Friday, June 15, 2007

The cell phone saga contines.

So I think I've had maybe 4 or 5 different cell phones this year. Not having a lot of luck with the stupid little things. One broke, then I got a used one on eBay, which also broke, so I replaced it with another used one, which my cats decided they would like to treat as a hockey puck and play with, the goal being a kitchen trashcan that had a puddle of discarded melted butter from some crab legs we had eaten the night before. When I finally found that phone, it stunk like old seafood (imagine that) and refused to work anymore. Well, finally the sound started working, but the screen succumbed to the butter bath.

So. I used a three-year old phone I had sitting around, for a while, which really sucked because this phone did not know what a text message was or what it was supposed to do with one. I could get texts, but I really couldn't answer them without about a half hour of cursing on my part. Plus this phone kept randomly calling people that I hadn't talked to in years. The nice part about that is that I got to talk to a few friends with whom I hadn't caught up in a while.

I finally broke down. I was waiting for an iPhone, really, but with my job situation the way it is I truly can't justify spending $400 or $500 on a new phone, even the coolest cell phone ever, maybe. I called Cingular/at&t/whatever it is now and told them I thought I might switch to Verizon. They offered me a new Samsung Blackjack for $175 "for being such a good customer since 1996." Um, that's the same price I can get the phone for online, Mr. Guy-with-a-funny-accent. OK, how about $129? No, thanks, I don't want to spend $100 for a phone right now. OK, then you can have it for $75. Sold. I couldn't get him to go any lower.

I've had the phone for a couple of days now, and I like it a lot so far. It's a Windows Mobile Smartphone. So that means it can do a lot of things I have absolutely no use for and plenty of things I will never figure out unless I "RTFM".

One bad thing is that I have to enter all of my contacts by hand into Outlook (ugh) to get them on the phone. There was no mass import option. One good thing is that I can make my own ringtones. And I made one today! And it actually works! I used this free software called Audacity, and it took about five minutes, tops. Of course any eleven year old could have probably figured it out faster than I did, but then again I'm not sure I'm able to work our DVR at home yet, either. So I'm pretty proud of myself.

Anyway the ringtone is a piece of the song "The Ascent of Stan" by Ben Folds and it came out nicely, if I do say so myself. Too bad I can't figure out how to embed the audio clip here. Maybe in a couple of months...if the cats don't kill this phone, too.

1 comment:

Bill Graber said...

I think you must have been an Arab trader in a past life Lisa.