Tech savvy

I got a new cell phone the other day. I'd had my old phone for well over two and a half years. The "3" button didn't work so well anymore, but otherwise it still worked great and suited my needs just fine. If not for the troublesome 3, I might have just kept that phone forever. Well, for a while longer, anyway.

Not too long ago I made the technological leap from CDs to mp3s. I purchased an mp3 player (albeit a used one from a friend for $10, but an mp3 player nonetheless). I've even used it in the car! Our newer vehicle has an input jack for an mp3 player or other auxiliary device, and the car stereo will even control what the mp3 player plays (theoretically, at least; I didn't actually try that, 'cause I was driving at the time).

Anyway, back to the cell phones. As I said, I'd been quite pleased with my old Nokia phone and my cellular service provider. I almost never had a problem with reception, the battery maintained its charge well (I usually only had to charge it once a week or so, and kept it on pretty much all the time other than at night)... Yeah, my phone and I had gotten to be pretty good friends. Except for that 3. So I decided to go ahead and see what other phone I might be able to get (for free; I'm sort of cheap when it comes to stuff like that (hence the $10 for a used mp3 player)). My Nokia had served me well, but heck, if I was entitled to a brand new phone--one with a functioning "3"--I figured I might as well get one.

I went into the cell phone store at the mall and casually perused the selection. Only one or two of the numerous devices available appeared to actually be free. I asked the one employee in the store at the time, and he pointed out the one phone which was, in fact, free, and the other one that was buy-one-for-$50, get-one-free. Hmm.

He asked what plan I had, and I said I didn't know. He typed my cell phone number into the computer and then said, "Oh, you have an old plan. You can't use a new phone with your old plan. You'll have to upgrade your service to this," and he indicated a new plan described on a big poster thing.

"Okay," I replied. Then I decided to just look on the cellular service provider's web site, which seemed to offer a wider selection of phones, many of which were purported to come free of charge for the phone itself. So I continued to just browse the phones in the store, and then another employee approached and asked if I had any questions about the phones. I told him I didn't. He expressed surprise that with so many phones to look at I didn't have a single question. I thought some more about it and came up with a couple questions, you know, just to make him feel useful and important.

Those questions and his answers actually led to more questions and more answers, and I began to realize that this guy seemed to know more than the other guy did. Then I noticed that his name tag advertised that he, Jason, was the Store Manager. Wow. Dude carried some clout. He said he'd check to see if the old plan carried with it any additional incentives to switch to a new plan and the new, obvisouly better cellular technology.

As luck would have it, there was such an incentive. The provider was willing to give an additional rebate on any phone I desired. Jason then upped the ante and said he'd go ahead and give me one of the should-cost-$50 phones, which he assured me were awesome, for free, plus a second phone also for free, because the price point wasn't much more than the additional rebate. Then I asked if he'd be willing to do that on any of the other phones. He asked if I had a particular phone in mind. I did, and told him which phone it was. He said he could do that. Two of those phones for free if I got the new service plan and ditched my dinosaur of a cell phone.

I took the deal.

My new phone, to me, seems pretty fancy. Not only can I call people with it, but I can take photos, shoot video, send email, surf the Internet, watch videos, listen to iTunes... Now, to the average modern cell phone user those might all seem like pretty basic things. Keep in mind, though, all I'd ever done with my cell phone before was call people. Oh, and I'd sent like three text messages. But that was it. This new phone... it's like a whole multimedia experience in my pocket.

When I got home the other night I took a couple photos, which I promptly deleted. Yesterday I programmed some speed dial numbers (which I'd also done on my previous phone) and recorded my voice mail message. This morning I set up voice dial on a handful of my most-frequently called contacts. That's pretty fancy for me. I think I'll probably almost never use most of the fancy features on my new phone, and will likely cancel my cell phone Internet access, which is separate from the actual calling plan. Still, it's kinda fun to have a new li'l toy to play with. I might actually use the iTunes feature some. I like music, after all.

So far I'm not convinced that the new phone and new service are an improvement over the old phone and old service, at least for just talking on the phone. Only time will tell, I suppose.

On a completely different subject...

Yesterday I read a brief story on the local paper's web site. The story was about the opening of a new stretch of road and the related development and additional road projects that will follow. Of one of those additional road projects, which will connect two of the city's busier streets, the story read, "The new road is in paramilitary planning stages." I found that quite entertaining, and wondered how the writer might have come up with "paramilitary" instead of "preliminary." Our local paper doesn't have a reputation for editorial accuracy.

This is a really long post. Didn't see that coming. Merry Christmas!