New Cell Phone

by bill - 2010-03-26 05:19:06 ( in education, tech, phones) [php version] rebuild

Sprint called the other day and offered me a free new phone. The woman, sounding like she was from Indonesia or something, went on and on and on for twenty minutes. Luckily, the call did not count against my minutes. Just last month I had to increase my allowed minutes from 300 to 450 because I went way over and paid $105 that month instead of the usual $35. Anyway, they really wanted me to have this new phone.

After making it clear that I was not going to pay anything extra, I said they could send me the phone. They still tried to sneak in shipping, handling and activation fees, but I said, "No, you called me. I don't need this phone. If it's free, I'll take it. Otherwise, no."

I received it the next day and I doubt I'll ever activate it. As my wife Tara says, it's obviously designed with "texting" in mind. I don't do texting. It has a slide-out keyboard, and the numbers are just too small. It's almost a smart phone, providing icons for Internet and email access as well as texting, all of which costs extra. My 15-year-old niece Destiny liked it. Maybe I should give it to her, let her activate it with whoever her provider is. I don't know how that works. Then again, my current phone, not even a year old, is giving me this mysterious beep during calls for no reason. Maybe I'll need this new one, after all.

Both the old and new phones are by Samsung, made in Korea. At least it's not China, for a change. The new one is a "Reclaim," green in color, with the word "Eco" on the back. Under that it says, "Use of bioplastic," whatever that means. Are they trying to pass it off as some sort of eco-friendly cell phone? Aren't electronic gadgets, like, the worst polluters of our environment? Apparently not this phone. Here's what their website says about it:

"Reclaim™ is made from 100% biodegradable, corn-based bioplastic, a renewable source. You won't find a trace of PVCs, flame retardants or phthalates in it. And it contains no mercury, lead, cadmium, or a ton of other toxins."

That's nice. But the keyboard is still way too small for my big fingers.