I used to be proud that I could say I had never lost a cell phone (I was close once, but I got it back before I knew it was even missing thanks to a nice cab driver). Well on Friday I decided to clip my phone onto my pocket instead of my belt loop (stupid), then I gathered up a bunch of junk in my car and took it to the city dump. You can probably guess where I’m going… yeah, I ended up losing my cell phone at the dump.
I suppose there were a few reasons I was so perturbed by this incident:
- They’re expensive, so losing them is painfully annoying.
- I was 1 day away from no longer being stuck in a contract with my cell phone company. I could have been free, freeeee!
- I had a crappy 1st generation RAZR that I hated, but it worked and I was holding out for the iPhone to come to Canada (in approximately 6 months I’m told).
I decided that I did in fact need a cell phone, so I went to Rogers and “wheeled and dealed” my way into a Sony Ericsson w580i, which for the record is a really nice phone. I’ve only had it a few days, but I’m impressed with the functionality, style and general usability of the phone. It has some really interesting features such as a built in pedometer (which sadly shows me just how little I actually walk / move over the course of a day), built in AM/FM radio (neat but generally useless here in Kingston), 8GB MP3 player (the 8GB card you get free right now from Rogers as a promotion), Bluetooth, and more. Very nice, highly recommended!
So there was a bit of a warmer spell here in Kingston the other day, and I happened to be outside putting up my new bird feeder that I received for Christmas (thank-you Thiels). When I was walking back to the house I happened to kick something small and black on the ground. Low-and-behold it was a cell phone, MY OLD cell phone. Apparently I didn’t lose it at the dump, but in a snow bank at the side of my house.
It was frozen solid when I brought it in, and it’s currently in a state of thawing. I figure I will let it sit for a week or two to make sure that it’s completely dry before trying to charge it and turn it on again.
I’m guessing that it will work, we’ll see in a week or so.
So I found my cell phone and can still say I’ve never actually lost a cell phone. Whew.
Too bad I already got a new phone and am locked into a contract again. Arg. Oh well, now I have a backup phone.
So does it work?
Hahaha… I have not actually tried yet. I was drying it out on my desk, and then one day I was “cleaning” in a mad rush and it got thrown into the drawer. It’s on my TODO list 😉
~Matt
So I thought I would finally respond to this.
YES, my freakin’ RAZR phone that was frozen in a snow bank for… quite some time, still works perfectly.
Just to fill you in, I now hate the RAZR a little less, and I now dislike my Sony Ericsson w580i a little more.
After using the w580i for a little while, I realized 2 major flaws:
1. The firmware *blows* that Rogers hacked up on that phone. I can sort of understand why they put their own music player on there (since they have a music store and all), but why on earth would they not replace the existing “Walkman” music player and replace it’s button. Instead they made the “Music” button the same button you use to hang up the phone when you are talking to someone. The result is that if you are talking to someone, and they hang up just as you go to press “End”… it launches the Java-based music player. Arg.
2. I have not had any luck with finding a good belt clip. If anyone can suggest something, I am listening. Just FYI it takes 2 button presses to unlock the slider phone when it is closed. The problem is that while in the belt clip, this actually happens quite easily. This unintentional unlocking has resulted in dozens of unintentional phone calls while I am sitting (especially in my car).
Anyway… there is my status update.