Comments on: Give Me Techno Advice 2: This time, I need more techno advice

By: Mr. Practical

Mr. Practical — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:40:16 +0000

I have the misfortune to use my Treo as both a phone and to check on, and to reply to, work-related e-mails. It is horrible as a phone. Frequently the phone will just stop ringing or vibrating, thus you miss calls. Then you have to reset it. It has web access but I don’t use that function. Overall, it’s just a pain in the arse.

I know they are expensive and not on your choice list but I have seen the I-Phones in action and they are pretty cool.

Yes, the great Gene Rayburn, host of Match Game (A Mark Goodson – Bill Toddman production). They used the word derriere frequently. Another memorable word that came up often was “tinkle” in place of urinate. As in, “I (Blanked) inside his tuba.” Oh, what comedy!

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:27:25 +0000

Mr. Practical,

Do you use your phone for anything other than taking calls? I’m not so much interested in the Web access as I am in the appointment and task functions as I am a an important person with many demands on my time. I like the BlackJack-type phones because of the QWERTY keyboard, but I do see how the size could present a problem in the trousers.

I’m afraid I didn’t get the Rayburn reference. Is that Gene Rayburn? Please explain.

Thanks for commenting,
Dan

By: Mr. Practical

Mr. Practical — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:12:48 +0000

I have a Palm Treo 750 and I hate it. So if either of the phones you are looking at is similar to it I would look elsewhere.

Remember one thing, unlike the silliness we hear from the females in our lives, when it comes to cell phones – size does matter. If you plan on carrying the phone in your pocket you certainly don’t want it to be the size of a small laptop….or a cucumber for that matter.

I suggest carrying your phone where crack dealers (no pun intended) carry their goods……between the crack of their derrière (pardon me for the use of that word Mr. Rayburn). Just think of the subtle pleasure you would derive from allowing your phone to be used by the pain in the rear (no pun intended) who inconveniently asks to use your phone.

By: Anonymous Communist

Anonymous Communist — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:54:15 +0000

Get an iPhone. You get unlimited data usage.

And I keep mine in its own dedicated, no other objects allowed pants pocket.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:39:51 +0000

I carry mine on my belt. Up until my iPhone, I always carried my cell in my pocket. Now I don’t want other objects in my pocket scratching the face of the phone. I really don’t feel any geekier for making the switch.

By: EJ

EJ — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:24:38 +0000

And the phone belongs in a pocket, not on the belt.

By: EJ

EJ — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:23:52 +0000

I would shy away from the 5MB plan, it just isn’t enough. To give you a quick idea, the size (without images) of the main page of your blog is 10KB. With the two images that are on the front page now and the backgound image, the total is over 100K. Some quick math would show that you could load your page less than 2 times every day of the month and be through your bandwidth. Once you hit your limit, you would be paying a dollar per hit. (In reality, the cost would be less because your device would end up caching things between requests, but hopefully that gives you some idea of what 5MB will get you.)

That says nothing of data transfers for email, if you end up using it for that.

Once you get in the habit of using it here and there, you will use it more and more. 5MB just won’t be enough.

I’d go for the BlackJack over the BlackBerry.