Kipworld

I… have a cool phone.

It’s been a while.

I got my first cell phone when I was a sophomore in college. My parents got it for me because they could never get ahold of me. Since it was from the ‘rents, I didn’t get a cool phone. I got a completely workable Samsung SCH-2000: big, black, boring. It had some cool features like voicedial and 4 digit dial. It was pretty big, even then. Kuwie got the spiffy Samsung model with wireless web and stuff.

It broke on him a year or two later and he upgraded to the super slim Sanyo 6000 (which I dubbed the Men in Black phone since Lara Flynn Boyle uses one in MIB II). He paid an ungodly amount for it but rationalized it because everywhere we’d go, people would stare at it. “Is that a phone?” they’d ask. He’d graciously let them touch it.

No one ever did that to my phone.

It wasn’t until last year that I realized how long in the tooth my trusty SCH had become. It barely held a charge for a day. There were no games in it to pass time in lines. I tried to defend it to its attackers. I said, “Sure it’s big… but it ALWAYS gets reception.” “It makes calls. Therefore it’s a phone. That’s all I need.” Etc Etc.

But I was kidding myself. I wanted more.

I specced out a dream phone. I wanted Bluetooth for contact and appointment syncing. That was really about it. I liked the T68i, but by this time, it had been out for a while. I knew that new Sony Ericcsons were on the horizon. I wanted to stick with Sprint, since my plan had some great features like 8PM nighttime hour and 1st incoming minute free. If I were to switch providers, I’d never get those things again.

I thought the Sony T608 would be the answer. I eagerly awaited the phone, after reading the announcement. I even checked Sprint stores in New York (figuring that those flagship stores would know first). It would be the first Sprint phone with Bluetooth. It would be a pretty functional, no frills phone. All i needed.

And then they pulled the thing from the market.

Grr.

So I looked for alternatives. The T616 was out, but only for Cingular. I’d heard horrible things about their network / customer service. At&T would also offer the T616, but not soon and not for cheap.

And then came TMobile. I’d looked before and not seen anything, but Rick was browsing their site and he saw the T610. Same phone as the T616. Bluetooth. Java. Shooby doop. I found the phone on Amazone for $100 after rebate. I signed up that day.

Then came the waiting. Oh, the waiting. It wasn’t supposed to ship until July 31st. How could I wait that long?

And then last week Thursday, a box came. Cue angelic chord.

I hurriedly removed it from its packaging. Charged the battery for 4 agonizing hours. Turned on the phone in wait for the SMS that would tell me my phone number. Nothing.

I tried to call my old cell, just to get the number. No go. It connected me to customer service.

The lady there told me that I wasn’t in her system. I’d have to call Amazon.

Called Amazon. Turns out that these phones were supposed to come activated, but due to them getting shipped a mite early, the activation guy was backed up to Boise trying to get them all done. It would be ready in a day, they said.

No matter. I was just glad to have it.

In the morning, I had to leave for the airport (Houston). Just on a lark, I picked up the T610 (which is beautiful, I must say) and dialed my old cell. It rang. Activation had arrived. I quickly unpacked the (clumsy, huge, ugly) Samsung cradle from my bag and threw in the T610’s power cord. The phone was going on a road test.

It held up excellently. Not just in reception (which I was worried about, having read a scathing review). No, much more shallow. I was proud to hold this little soapbar up to my head. It could compete with the sleek competitors I saw other road warriors carrying.

My phone had arrived, and I had arrived with it.

Not all was joy and jumping. Unlimited SMS instant messenging turned out to be like trying to program a microwave with a fork. You have to send these SMS’s to the server and it send you stuff back. It actually feels like managing a listserv through email. No phun. Khai tells me that it’s better to use the WAP gateway. So I dropped the unlimited SMS package and went for the t-zones, which I’ll also be using for moblogging via picture email.

That’s when I get it. See, I called them to turn it on and they told me to wait a day.

Sounds about par for the course.