Cloudy Thinking

Quandary: I want a new mobile phone, but I do NOT actually require a new mobile phone.

My Kyocera 414 works fine. It’s a rather simple low-end candy bar phone. I bought it over a year ago as a “between phones” phone. Unfortunately it refuses to die. The voice dialing works. (I’ve fallen deeply in love with that feature.) I can ILLEGALLY dial with my thumb while driving 70 miles an hour. The only real negatives are the battery life is so-so, there’s no speaker phone, and as far as I know, there’s no phone to PC link for populating the address book.

Since the Kyocera was a TEMPORARY phone, I’ve refused to invest time keying in contacts and phone numbers. When anyone calls me other than my two bosses (my wife, and the guy who signs my paycheck) I have no idea who’s calling unless I happen to recognize the phone number.

My “Who is Who” info (1,300 contacts) lives in my trusty two year old Palm Tungsten-C. The T-C is blessed with a great QWERTY keyboard, a bright 320×320 screen (not as bright as today’s technology, but still good) and batteries that last longer than I need them to last.

There’s one thing wrong with this picture: when I need to make a call, I look up the person using my Tungsten-C, then dial on my Kyocera 414 (or my wired phone - more on that in a future blog entry). When I do this silly (two device) two-step, my brain asks, “Why not suck it up, buy what is available now and works NOW — the Treo 650?”

But that makes too much sense. It will be the end of a two-year quest. Besides, what will I write about if my mobile phone and PDA lust has been satiated? I won’t have to learn a new user interface — as a six-year Palm addict I DREAD learning the Microsoft alternative, even if it is better!

But my inner gadget lover reminds my brain: There’s the ULTRA sexy “Qwerty phones” e.g. Samsung i730 and Motorola Q.

You folks already know my embarrassing secret: if the Moto Q “Blackberry Killer” has halfway decent battery life, I expect to ask it to bear my children.

On that fascinating topic (battery life, not man-machine reproduction) I am puzzled. How the super slender Moto Q possibly have decent battery life?

Absent new battery technology, the mass of a Lithium Ion battery is directly proportional to the number of electrons it can hold. When you design a super slim device like the Q, the batter will be THIN. I’ll be amazed if Moto Q achieves a righteous two days of reasonable PDA + phone use.

I will check with Blackberry Addicts (e.g. my boss) to see how the Blackberry battery holds up. The Treo 650 battery life is quite good, crushing the (otherwise sweet) Samsung i730.

Please help me. Should I just buy a Motorola E815 (no serious PDA features but pretty much everything else) as my new “Between phones phone?”

Why not keep using my simple, reliable Kyocera 414? This “drive it ’til it drops philosophy” defers a purchase decision, so I’ll face even more confusing alternatives. But by the time I purchase, everything will be better and cheaper. But I will have wasted another year of my life!

Wait, I’ve got it. My Wonderful Wife’s contract on her so-so LG 6000 phone expires this month. Maybe I should show her how much I love her (and it is a lot…) by upgrading her to a Motorola E815?

True, she doesn’t know what Bluetooth is, or why EV-DO will make her a more complete person. But on weekends I’ll say, “Honey, can I use your almost unlimited bundle of minutes to call (XYZ)?” When I do that, she will accept and appreciate that she married an extremely thrifty not to mention DEVIOUS) person. She will assume (I hope) that her huband would NEVER EVER spend even a DIME on toys he does not need.

This can work. It’s all good.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2005 at 7:26 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.