I’m eligible for an upgrade in two days and have intended from the start to get the equivalent to the pretty basic LGVX5200 that I’ve had the past two years but **Least Original User Name Ever ** has convinced me singlehandedly to get the BlackBerry 8703e instead.
There is already a response to that demand. I read an article in Fortune Small Business about a line of cell phones with oversized buttons for elders to use.
The button size isn’t what I find objectionable, it’s the myriad of menu and sub menu options, most of which I don’t want and will never use. All I want is the dollar cheeseburger.
Doesn’t it have some flower or insect name? Bumblebee or something? I’ve seen ads for them.
Jitterbug.
>Most people don’t really want a phone with fewer features, they just want a phone with better design for the features they actually use, and that’s hard to do without dropping features.
This gets at something very important. I can use some pretty complicated things; for example I program embedded systems that do data acquisition and process control, and I’ve done a little design with microprocessors.
But manufacturers seem too eager to add features whose operation is poorly thought out and/or poorly communicated, and it is too easy to activate features we don’t want to use.
It drives me nuts that my cellphone has a speakerphone mode that sometimes turns on in my pocket. I don’t need remote voice activation for something that’s smaller than my ear is to begin with. And I’m tired of learning weirdly constructed excuses for operator interfaces just to know how to stop them.
I have a digital thermometer at work - one that handles probes, not an ambient sensing one. It’s sturdy and well constructed and accurate. But it has some kind of mode that it is much too easy to accidentally enter, and very hard to get out of. I think the mode is for automatically figuring offsets or something like that. I keep the instructions with it, and although I’ve been using this thing for about 4 years now, I have to spend a few minutes studying the instructions to get out of this mode. Often I don’t figure out how it got into this mode. And often it’s easier to go find a screwdriver and take the batteries out for a while to get out of this mode. Design this bad is just inforgiveable.
More and more electronic products these days have utility that is limited by how difficult it is to avoid features, rather than how few features there are.
And then there’s the printer down the hall, which prints the first sheet in black and white no matter what the IT department does to try to fix it…
I have the freebie Nokia that Cingular was giving out 3 years ago. What irritated me about it was that it doesn’t have a plain, simple ring tone. They’re all musical crap. The closest I could get was an echo-y ring.
I used the alarm feature when I was on travel, and when I’ve been really bored, I’ve played with the games. But it’s just a phone. It lives in my car. I use it to call my husband when I’m running late or if I’m heading to the store and want to know if he needs something. Otherwise, it just sits and gradually drains its battery.
Am I invisible today? I swear, this has been happening to me all day.
I was reading the board all day while at work so I saw your post when you first posted it but had forgotten all about it seven hours later when I hit “Go To Last Post” and was just answering Otto’s question.
Who said that?
I’ve got a question about Jitterbug, do you HAVE to use their phones, or could you get their service with a compatible third party phone? Not planning to use it anytime soon, but I’m curious.
I switched to Nextel just because they sell a Motorola phone that can actually stay working! I do most of my work outdoors. When my hands are frozen, or mud-covered, and I have to take a call, the phone has been known to take a dive to the pavement. My current phone has been dropped on pavement and into puddles, and retrieved by a dog, and hasn’t shown any signs of distress. It is also bright yellow, so I don’t lose it on job sites.
I could do without a lot of the bells and whistles it has, but they aren’t ridiculous. (no internet, no camera, no color display)
This bugs me, too. My current phone, however, will record a sound and you can use that as a ring tone. I recorded our ugly, 20-year old dial phone ringing. I love it. It does startle people occasionally, because they apparently haven’t heard a phone just ring in 10 years.
You mean me repeating it over and over again worked??
I kid. You should love it.
And I was reacting to events beyond the scope of this discussion. Sorry.
No worries. I wasn’t bothered at all.
I completely agree. In fact, if anyone has a functional T-Mobile/unlocked Nokia 3390, email me. This screen name at Gmail.
No, I’m not kidding. I haven’t liked any phone since the last one died.
The best cell phone I EVER had was an old Nextel/Motorola. Nice clear black and white display, good bright backlight, a ringer that could go loud, voice quality was loud and clear, and in a stroke of brilliance, they used a clear window in the flip, rather than installing two display screens.
One of its best “creature comforts” was being able to set a vibe then ring mode - it would vibe twice so I’d have a chance to pick it up inconspicuously before it started making noise. It seems that all the phones now will either vibe only, make noise only or vibe and ring together.
The speakerphone function was also loud and clear, and easy to engage - no hunting in menus needed.
If it was possible to use an old IDEN phone on a GSM network, I’d be on that in a second! Alas, it’s not to be.
I love my fairly simple Virgin mobile phone. I’m on the pay as you go so it only costs me $80 a year minimum to keep it active is to add $20 every 3 months, and I’ve never gone over that). It can play games but other than that is pretty much just a phone. There may be other functions, but I’ve never noticed them.
Hmm, this thread reminds me though. I need to figure out how to turn off texting…I never use it and the handful of texts I’ve received I didn’t notice for several days.
Hey, that’s my phone! The phone that other people laugh at! I’ll tell you what, if I upgrade next year, I’ll keep you in mind.
The thing i dont get is just dont use the features you do not need? I mean who cares if you have two more lines of menu. get over it. I dont understand people who cannot use a phone because omg is has teh camera! too complicated for me. Just dont use it simple. I mean if all you need a phone for is to call in and out all phones do that. Just dont mess with the stuff you dont want to use. Simple. My car has several things that i would never use including GPS, a sunroof and cruise control. Do the extra buttons bother me? No, because i do not use those features and do not care. Simple