My Cell Buddy (and not a jail bird)

Have you ever heard the expression if you buy a brand new car, the moment that you drive it off the car lot, the book value depreciates a few thousand? Or ponder this a moment... you buy an electronic gadget of some kind and the next month (sometimes even the next week) that model has been replaced with a newer edition and the one you JUST bought is now outdated! Why is that? Why do they manufacturers make something to sell only to replace it with a better model just a few weeks or months later? Well I updated my cell phone a little over a year ago. The phone I received was a step up from my previous model and I was excited to be current in the technology world! So why was it that less than 2 months later that model was now the "free" phone offered with a phone upgrade and I had just paid moola for it a few weeks before?!?!?! Because the very moment I bought that phone and walked out of the store with it, it became outdated. So my brand new state of the art phone was now the old piece of junk version of the newer model getting ready to hit stores!



Well after a few dings and scratches and a few times of me dropping the phone the phone falling all by itself, it became wore out over the past year. So I've been THINKING about upgrading again the past couple months. And I have learned that if I am going to buy something of great importance (like my vehicle for an example), I do a thorough job of researching whatever the item may be. Now since my phone has become my security blanket that I can't live without my handy dandy sidekick, it required lots of extensive research.



My first step was to research phones online. Now that was great to see all the pics of the latest phone models, but there was only one HUGE HUGE problem! I couldn't actually hold the phone and play with it and ask a person questions about it. All I could do was read what brand the phone was, what features it contained, what colors were available, and all the jargon of specific details about the phone that I do not understand. Sometimes I feel like I am an outcast when it comes to the cyber technology so I wasn't even going to figure out how to translate all the confusing features about what the phone did or had that made it SO special.



Oh and a note for those who follow ~ I have officially figured out Itunes and loaded songs on to my daughter's ipod the other night. Now what I won't tell you (ok so I will tell you) is that I thought I was only going to load 24 songs and ended up loading 106 songs, but that's ok! They are on there, she was happy and I was mom of the day for finally figuring out how to use it. Not to mention I also figured out how to make a CD from songs loaded on there. I'm sure if you are an ancient Itunes user this is funny to you. But when you are a country girl like me who doesn't keep up with all this technology like bluetooth and ipods and everything else, it was exciting to finally figure out Itunes! And I even created a new CD with my favorite new tunes to jam to while cruising or cleaning my house! Ok, I will interrupt this paragraph about Iturnes that I got sidetracked on and get back to the cell phone story now...





So after looking online, I decided to pay a visit to the cell phone store a few weeks ago so I could annoy the crap out of the lucky person who had to show me kind customer service see the phones in person. How exciting for me! Well, a nice young gentleman was kind enough to assist me and began showing me all kinds of phones from behind the glass counter. I also informed him that I was "just looking" and probably would not upgrade my phone that day (so at least he was forewarned). I asked him a list of 20 questions about what this phone did, why that phone was so special, what colors did this model come in, what his personal opinion about that phone was, blah, blah, blah! I'm sure he was about ready to strangle me when I went back and forth between the glass counters, and then back and forth again, and then back again! This was such an important decision and not to be taken lightly. So after about a few minutes of 20,000 20 questions about each phone and still not quite convinced of any phone model, I thanked the lovely young man for his time and told him I would need to think about it and might be back to visit with him in the near future. So unfortunately the young man did not receive commission from me that day!



So then it was back to the internet to do a little bit more research. Well after deciding that I still had no clue which phone I wanted and realizing that this decision was going to cause major stress in my life, I opted to wait for now and keep the lovely piece of junk outdated model that did not hold a battery charge for very long, has the buttons wore out from my addicting texting habit, and would not show internet web pages very well because the phone was too small. Yes, I would make that phone work just fine for the time being.



So just yesterday, I was checking my daily news and saw an advertisement that caught my eye. I don't normally make a habit of clicking on advertisements but I did just this once. It was advertising some kind of phone that had a full keyboard on it and if you purchased that model online, you received a bluetooth headset and a car charger all for FREE. Wow, what a deal, something I had to think about now. So after doing a little more research online and not convinced I needed this phone since I hadn't met the model in person, I headed off to the cell phone store once again to visit this phone. A different nice young man helped me this time which was grand because he was much more knowledgeable than the previous young lad.

Now I didn't put this poor phone salesman through the painful annoying customer process same torture I put the previous salesman through. He nicely answered my 20,000 more questions few questions that I had about the different phone models. And what I personally liked about this salesman is the fact that he wasn't pushy. It seems like all salesman (no matter what they sell) are pushy and that just irritates me! I again told him my story about how I've researched this tough decision for a couple months now, how I'd already visited the store once a few weeks back, and that I still had not made my mind up yet. Well he showed me one display model that caught my eye. Yes, a phone that finally grabbed my attention!!! I picked up the display model and really liked it. I thought to myself that wow, I have found my new companion! Then I asked the worn out salesman about the return policy "just in case I didn't like the phone." He explained that I have 30 days to exchange it or cancel my upgrade to my phone plan. But he also told me I could only exchange my phone ONCE. Just one time and then I was done! That put a damper on the thought I had about checking out 4 or 5 different phones. I think that's a woman thing! It's kind of like purse shopping ~ I almost always used to buy 2 and then return the one I didn't like after taking it home and trying it out with all the contents in it. It's not like I can "test" a new purse in the store!

So anyway my cool new gadget is none other than a slider phone with a keyboard in it! Now I guess I should give you a bit of my phone history. I have had a flip phone for at least 10+ years. So to venture away from the flip phone is tracking into territory that I have never been. I decided to brave the challenge of something new and different! There were 3 color choices - silver, blue or red. Well, since my favorite color of pink was not available *pout*, I went with the pretty blue shade. Now if I would have had my youngest daughter with me, we would have been taking the red home phone since red is her current favorite. Now the keyboard is hidden under the slider part of the phone so this is a whole different world that I have to get used to. I am SOOO used to having a number keypad to work with so it has been a learning experience but I am getting better at it.

And I have never ever had a keyboard on a cell phone before. I had never even heard of such a thing a year ago! And to think I would ever even want a keyboard is still a surprise to me, but hey I will try anything once so I thought what the heck. Well my experience with the keyboard so far has been ok. I am getting better about typing the right number or letter but it will take some time to get used to the change. The most difficult part for me with my new friend is the fact that I had to give up my T9 prediction texting. I didn't even know what T9 was until last summer and once I figured out how to use it, it was like Christmas in July LOL. I could text without even looking and got to be very fast at it for that matter. I don't think I will ever text as fast with the keyboard as I did with my hugely missed T9 prediction. Only time will tell I suppose. At this point I am just happy to have a new start of the art phone, even though this model will be outdated by spring!

Now the next best thing about the phone is the fact that it has a camera that works! The camera on my old phone which was a HUGE piece of crap anyway stopped working a couple months ago. And so far I absolutely love the camera on the new phone. It almost takes better pics than my digital camera. The next feature of the phone I adore is the fact it has lots of memory space! My old phone ran out of memory so I was always looking for things to delete even though I didn't want to send any files to the recycle bin. I guess the fact that I downloaded a ton of songs for different ringtones didn't help the matter!

Oh and the other grand feature about this phone is the fact it has a much bigger and wider screen. This is a huge benefit for when I log on to the net from the phone! I can actually see pages I have never seen before and checking my e-mail is such a breeze now! I'm already fascinated by that minor fact right there.

So once I got home and actually got to play with my new toy celly phone, I transferred all my images, ringtones and videos from my old phone to the new one. I am so grateful I was able to keep all of my precious pics and favorite tunes. But I think what I like most about the phone is the fact that I can see the wallpaper picture on the outside of the phone. I no longer have to flip open the phone to see whatever pic is set for my background. That is just the neatest thing. And no, I don't get out much so I am easily entertained LOL. So my pretty new wallpaper is currently set to a pic of a very pretty John Deere tractor. It's sweet if I might add!

So the current status as of today is I think this phone is going to work out just fine in my household. Almost sounds like a new pet, doesn't it? Well, it's not a pet, but it's my new pet. Ha! And as I work towards learning to now text with a keyboard, get used to the fact it slides rather than flips, that the battery actually holds a charge, and I now have a nice working camera on my phone, and better than before internet, I think I will grow to like it more and more. I have very high expectations of my new companion and I hope my friend knows that I won't stand for it to let me down. Because if my friend lets me down, it will be replaced in no time! I still have 28 days to return my new cell buddy so as long as it keeps up the good work, I think it will have a permanent home with me. I will be very good to it, take it with me everywhere I go, sleep next to it, and make it work to earn its keep LOL.

Let's just hope this phone lasts me more than a year. I guess if I take exceptionally good care of it, maybe it will. It already had its first crash today to the floor and it withheld that very well. And of course that was an accident, I think I had a case of the dropsies today! And I just love the fact it can hold even MORE ringtones and pics. I can't get over that one ~ I'm sure the memory space will be filled up by summertime since I am the owner. Pictures are my passion and now that I have a reliable source to take pics, the clicker will be in action. And I suppose when I run out of space, I can just splurge and buy a memory card for it. Who would have ever though cell phones would have a slot for memory cards? Technology has come SO far in the recent years. I am working on catching up on all the new gadgets, one electronic item at a time. So now that I have Itunes down, a new cell buddy to play with and figure out all the features to, I have no clue what is next. Oh I know... it's the portable DVD player that Santa left at Christmas. I did charge the battery but haven't actually used it yet. Maybe we'll tackle that one next month on the way to the farm show...

Oh there is my new buddy ringing now! Later folks...