A Nitrous Crouton

After almost six years, I finally retired my old Qualcomm cell phone. Yes, I had been using it since 2001, and it was a refurb to begin with. The power supply connector was disintegrating and the battery finally reached a point where it couldn't hold a charge on stand-by, much less making a call. It was really time to let go.

As I mentioned a couple months back, even if the iPhone were available now, I couldn't justify being an early adopter, paying the hefty price and switching carriers. But yes, I do wish I could. I also loathe most cell phones. I especially loathe the typical Sprint selection.

Thankfully, they did have a palatable looking phone in their current line-up: I am now sporting a Sanyo SCP-7000. Good sound quality, better reception at my bar-challenged home, doesn't look stupid and rugged enough to knock around in my pocket. The UI sucks, of course, and the built-in ring options are amusingly painful, they sound like rejects from Super Mario World on the old Super Nintendo. That said, so far I'm happy with it, I didn't want a cameraphone, don't care about SMS or IM, web browsing or Bluetooth, I just wanted something to make and receive calls. Because in cell-phone terms I'm the grumpy old man rocking on the porch brandishing a cane.