iphone envy

i was asked by a friend this morning what phone i liked; which one i would get if i was in the market. i am not in the market because i just spent a big part of yesterday getting my blackberry bold working on the local network. now that i have it working, i am hoping its more than a few months before something puts me back in the situation of needing to find a new phone. phones are extensions of your life, so picking a phone is a life choice. not the same as mate selection, but... you know there might be something you can learn by watching the phone(s) someone carries.

i have a three handphones, well okay four. they are all smart phones because the one thing i demand is that the phone is smart; looking and able to commuicate. they all have a full keyboard, no sms typing with a standard handphone keypad for me. they are well known brands, blackberry, treo and window mobile. and for the the past few weeks i have been juggling three of them until i could get the bold working so it could take over.

i said i have four phones. the oldest is the treo i have from the US. it's my personal phone and only works when i am in the US. the last sms on it are those i sent to the family on the way out of an airport. "the doors are closing, i love you". because most US phones only work in the US, this one is a pretty piece of junk while i am moving around the world. the next time it will be turned on will be when i land in the US and turn it on as the plane taxis to the gate. the next sms will be "in {airport code}, i love you". i could easily drop this phone, but there is something about the closeness of the number and it's history that stops me from shutting it off for good.

i also have a blackberry curve from US. it's a workphone that i use when i travel. it has unlimited BB data and always makes the connection to the local network for me. the phone was supposed to be unlocked, allowing me to plug in a new SIM and have it work, but that didn't work. the US network's SIM is the one one that works. yet another american phone that is helpful, but isn't there for me as much as i hoped. it's expensive to use and is simply not worth the issues. i turned this one off yesterday, and don't plan on turning it back on.

i have a windows mobile phone that i use as a modem connection for my laptop, and it has the number i have used here for the past three years. this is my voice and SMS phone since i got the new BB. once i prove that the BB totally works and gives me the coverage i need, i am going to need to drop this phone. it works, and its okay, but carrying two phones all the time is not worth the hassle. i am also having issues with charging two phones, the last thing i needed was to carry yet another charger with me. eliminating this phone will lower maintence costs, but not until i have a unified solution.

this leaves me with the blackberry bold. i have been watching this phone for a long time. i have gone back and forth about getting it. i was told it had issues and it was better to wait for a newer blackberry. i was standing in the sydney airport, looked over and realized it was time to make a move. i love this phone. its the styling and functionality are perfect; it feels like it was designed for me. slim, sleek, all the features that i want. the only downside was getting it to work was a nightmare. no matter what i tried, it just wouldn't connect to the server. the communication was there, but the connection didn't make it. it got to the point that i was ready to give up, even if a solution looks perfect on paper, if it doesn't work you need to forward.

i spent late yesterday dealing with this. after hours of fighting malaysian mall trafffic, trying maxis locations that are not maxis locations, finding service centers that didn't have a working connection to provide service and correcting helpful answers which i was able to prove were not right... the technician put my SIM in his phone, it worked, we swapped it back to the bold and magically the connection was made. why putting your sim in someone elses phone helps to make your own phone work better i am not sure, but it seems to be solution here.

so i was asked why i don't have an iphone this morning. its slick, and the touch features are really nice. but the storage is to small for me. i am willing to wait for steve jobs to give us an iphone with the capacity to hold my music collection. until then, i will keep the devices separate. if i am willing to carry two hand phones what's the issue with having an ipod... okay two ipods... with me too. i am not going to have iphone envy because i know its not the right one for me. no matter how good it looks, if it doesn't work what's the use.

one of my early mentors used to say, "form follows function". the context he was explaining this within had nothing to do with phones, but it could be applicable here. making a choice on major decisions shows what you hold as important. being willing to spend on the top of the line items; being open to try something new even if it might fail; being willing to keep trying even when it appears the choice was wrong; being able to accept discreet solutions while i wait for a grand unified solution to come forward, these are parts of my personality the phones represent.

the friend asking me about the iphone clearly wanted it, the reason to not get it was concern over how to react if it broke, they can't be fixed here. but you can't make a decision like this based on the potential for a future issue. you need to weigh the benefits until then, if they are worth the risk you move forward. if you really want the ability to touch, you need to make it happen. from there, you just need to take care of the device and make sure you don't do something dumb to break it.

form does follow function, but for me its the connection that matters.



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does anyone know why GPS doesn't work on my phones? this is the second phone with GPS i have had and neither have worked. the US goverment, military, launched these satelites to allow us to drop bombs with percision all over the world... did they somehow forget malaysia?

that can't be right... even if the last invasion only used bicycles, americans plan for the future.

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