Last week I said goodbye to my old cellphone. A Motorola v60i that I’d had for oh, 5 years or something. Back when they were free and everyone seemed to have one. Technology has jumped forward a few times since then, but having worked in a cell-coverage-free-location, it didn’t make much sense to keep up with it.
Anyway, time to take a leap:
First time I’d switched cell providers, after having a phone for 10 years. Nice to be able to bring the number. Ordering took forever, since my billing address is a PO Box (we don’t have home delivery of email in Montara) a lot of e-commerce sites break. Street addresses don’t pass verification (since they aren’t real addresses to the USPS) and PO Boxes aren’t acceptable. So after trying to place my order (let’s set aside the long process of figuring out what the heck I’d want) I did an online chat with a rep who directed me to phone in. That took well over 30 minutes; they were nice, but what a pain.
A few days later, the phone arrives. The welcome kit that I was supposed to get by email hadn’t arrived. There’s absolutely no information in the package about how to activate it. Google helps me find a Cingular page, and of course it doesn’t work (“check back later!”). After a day, I call in. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone being passed to various reps who can’t seem to activate it and keep escalating to a higher lever of support. Hours later, the phone will make outcalls but not receive any incoming calls. They’re going to the old phone (this is known as mixed service, I think, as part of the porting process – I love the jargon). Another 30 minutes on the phone. Finally it’s all working.
Now I’m wearing my bluetooth earpiece (thanks, Plantronics for all the freebies) and looking like a douche. Meanwhile, basic activities like setting the ringer to vibrate, calling my voice mail, calling from my address book are all milestones on the steep learning curve (mixed metaphor alert). Not to mention things like syncing to the PC, surfing the web and someday figuring out how to read my email on this thing. It’s kinda fun, and it’s a GSM phone, which means I can buy another piece of hardware anywhere I want, and simply move a chip from inside this phone into that phone. This is a really revolutionary idea and it’s not in any ways new, but how come people don’t talk about this more. It’s incredible!
SMS ya later!
Tags: bluetooth, cell phone, cingular, gsm, mobile phone, motorola, nokia e62, smartphone, technology, v60i, verizon, wireless
for oh, 5 years or something. Back when they were free and everyone seemed to have one. Technology has jumped forward a few times since then, but having worked in a cell-coverage-free-location, it didn’t make much sense to keep up with it. … [Source: http://www.portigal.com Added Apr 11, 2007. Blog this Email this
Pingback by co.mments - Recently added conversations 04.11.07 @ 10:22 pmA great post Steve. Well done for holding on to the old phone for a respectable amount of time and also for recognising that the blue tooth action is for ‘chisels’ as they are affectionately know in some parts of the UK.
Comment by Charles Frith 04.11.07 @ 2:12 pmSo did it come with a shiny silver lamé fanny pack too? Going to need something to cart that behemoth around. Oh yeah, welcome to the future!
Comment by gavin 04.11.07 @ 7:08 pmYou said: which means I can buy another piece of hardware anywhere I want, and simply move a chip from inside this phone into that phone. This is a really revolutionary idea and it’s not in any ways new, but how come people don’t talk about this more. It’s incredible!
I think folks dont talk about it for the same reason we dont talk about our microwave ovens… the tech is already so pervasive, its common place!
Nice post. Montana???
Comment by Steve Mann 04.12.07 @ 8:30 amMontara, not Montana. Coast, not cows.
I would dispute that it’s as pervasive as you claim; hang out with the moderately tech savvy (they have cell phones and laptops, but don’t know what an IP address is) and I bet most will have no clue about this.
This is still a geek/enthusiast thing.
BitTorrent is beyond the reach, technically, of most PC users, but at least that gets talked about. Microwave-enabled behaviors entered the public consciousness when we started using words like “nuke” to describe a preparation process. I’ve heard very few mentions of SIM cards in my life.
Comment by Steve Portigal 04.12.07 @ 8:35 amYa.. i got the “montana” thing.. was just busting..
To your comment on pervasiveness… i think its a generational thing.. I bought a phone for my son last week and the concept of him swapping his SIM card into another phone was “like, yeah so what”.. he expected to be able to do it… interesting how early exposure to technology shapes attitudes towards it
Comment by Steve Mann 04.12.07 @ 8:41 amYour busting worked. I had to go back and re-read the post to see if I accidentally typo’d the name of the town I live in. Yikes.
And absolutely, generational use and perception of technology is just wild. A woman I teach with is considerably younger than I am, carries around a Blackberry and a laptop/tablet combo, and was telling a story about how she solved a tech problem by finding “the youngest person in her office”!!!
I bet we see this stuff dramatically within a full generation but we’d find pretty good indicators of adoption/comprehension within 5-7 year age differences.
Comment by Steve Portigal 04.12.07 @ 8:47 am
[...] As we’ve written before, one strategy to lower barriers to adoption is to disguise one behavior to look like another one that is more normal. It’s interesting that the Bluetooth earpiece is presented as normal enough to be desirable over the hearing aid. I guess it’s better to be a young douche than an old fart? [...]
Pingback by Look at what the hip kids are wearing, oh with their bluetooth technologies and such 02.08.08 @ 12:05 pm