Connected, sort of.

[catsittingstill]

For the first time in my life, I am now the proud (if somewhat disconcerted) possessor of a cell phone.

I got one of the kind where you buy the phone and buy the minutes to put on it.  So if I don't like it I just put it in a dark box for ninety days and it quits being an issue--I'm out fifty dollars but at least I have no ongoing committment.  Yes, ninety days--I opted for the phone that had the minutes that lasted ninety days instead of thirty because thirty is just a racket, even if the ninety day minutes cost a bit more.

I'm not telling you what the number is, though I do know it.  No offense, but posting it on the web would just be stupid; I'm sure there are spiders that crawl around the web looking for defenseless phone numbers and pouncing on them and paralyzing them with one bite and then wrapping them up in silk for later and maybe even laying their eggs... Okay that metaphor got a bit out of hand.  Quick, stamp on it before the eggs hatch.

But I'm not planning on using it much. 

However I'm having the kitchen remodeled (the whole "bad back plus a kitchen designed for someone eight inches shorter than I am" thing) and I'm worried that the bloke delivering, say, the sink, will call me to see if I'm home and I'll be in the back yard turning the compost heap and won't hear the land line, and he'll say to himself "blast!  Well, I guess I'll deliver this toilet to Knoxville then.  She'll have to call and reschedule; it's her own fault for not keeping her phone on her."

So now I have a phone I *can* keep on me.

I asked Franklin, the nice fellow at the desk, to set it up for me.  Because I've heard they're hard to set up.  Franklin claims it's easy, but he also claims to have set up dozens.  Lots of things are easy once you've done them a couple of dozen times.

I called Kip at home from the parking lot to make sure it worked, and had him call me back to make sure it could receive.  Since it had only gotten its phone number a few minutes before, that seemed like a sensible precaution.  It worked fine, both ways, though the sound quality is nothing to write home about.

Now I keep playing with it and finding other things about it.

For instance it charges from a micro USB plug, with an adapter that plugs into a regular outlet.  I wonder what would happen if I plugged it into my computer?  I may investigate it later. 

It can download ringtones (I told it to back out of that in a hurry--ringtones cost money, in the form of minutes, and I don't want to gussy up this phone with lots of stuff anyway) and pictures (ditto, except I'm not sure about the pictures costing money).  It can *take* pictures but I haven't figured out what it can do with them besides e-mail them to people, which I haven't dared mess with yet because I want to figure out how much it costs first. 

It can send text messages (despite not having a qwerty keyboard--it uses the number keys and you press the one with the letter you want, as many times as the letter is down the queue--like "2" is "abc" so for "c" you press "2" three times fast).  I haven't tried actually using it but the principle seems clear and a text costs a third of a minute and a minute is the shortest phone call you can make, so if you can sort something out in three texts you've come out ahead.  Since it costs minutes to receive phone calls as well as send them, it probably costs to receive texts as well as send them but I haven't checked.

It can accept headphones (I'm not sure how that works yet) or bluetooth headphones (*really* not sure how that works but it could be handy if I ever get that into cell phones).

I did get my voice mail set up but it cost me five minutes.  The password part really threw me for a loop and I had to quit and think up a password and try again from the beginning.

It can theoretically take voice memos.  I'm not sure if that costs minutes or not.  It has a phonebook, presumably for storing numbers you call a lot.  It can theoretically surf the web but if I tried that those 120 minutes (110 now) would be gone in a flash so I haven't tried.

It can vibrate instead of ringing; I didn't figure this out until I was deep in the menus.  So I set it to vibrate, *then* ring to be on the safe side.  You can also set it to be silent; I guess that's what you're supposed to do at the movies or at a play.  I will have to remember to actually *do* it..

I feel so connected, but it's an illusion at the moment because I haven't even given the contractor my new phone number yet (I have several calls to make (from my land line) tomorrow morning, though.)

Does anybody know if texting has a character limit?

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I first got a cellphone when I was pregnant with my firstborn and my husband was working in varying locations ranging from Louisville to Cincinnati. My parents bought us both cellphones so that if I went into labor when he wasn't there, I could tell him to get his tail back home. After that, we got rid of them for a while, but eventually decided that not being reachable when one had children who were sometimes in somebody else's care was irresponsible. Yes, hundreds of generations have done so and (at least some of) their kids have grown up safely, but if we have the ability to be within reach in an emergency, might as well use it.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I have periodically contemplated a cell phone for things like car breakdowns. Up to this point my resistance to having a choke chain that can be yanked from a distance has overcome my interest in being able to call out or be reached myself. But then, I'm not responsible for kids the way you are, so I can see why you opted for the cell phone.

[aunty_marion]

I got my first one initially as a 'use in emergency' phone - for car breakdowns etc.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I think that may be a common reason to get them. And with pay phones becoming more and more rare now (and likely not to work right when I *do* find one) it is becoming more necessary to have one.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be able to have a cord that could be yanked, at least by people of my choosing when I wished to activate it. But I'm a lot more selective about ignoring calls when I don't feel like taking them than a lot of people.

[occams_pyramid]

Of course a phone that's to be used in case of breakdowns doesn't have to be actually switched on, until it's time to call out.
You get very good battery life that way as well :)