Edit @ 2 Oct 2007: I recently came across an article, on what we normally call ‘miss-calling’. Describing the practice as ‘beeping’, the article teaches you 4 rules that you should think about, before deciding to miss-call anyone. Read it here in full!

In a blink of an eye, it’s another weekend again. It seems like the best time for me to blog is during the weekends! Well, it doesn’t help either to know that many of my entries remain as drafts, and have little chances of getting published. Anyway, during the inactivity of my blog in the past week, Angel and Rinnah wanted to know what phones I’ve used before.

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.orgIf you’re in the same age bracket as me, you most probably have used a Nokia 3310 before. However, if you’re a little older, you might have used the Nokia 3210 instead. I know many of my seniors had that phone! I used up my savings to purchase the 3310 during the year-end holidays in 2000 (wow it’s been 7 long years!), and I must also add that at that time, the phone was everything to me. Gone were the days when my friends and I would call each other on landlines. Gone were the days when we’d say, “Hello auntie, may I speak to xyz please?”. The 3310, despite its non-coloured screen, was a hit back then. It was durable, user-friendly, robust… it was a luxury! I remember spending time looking for ringtones, operator logos, and nice casings for my phone. To think that we only had monophonic ringtones back then…… lol. Anyway, my 3310 was stolen by some brat during a basketball game. Yes, 3310 was no cheapskate phone those days, so much so that it attracted thieves!

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.orgAfter the disappearance of my 3310, the next phone I used was a very nice Nokia 8270. Back then, people were getting bored with the bland, colour-less screen. One of Nokia 8270’s most distinct features was the blue-coloured backlight. The 8250 had most of the features the 3310 had, but it came in a smaller size. The phone was slimmer, lighter, and its battery was obviously better too. The 8250 was running on lithium-ion battery, as opposed to the nickel-cadmium type on my 3310. It seemed like the perfect phone - it had the perfect size, ergonomics and functionality. It was damn tough too, as I didn’t worry about dropping it or pressing the buttons too hard or too fast. Come to think of it, simplicity does have its advantages… especially when compared with the phone I’m currently using (we’ll get to that later!). The phone didn’t spoil or anything. The only gripe I had was the SMS storage capacity - it could keep no more than a total 20 messages (inbox, outbox, drafts, saved messages combined). How trivial!

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.orgMy next phone was a Nokia 6510. It was every bit like the 8270, but with better storage capacity. It could store about 200 messages all in all, which was more than enough! Also, the fonts were a little smaller compared to the 8270, so the screen could display more lines. Like all my previous phones, the 6510 was adequate for everyday use. Its decent call quality and SMS functionality was all that mattered, and it performed excellently. In fact, compared with my previous phones, the 6510 had been with me the longest - even though the market was filled with phones that featured coloured-screens, polyphonic and mp3 ringtones, and even cameras! Many friends had already moved on; most of them were using more high-tech phones while I was still with my loyal 6510. I actually felt safer while using the phone, because I knew thieves would not target it. Alas, on one fateful day, the phone just died on me. Efforts to revive it by changing a new battery had also failed. I actually had a blog entry on that, in which I wrote that my beloved 6510 had journeyed on to the Land Where Consumer Electronics Are Eternally Blessed. *Sobs*

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.orgFollowing the demise of my 6510, I finally got myself a coloured-screen phone - with mp3 ringtone, bluetooth function and a built-in camera to boot! Basically I skipped the polyphonic-ringtone phase lah. The Sony Ericsson K700i was one of the best phones in the market at that time. It also marked the first time I used a non-Nokia phone. A friend had initially demonstrated its mp3 ringtone quality, and naturally, having been using monophonic ringtones all my life, I was amazed! The sound was crisp and clear! It also had a camera - something all my previous phones never had before. Another feature I liked was the Bluetooth, because I could hook it up with my laptop and remotely-control my PowerPoint slides during presentations. Basically, owning the K700i was like stepping into a whole new civilization, a whole new era! It never gave me any problems until many months later, when the joystick became erratic. It refused to cooperate when I needed it to, so it was very frustrating. Problematic joystick aside, the K700i was actually quite a decent phone. It has now been relegated to being a ’spare phone’ at home ;).

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.orgNow, I’ve returned to the Nokia camp. I’m using the N95, with GPS, wifi-connectivity, 5.0-megapixel camera, 3G, huge screen, quad-band, multimedia playback and an expandable memory capacity. Indeed, it’s feature-packed, and with its Symbian-based operating system, there is an endless list of software which you can download and install. Having said all that, the phone is by no means perfect. The phone drains the battery too quickly! And, compared with my previous phones, the N95 crashes and hangs pretty often. There is also a bug which has affected thousands of N95 users worldwide. If you must know, the microphone sometimes go haywire, which permits only a one-sided communication (or rather, the lack of it) during a phone call. If you ask me, this bug violates rule #1 for any telephone, for that matter. Go figure. There is a work-around though - you need to switch to loudspeaker mode and then back to voice again. A little troublesome, yeah. Oh well, at least the wifi and 3G works wonderfully! The camera’s good, too. At 5.0MP, it sure puts the phone at the top of the camera-phone league. But I only use it when necessary, because it’s super laggy! Seems like I have more complaints than praises for the phone… LOL. Anyway, I hope I won’t have to buy a new phone too quickly after this one. *Fingers crossed*

Can’t Live Without One?

Speaking of phones, do you realize that we’re becoming more and more dependent on our handphones these days? I don’t know about you, but I have tonnes of contacts in my address book and I cannot remember half of their numbers. If my battery dies while I’m outside, then I’m probably as good as a lost soul (of course, it also depends on who I need to call lah). Oh, how about using your phone as an alarm clock? My phone, for one, also doubles up as an alarm clock, since university days! I remember getting up early in the morning hearing similar alarm ringtones from the rooms next to mine… haha. It shows that most students did not invest in an alarm clock at that time.

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.orgIt’s also interesting to note that many people like to use the ‘miss-call method’. These days, it’s not uncommon to hear, “Miss-call me when you’re outside”, “Gimme a miss-call when you’re leaving your house”, “I’ll miss-call you when my parents are asleep”, and so on. Sometimes, people take it a step further by letting the phone ring until the call is answered, before hanging up! I’ve experienced that before. No, not as the caller, but as the answerer. Apparently, the caller just wanted to make sure that I noticed the miss-call. As you may guess, my “Hello?” was greeted with silence. When I checked the screen, it said, “Call Ended. Duration: 0:01″. Grr…

So, the next time you intend to make a miss-call, don’t be so irritating ya? Just let the phone ring once would do!

By The Way…

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.orgRinnah thinks that I’m “fun”, “cool”, and “totally fabulous” (note the quotes), so she decided to present me an award, known as the Totally Fabulous Award. I don’t know how fun or cool I am, but it sure feels FABULOUS to be awarded together with so many other renowned bloggers. Thank you so much, Rinnah!

Besides getting a considerable amount of traffic from Rinnah’s site (thanks to the link-ups in recent tags), I’ve also got clicks from Bkworm’s site! A quick peek revealed that she had passed me an interesting tag. She wants to know how my desktop looks like. So here it is…

Mobile Phones and Me | Narrowband.org

Well Bkworm, I’m not so much a tech-savvy guy like you said. I’ve a rather plain and boring desktop! My wallpapers are usually high-resolution photos of cars, because I’m quite a motoring freak myself. My current wallpaper features the new Porsche 911 Turbo. I’m not tagging anyone today, but do feel free if you want to share your views or experience - just remember to drop me your link!

Have a good weekend, everyone!