I’m not exactly sure where my love of electronic gadgets came from. Was it from the pain of never actually playing my Atari 2600 as a child? Was it the absolute bordom I experienced in basic training that forced me to listen to a group of SUPER nerds talk about what was the fastest CPU at the time (it was between some Pentium chip and Apple’s G4 at the time)? Or is it just because I’m a man?
Whatever it is, one of my favorite sites on the web to feed my infatuation for all that is tech is Engadget.com, where I read about products that I’m either going to get, wish I had the money to acquire, and looking @ the things to come. As I’m reading the various comments from other users, (and what I mean by comments is COMPLAINTS) is why this cell phone isn’t doing this, why Apple rules/sucks, Android rules/sucks, and why Blackberry just plain sucks. (And Nokia is in there somewhere too)
BB Bold 9700; Circa 2009 - 2011. It also shoots lazers.
You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Research In Motion (RIM, maker of Blackberrys, try to keep up) was doing quite well. I carry evidence of that fact in my pocket for 2 years; The Bold 9700 aka Bold 2. Quite frankly it’s the best cellphone I’ve ever owned, and i’m not just saying that because it’s the latest cellphone I’ve ever owned. Call quality, battery life, keyboard is excellent, it rocks when it comes to email, and i’m pretty positive I could play hockey with it and still take better pics than an iPhone4. It’s even become my main mp3 player. I have been very pleased, but the screen is way too small, it appears that no one wants to write a decent set of apps for it’s OS, and it’s about that time to renew that 2 year contract. So yeah, it’s about time for that new hotness. I remember back when I got the Bold 2, I really wished I could get a phone running Android, but there weren’t any availible on AT&T’s network at the time (Thanks iPhone!) Let’s go further back, way back, and look @ all the phones I’ve ever had, and perhaps anyone else who’s reading will get kinda nostalgic as well.
Nokia 5185i
Nokia 5185i (1999)
Tis the first Cellphone I ever used. We’ve come a long way, baby. Yes, it could actually send text messages. It also cost a pretty penny, so I had the phone cut off shortly after I left Tech School in Biloxi. Didn’t really think I needed a phone at that time anyway. Seriously, who was going to call me? But of course, all that changed when the cell phone companies made it cheaper to call long distance (remember that? Stankin’ MCI…) on a cell phone.
LG Touchpoint 1100
LG Touchpoint 1100 (2001)
After looking this up, I honestly thought that this one was made by Sanyo. Now I feel kinda dirty. This one marks the first cell phone plan that I actually paid for. Someone gave me the phone, so I didn’t have to pay much when I joined Sprint. Say what you will about em, but they still have pretty cheap service. It’s just that the phones didn’t really match up with other carriers until the past 2-3 years. This was a pretty good phone. Could drop it from a helcopter and still send a text, and that’s about it. No internet, no color screen, no camera, no .50 ringtones (if you still buy ringtones, you suck), no BLUETOOTH, but then again, there weren’t any laws at the time that said you couldn’t use your cell phone while driving. Moooving on….
Sanyo SCP-4900
Sanyo SCP-4900 (2003)
About the same as the previous one, but this this screen actually had 256 colors (ooooohhhh), and featured polyphonic ringtones. I even sampled 2 of them on a couple of songs (“Hypothermia” and “Density”). I was also dating my future wife, Brandie at that time. All she did was raggggg me about how big that phone was, which led me to next faze…
Motorola Razr V3
Motorola Razr V3 (2005)
Some of you are probably still using one of these (no judgements)….
I’ll be really honest here, I never had a problem with Sprint’s cellular service as far as reception goes, but I really got sick of the customer service and trying to figure out why Samir/Apu was turning off my phone service because of an unpaid balance of 0.02. So, I jumped ship and switched to AT&T, eh, i’m sorry, Cingular at the time, and got Motorola Razr(s). This also marks Brandie & I first family cellphone plan (this is when you collectively say ‘awwwwww’) and where we’ve been ever since. No problems with the network, no problems with actually comprehending customer service, and the Razr was a pretty cool phone to boot. I found all sorts of roms, maintenance service manuals, and other free goodies for that thing. And it actually had a camera! (gasp) This phone also marks the last phone I’ve ever had that I actually used for JUST a phone….
Blackjack II
Blackjack I
Samsung Blackjack I & II (2007-2009)
The first foray into the smartphone. Brandie had the Palm Treo 650 (awesome at that time, but expensive) so I figured I’d get something as well that would make it a lot easier to text and have a planner on board. The planning aspect was really cool, but Windows mobile really didn’t do email that well at the time. I really didn’t even think to intergrate my gmail accounts until I got the second Blackjack, pass down from my wife because she had just acquired the first BlackBerry Bold. The Bold handled email SOOOO much better than the Blackjacks, so it was a natural transition for me to the Bold 2 three years later.
So while I’ll be kinda sad (kinda) to put my venerable Blackberry aside, I’m glad that I can actually afford to upgrade every 2 years, although I didn’t think I’d become one of “those” people. Come to think of it, I think the main reason why i’m nostalgic of technology because each silicon chip tells a story of our lives and documents what’s going on at that particular time. Or maybe I’m still just a big kid that likes his toys.
Oh yeah….
Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket AKA the new hotness come Dec 15th
[Wrings hands menacingly]
Predictions for the future close this post. Let’s see….
- Cell Phones killing off the standalone video game console
- Some low cost wifi network that would allow for internet access virtually anywhere, killing the cell phone provider
- Google eventually being considered evil AND behind the times (you know, kinda like RIM now)
- Microsoft being a shell of itself because they felt the need to sue everyone for intellectual property. That, and a vast amount of people become severely less dependent on Microsoft Office
- Apple eventually selling out to some foreign nation, officially ending it’s reign as the last, best American Made product
And that’s all I’ve got. #endofline
