Cell Phone Batteries

2006-11-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

What's up with these things? I bought this brand new phone thinking that I'd be making calls all day long and still have plenty of battery life to spare. WRONG! The phone dies after a few calls. If I talk at night, I'm tied to the wall by a cord because my battery has died. And when it dies, I get no notice, except for some warning horn that sounds like a nuclear attack is imminent. If I don't plug in within 15 seconds or so, the phone just hammers down and I'm left wondering where my call went.

I've been thinking of ways to extend the life of the phone. One idea was to strap a car battery to my back and hook the phone up to that. It gets a bit uncomfortable, though, especially when you try to relax and lean back. Anoter idea was to strap a portable gas generator to my back, but that suffers from the same comfort problem as the first idea, and it's so loud that I can't hear my phone call. I've got a couple of new angles I'm working on now. One is to wear a solar panel hat. The other is to use a small nuclear reactor. I'll let you know how I make out with these in subsequent posts.

My new cell phone sucks!

2006-11-22T06:36:00.000-08:00

I've had a cell phone for several years now. It seems like a necessity these days. Over the years, I've had several different models from different manaufacturers. I've had different carriers as well. I used to have a StarTac phone and I was always pretty happy with it. After all, I really only want a phone to make and receive calls. I don't need to take pictures, play games, check email, watch videos or play music. Call me traditional.

Having said that, is it too much to ask that a phone places and receives calls properly? I wanted a phone with clear sound. I wanted a phone that had reasonable battery life. I went to my local phone store and got a phone that promised me the things that were important to me. At the same time, the phone came with a 1.3 megapixel camera, an MP3 player, internet connection and several other bells and whistles. It was also bluetooth ready. I thought that was great because I hate those wired headsets. I used to hook the wire on things while I was driving and that's never good. So I got a bluetooth headset to go along with my new phone.

I went home happy with my purchase. I made my first call to a friend using my bluetooth headset. All I kept hearing is, "What? What did you say? Are you talking through a pipe or can or something? What's all that noise I hear?" My bluetooth experience started off poorly. I went back to the store and exchanged the headset for another one. Same results! A friend recommended a different brand and I tried it. The results were a little better, but still underwhelming. I paid a lot of money for these headphones. They should at least resemble a human voice, shouldn't they? So I guess I'll have to live with the fact that people will think I'm using a mechanical voice to speak to them.

OK. So this phone doesn't do a great job with bluetooth. Well, what about the battery? That's a whole 'nother subject. You'll be hearing from me. What about you?

Cell Phone Rants

Cell Phone Batteries

My new cell phone sucks!