Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Cell phone.

As you may or may not know my current cell phone isn't working to well these days. I can only talk on it in speaker mode since the standard talk speaker is broken, occasionally the ringer simply goes silent not actually in silent mode or the volume turned down, the phone simply stops making any sounds. The only way to reset it is to make a speaker phone call. The screen colours are all off, and I fear it will simply stop working soon. I need a new phone, I just wish it would have lasted longer for a supposedly tough phone.
    The thing is work covers a fair share of my cell phone bill ($50 a month) if I have a "MIKE" plan. MIKE is a direct connect walkie talkie service. I actually do like it. It's quicker than a phone call and unlimited so no need to worry about minutes. It's nice to have with my line of work because sometimes you just need to ask a quick question. You send an alert, if the guy can answer he will if not you simply keep working or whatever till he responds, unlike a regular call where you call let it ring leave a message and so on. It's kinda like texting.  If I get a non MIKE plan work will only give me $10 a month.
    The choice seems simple stick with a MIKE phone right, well there are issues with that. The phones available for use with the MIKE plane are pretty limited, and only one smart phone is available, the Blackberry Curve, not a bad phone, but I would like a DROID but none are available with MIKE and if I decide to go without I lose $480 a year, not a small amount of money. Even if I do decide to go with the Curve, I was told the data plan was unlimited, "That's sweet" I thought, the thing is data on the MIKE network is really slow, so yeah it's unlimited but that's because you would never use all you data anyway.  So the whole point of a smart phone becomes pointless. There is also the toughness issue I mentioned earlier. I work in a trade, I crawl around in tight spaces, my hands get dirty, I get caught in the rain regularly. I need a phone that can handle such things without breaking. That is what my current one is supposed to be built to handle yet it barely coped with it after two years. I just don't see a smart phone lasting all that long either.
Any suggestions are welcome.

2 comments:

Graydyn said...

SMASH IT

Jabbles said...

I actually should have updated, I did get a new one. I really did want to smash it but I ended up leaving at the store so they could recycle it.