Connected, sort of.
Jul. 19th, 2009 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillFor 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?
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?
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-20 08:21 pm (UTC)The bluetooth thing sounds like it might be a good idea if I end up using the phone much. Right now the plan is to use it for emergencies or for things like letting the delivery people still reach me when I am in the back yard, so they won't think I am not home. (Or letting me lie my head off, and then *get* home before they come.)
The manual didn't say anything about T9 predictive text, but I will look again, and look online.
I don't expect to have a problem with the phone trying to dial itself in my pocket because it's one of the folding ones, so the keyboard is hidden away when it's folded and in my pocket.
I will check the manual again about the pictures. I'm beginning to think it's more a quick start guide than a manual, really, and perhaps I will have to find all this stuff online...
Come to think of it, since it has bluetooth in addition to the usb micro plug, I wonder if it can talk to the computer by bluetooth?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-20 08:40 pm (UTC)My phone came with a 'quick-start' guide on paper, and a fuller manual on CD along with the connection-to-PC software, but most of what I needed was in the paper one.
I set mine to vibrate by holding down the * key (doing it again turns vibration mode off). Holding down the # key sets the keyboard lock on, but needs two separate keys to be pressed to unlock, so it's hard to unlock accidentally, but it's not a folding phone, so I do like to lock it. It should tell you on the display if you've got vibration mode set.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-20 09:14 pm (UTC)Alas, no CD for me, just a paper manual, with one side in English and the other in Spanish. It does look from the manual as if I should be able to hold the # key down to put it in vibrate mode. I tried it just now and figured out you have to press and hold the key--otherwise it thinks you're trying to enter a phone number. But once I do that, it vibrates in my hand to confirm the switch and one of the teeny icons at the top changes.
So that's good to know.