With a little help from the Telus LG 6190 Fastap handset he got from yours truly for his birthday, Al Howell today brought his mobile technology into the late 20th-Century with his first text to me:
Andrew im using my new phone
Indeed you are, Mr. Howell… Indeed you are!
I should have known that my trusty hiptop, which requires a persistent connection to the internet, wouldn’t make the best companion for my trip to Bermuda.
Here at home—in fact, anywhere on the continent, plus Hawaii—I can check email, surf the web and sync my personal info to my heart’s content, all for the same flat monthly data charge. But not so anywhere else, Bermuda included. Even with all my graphics and attachments disabled and one or two short online sessions a day I still managed to rack up a hundred-dollar data roaming bill from Fido.
And no, I wasn’t downloading porn!
(Photo courtesy of Erling Sivertsen, via Flickr…)
Here’s some interesting figures that I came across today, courtesy of Open Gardens:
… And the total worldwide revenues from text messaging in 2005 were roughly $75 Billion USD, at a cost to the consumer of only pennies each!
These days having a mobile without SMS is akin to a landline without voicemail. So if you’re wondering why I’m not calling you, now you know!
For all you CrackBerry addicts and RIM stockholders out there here’s a little humour courtesy of The Onion, to help ease you through the possible shutdown of service later today. One thing they forgot: Set up your PC in the bathroom so you can email on the toilet just like you did with your BlackBerry!
I still don’t see what the big deal is with a device that has no camera and only one lousy game; there are lots of other handhelds out there that can do push email, and you all know which one’s my favourite…
So I got a letter from Future Network USA this week, informing that my subscription to Mobile Magazine was being switched over to another publication, because Mobile Mag had been yanked due to a lack of interest.
Such news is quite disheartening for this smartphone enthusiast… I almost went broke last year forking out almost $200 CAD for an overseas subscription to Mobile Choice; now I can’t help but wonder… When it comes to mobile phones, why are we in North America so lame?
Perhaps it’s because historically the rest of the world has had to make do with SMS and WAP while we New Worlders have been spoiled by our flat-rate dial-up and broadband internet, or maybe it’s because we’ve got such large expanses of geography to blanket with coverage that we inevitably settle for handsets with less features and more robust radios?
Whatever. Even if you’re still using [gasp] analog, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy at least some of the benefits of 21st-century mobile technology. See if any of the following applies to you:
If you answered yes on any of the above then you’re not getting the most out of your mobile!
Getting that free handset on contract was your first mistake, but all may not be lost—all but the most basic models offer some sort of connectivity with your PC, which means you should be able to transfer your calendars, contacts and to-do lists right to your handset. Here in Canada, every mobile provider has made their text messaging service interoperable, which means you can text anyone on any network—you just have to pay a little extra to get it activated on your calling plan. Most phones also offer some kind of internet connectivity—it may be prohibitively expensive to use all the time, but you’ll certainly appreciate that it’s there when you need it. Finally, there isn’t a single handset that I know of that doesn’t have some kind of crap game on it, so stop shuffling your feet and sighing, already—that line isn’t going to move any faster, so you might as well get your thumbs working!
If anyone has a specific question about the capabilities of their particular handset feel free to post a comment below. And if you’re in the market for something new I’d be happy to offer my advice; hell, if you’re in Toronto I’ll even take you shopping for a nominal fee…
A glimmer of hope (for the US market at least) can be found here;
US Shoppers Willing to Pay Extra For “cool” Phones.
Unfortunately, I think online phone shoppers are vastly outnumbered by the “whut fone kin I git fer free?” crowd…