Comments on: I’m a cell phone luddite

By: King Chung Huang

King Chung Huang — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I went cell phone only several years ago and dropped the land line. Reception is a bit spotty in certain areas, but it’s handy just having the one number, and I don’t find it too expensive since I’m not paying for a land line, too.

Word of caution to anyone traveling with D’Arcy: He may not have his own cell phone, but he knows how to give out other people’s cell phone numbers. 😉

By: Scott Leslie

Scott Leslie — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

D’Arcy, hear hear! I’ve owned a few cell phones in my life but am currently cell phone-less again. High costs, nefarious vendor behaviour and crappy service are definitely the causes. It’s not that I am opposed to cell phones; they can be very handy and have their place, and certainly can change some dynamics for the better. But for now I refuse to bow to the telcos out here. I am sure by the time my kids hit 11 or 12 I will be singing a different tune, but for now I am going to concentrate on improving my telepathic abilities 😉

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Found your page by accident…

I have the same phone as you and have cingular service. You can edit mp3’s and email them to your MMS service and they will work as ringtones on your phone. I do it all the time. I have songs that are not available for download, clips from radio shows I like and even the ring tone that you hear on 24.

If you are really interested in finding out how to do this, feel free to email me. But it is really easy, just send a photo via mms to your email address to get the mms address then email back with mp3’s as attachments. If you are tech savy you will figure it out in no time. If you (or your readers) need further instruction email me (my name is Angel).

To the best of my knowledge, it only works with the Samsung. I know it doesnt work on the Motorola Razor

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

One thing they are beginning to introduce over here is location tracking via cells, if it becomes viable it would be nice to be able to track my daughter wherever she is. All I would need after that is some system to alert me if she is with a boy .. and I guess a gun license ..

By: dnorman

dnorman — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The thing is – I don’t feel as though I’m missing out on anything. If anyone wants to get in touch, it’s easy enough. And there are very few instances where a call needs to get to me wherever/whenever I am. I can see the value of the cell phone for emergencies (stuck at the side of a highway, etc…) but constant, pervasiveness connectedness just seems over the top to me. Especially when we’re expected to pay a fortune for the pleasure. I’ll take some offline time, thanks.

I’m sure as The Boy™ gets older and more mobile, I’ll appreciate being able to call him wherever, or vice versa, but for now I’m completely fine being unavailable for a portion of the day. If anything truly important comes up, there are lots of ways to find someone without requiring a cell phone. Society managed for decades without surgically attached cell phones (well, I’m sure it was fine much longer than that, but since the advent of the phone, I mean…)

By: Gardner

Gardner — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Always, always, your mileage may vary. But here’s my ode to my cell phone:

For me, it’s convenience and microbursts of family scheduling updates: we’re here now, Jenny has to stay late, Ian’s over at a friend’s, I’m working late tonight, etc. etc. It’s also welcome little reminders of stuff on my schedule, via Google Calendar. The camera ain’t great, but I’ve been able to grab shots that would have otherwise disappeared. And ordering Chinese for carryout on the way home has never been easier.

I really love the idea that I can be in contact anywhere, anytime. If I don’t want to take the call, I don’t. Problem solved.

But I suspect the most important aspect to me has become, yes and I’m not ashamed to say it, the reach-out-and-touch factor. I get little text messages from my wife throughout the day, just little “thinking of you” things, and those can keep me going. As can the texts and photos from my brother, a high-school English teacher, and my kids, both of whom have the same model phone as I (the LG 8100). Customizing ringtones has at times been a nice family activity. Etc. There’s plenty of hackware on the net for me to unlock anything I want on my phone, and I have (except for freeing it from my provider).

But your mileage may vary!

By: dnorman

dnorman — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Teddy – that’s bizarre. The only thing I can think of is a bug in the Comment Info module that provides “sticky” guest comment info. I’ve disabled it, just in case that was the cause. Sorry about that…

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

D’Arcy,

Funny enough, i don’t have one either. I tend to agree with you about the intrusiveness of cell phones. I have always thought of the cellphone as more of a ball and chain than a source of freedom. I can see the occasional uses for the cell phone, none of them, for me, outweigh what a drag it would be to have a device that allows anyone to get in touch with you anywhere, any time. It’s almost as bad as twitter.

By: Rob Wall

Rob Wall — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I participated in an online survey a little while ago about cell phones. I was asked to rate a variety of features as to their relative importance in my life. All of them rated a 1 (not important). The last question was what features in a cell phone are most important to me. My answer was that I can make and receive phone calls. I just want to make a frickin’ phone call on a phone that has exactly 12 buttons – 10 digits, send and off. If the buttons were large enough for my clumsy fingers and had big enough digits for me to read easily, that would be even better.

By: Bryan Alexander

Bryan Alexander — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I can’t speak to your hatred of phones in general (remember the Twilight Zone haunted phone stories?), but the US mobile phone scene is pretty bad, too.