I went to Best Buy and bought this phone for $30 along with $20 in airtime:
It's an okay phone but the screen resolution is somewhat poor, the sound quality is just okay and I felt I could afford better. (The picture of it looks a lot better than it really is.)At work, we all received a $100 bonus each for the quarter (just for filling out a survey), but it had to be awarded in a gift card (figures). I chose to have an Amazon.com gift card. I used it to get a much better cell phone that I could use with my Boost Mobile account, a slick-looking Motorola KRZR K1:
Problem was, it's a GSM phone, and even though my Boost phone came with a SIM card which led me to believe it was GSM compatible, it's not. Boost Mobile operates on Nextel's IDEN network. Oopsie!So now to use my new phone which not only chewed up my $100 gift card but cost an additional $45.99 from my debit card, I had to hook up with either AT&T or T-Mobile which use the GSM network. (It's an unlocked phone so I could go either way)
Well, with the Go Phone Pay As You Go plan, I get unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile, and Ric is on AT&T, so it works out great. You may think-Great, if you only talk to Ric, then it's totally free cell service? Well, no. With this plan it's a dollar a day each time I use the phone. But, when analyzing how I would potentially use the phone, it works out to my advantage overall.
Now to get the Go Phone service you have to buy a phone. And the cheapest was this, available for just $9.99:
I haven't used it to make a call yet but for the price it doesn't seem to be that bad.Nothing like my Cosmic Blue baby though...
Of course, I'm gonna keep the KRZR and use the others as mere backups. The i425 though will likely be the one to go since I am not going to "re-boost" and thus, in a month or so, my plan will cease to exist. That's how the pre-paid world rolls.
Would I have not wanted to buy an iPhone? Well, of course. It would be the bomb, let me tell you. Several folks at work have it and it is all that and more!
But it doesn't seem to (yet) be available, legally, as an unlocked option...which means you would not only pay the admittedly worth-it price of $200 for the phone itself, you'd have to commit to a 2 year plan at a minimum (for the 3G iPhone) of $80 per month. (Not including taxes). So, can I afford $2120 for a cell phone? Um, I could buy 2 really good computers for that!
Well, here's a video featuring what I might have gone with since, like everyone else, I might want the most diverse options and overall utilitarian features from my cell phone. One day they will all be designed to do everything we could ever dream of them.