Simplify simplify simplify. If Thoreau really wanted to be simple, why did he say it three times? I think once would have simply sufficed.
I got a new cell phone this week. Actually, my roommate got it for me while I was at school, but she made a very good and interesting choice. I got the Motorola Motofone f3, which I don't think is available in the U.S. It was apparently made for the "harsh conditions" of sand and rain storms of India (or something like that).
How does a new phone and Thoreau belong in the same post, you ask? This particular phone seems to be made for technological morons like myself; you know, the people who need simple. When I first looked at it, it seemed pretty high tech because it's really thin and sleek looking (see pictures). Then I turned it on and saw things I hadn't seen since the pre-Window / pre-Wii days of DOS and Atari. It is extremely basic, which actually makes it kind of cool. The display is some sort of technology that never turns off but doesn't take any battery (I don't remember what it is called), so the standing battery life is roughly 300 hours, or 12 days--obviously it won't last that long if you're using it, but I don't have too many people to call these days! For anyone who remembers my phone woes of the summer with my phone that only lasted about 30 minutes before dying, you'll know just how happy I am to be the owner of a phone with such a long battery life.
The menu has exactly 6 choices--send message, read message, call history, change ringtone, set alarm, and change time. The choices are all pictures--there is no actual writing on the phone anywhere--and, once I figured out how to set the phone to English, it began announcing things to me with a wonderful British accent. There are 7 ringtones and no way to download more. There is only one line of text display (good motivation to keep text messages short!). There is no camera, no games, no calendar, no calculator, no to-do list, no mp3 player....In short, it's a stark contrast to the phone that most of us have been or are carrying around, but the features that it's lacking are things I never used anyway. Here's a pretty cool little interactive site that shows its simplicity (might be interesting to technology lovers).
All the instructions were in Hungarian, but I found an English copy online, so I've figured out most stuff, but there are just a few things I still don't get, so I think I'll make a trip to the T-Mobile store tomorrow and ask. Anyway, I love the concept of making a nice-looking phone really simple.
Here's some other pics that show you the size (I got them on the internet and I have no idea whose hand that is!):
3 comments:
300 hours of battery life...you are definitely in heaven! We looked at the interactive site last night. That's a pretty awesome phone. (Although I think Ryan was a lot more excited than I was about checking it out). So, can you use it from the US since it's some sort of "world phone"? How do you pay...by the minute, month, etc? Oh yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that wasn't your hand. At first I though it was and I was a bit creeped out.
I thought Ryan would be excited about it. I have a Hungarian SIM card, and then I prepay for the minutes. No contract. I have to go down next week and figure it all out--the SIM card comes with so many minutes included, so I'm sure I have to charge it soon, but I'm not sure how to check how much money/minutes are left. And I have to say that whatever website posted those pictures definitely didn't hire a hand model!
I'm not sure if it will work in the US--I know it won't work with verizon signal, but don't know about the others...
This is exactly what I need!
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