It's Just a Telephone

Yeah, well, that was true 20 years ago. But now we have all kinds of phones with a bunch of applications that go with it. So my Verizon contract was expiring and it was time to upgrade from the crappy little phone I had. I did research up the wazoo trying to find the best fit for me. I carry a PDa (Personal Digital Assistant) which helps me remember the bizillion passwords, pins, account-numbers that seem to hang off me like old shoes off a wedding car's bumper. Of course, I don't want to lose these old shoe's. We live in a different world now. We have Debit cards, credit cards, computer passwords, and email accounts with their own passwords. My PDA helped me out with that. And yes, I have lost it. Twice. And both times it came home to me by the kindness of a stranger.

I want to simplify my life. It is a hassle to carry a PDA and a cell phone. The so-called SmartPhones now swamping the cell phone market seemed to fit the bill for my idea of down-sizing. I did tons of research. I have to stay within Verizon because of where I live, no sense having a phone that does not work from you kitchen. You have to decided which features you really want. I mean make a list. Here are some decisions to make:

Do you want a camera?

Do you want an infrared cell to enable beaming documents? (Nothing like "Beam me up, Scotty")

Do you want to be able to get email?

Surf the net?

Do you need to compose documents?

Do you want removable media so you can take the MicroSD drive to your computer?

How long do you think the battery needs to last to serve your needs?

Do you want to keep track of your appointments? And do you want an alarm to go off to remind you of the appointment?

Do you want to be able to push one button and it automatically dials a number? On my old phone, push "8" for 2 seconds and it dials my husband. The "8" key has a "T" for "Terry".

Do you want to be able to Voice Dial? That is, you press one button and say "Call Fred" and it dials Fred's number.

Do you want GPS, Google Maps, MyTunes, BlueTooth, FaceBook, Keyboard Lock, and on and on.


So I went to BestBuy and bought the Centro. It was not so slim that it slipped through my hands and it had the features I wanted. The audio was great. Loved that. It was web-enabled though the screen was miniscule. The voice dial always asked for confirmation so I missed that hit one button and connect feature on my old phone. I configured it and ported over the contacts and word files. I tried to get used to it. Then I tried the mail feature. It seems like I can receive mail from my gmail and yahoo and even my cox account. But I can only send mail from yahoo and that only worked once. OK, that is a show-stopper.


After 22 days, I took it (and the box, receipt etc) back to Best Buy. No hassles. I paid them another $17 and went home with a BlackBerry Curve 8330. Love it! It does not have infrared so no beaming. But it has good audio, web, email, and a bunch of apps I need. Bummer was, no pink. That's ok. Now I just need to find a pink dress for my phone.

The moral of the story, shop where your patronage is valued enough to make exchanges and returns easy. And do more research tha you think that you need to do.