Phoning it in...
So I got a new cell phone. It seems like every time I replace a phone for a newer one, the initial excitement over getting the package in the mail is followed by a great deal of disappointment as I begin to use the new phone. The downhill slide really picked up with my last phone. It had a camera, which I thought was pretty cool (since I'd not had a camera on a phone before), but when it came to more practical applications, like the games, I was let down with what was available.
My new phone could easily be confused with a toy, were it comically oversized, with its shiny plastic shell and its unchanging background image on the outer screen that brings to mind the Teletubbies, minus the flaming baby head. My first few phones had that staple of old cell phone games, Snake, which occupied me for hours on end as I would try to top my old score by keeping my snake from eating itself. My last phone, instead, had a demo of one of those games where you have the Pong paddle and ball which you use to break block, creatively name Block Breaker. A mighty four levels came for free, as well as a demo of some other game that looked entirely too stupid to play more than once. I think it was some kiddy golf game. My new phone has Tetris. Unfortunately, you can only play long enough to erase 4, maybe 5, lines, which is the king of all rip-offs. I don't even hit my stride until 10. It also has some cast-off pool game.
Yay.
As features go, the camera is fine. The information about it, much as with the rest of the phone, was misleading on Cingular's site, but then, that's to be expected, I suppose. The ringtones are embarrassing to the last, with the exception of the one that, for the first time in my personal history of cell phones, actually sounds like a phone. I preferred my 70's funk ring from my old phone (cobbled together from pre-made parts in an application that made ringtones...another feature missing in my new phone), or even the early 90's rap-like tone that I used for my alarm (I like the irony of those tones on MY phone), but a legitimate phone ring beats, well, all the other possibilities included.
I guess what bothers me most is that, in all my previous upgrades, I've never actually PAID for a phone. This one I did. Not much, mind you, but I did actually throw in a bit of cash.
And then I got screwed.
My new phone could easily be confused with a toy, were it comically oversized, with its shiny plastic shell and its unchanging background image on the outer screen that brings to mind the Teletubbies, minus the flaming baby head. My first few phones had that staple of old cell phone games, Snake, which occupied me for hours on end as I would try to top my old score by keeping my snake from eating itself. My last phone, instead, had a demo of one of those games where you have the Pong paddle and ball which you use to break block, creatively name Block Breaker. A mighty four levels came for free, as well as a demo of some other game that looked entirely too stupid to play more than once. I think it was some kiddy golf game. My new phone has Tetris. Unfortunately, you can only play long enough to erase 4, maybe 5, lines, which is the king of all rip-offs. I don't even hit my stride until 10. It also has some cast-off pool game.
Yay.
As features go, the camera is fine. The information about it, much as with the rest of the phone, was misleading on Cingular's site, but then, that's to be expected, I suppose. The ringtones are embarrassing to the last, with the exception of the one that, for the first time in my personal history of cell phones, actually sounds like a phone. I preferred my 70's funk ring from my old phone (cobbled together from pre-made parts in an application that made ringtones...another feature missing in my new phone), or even the early 90's rap-like tone that I used for my alarm (I like the irony of those tones on MY phone), but a legitimate phone ring beats, well, all the other possibilities included.
I guess what bothers me most is that, in all my previous upgrades, I've never actually PAID for a phone. This one I did. Not much, mind you, but I did actually throw in a bit of cash.
And then I got screwed.
Labels: Rants
posted by Noise Monkey at 9:37 AM
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