Here's my totally true but not all that exciting story:
So, last night, I was watching the X-Files on Netflix - I started from the beginning as a distraction during finals last semester, and now I am like 3 episodes or whatever into season 2. And the specific episode I was watching last night was about these people who, because they had ingested this organic compound which heightened their fear responses, were extremely susceptible to all sorts of technology suggesting they go murder people. These TVs and phones and ATMs and everything else with an electronic screen were sending these tailored messages to people to "Kill 'Em All," and as a result all these people in one town were getting dead. At the hands of these random, non-violent people, who just lost their shit as a result of this compound and their fucking watch talking to them.
Anyway, as I am watching this episode, Amouch is being especially cute, having curled up in my lap and smooshing his face into my thigh. So I take a picture. And then my phone FREAKS OUT; it starts pressing ITS OWN BUTTONS (it's a touchpad phone) and pulling up applications and it called some woman I used to date and it tried to add contacts to my "favorites" list and it generally LOST ITS MIND. Or maybe it GAINED ONE, which is WORSE. And it locked me out and wouldn't let me do anything while it was doing whatever it was doing. All on its own. So I took the battery out, and restarted it, and now it won't let me access it at all - it's like a dead piece of metal, because the touchscreen won't work.
And that's my story, about how my phone decided to go berserk as I was watching a show about personal electronic devices going berserk. The end.
Here's my question, folks: does anyone love their phone? And have recommendations? I need to get a phone off-contract, because I may be moving abroad at some point, so while I fucking covet the Motorola Droid 2 Global, and wouldn't even mind an iPhone as they're easy to take abroad, they're prohibitively expensive without a carrier contract. Also, I need a tri-band or quad-band GSM phone to take abroad. Anyone have a love affair with their little electonic device? Is having an Android OS a must, do you think? Do you just love that you ahve a real QWERTY keyboard? Let me know!
ahahahah that episode of The X-Files! I fucking love The X-Files. CHRIS CARTER, WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE PHONE.
ReplyDeleteMy folks conspired to give me an iPhone for Christmas, and it is pretty boss? I do kind of prefer an actual physical tiny keyboard with tiny keys for the feedback sensation it gives you, though, especially for attempting to text while cold. (Favourite part so far: the level of detail you can type into the calendar, which is a step up from my last phone which was an elderly Treo. The morning alarm is now an event named "Wake the fuck up"; Location: Bed.) You're right that they're very expensive without a carrier contract, though. :(
So, basically no useful input! I fucking love it that you also watch The X-Files as a distraction, though.
Dude, not only do I watch the X-Files as a distraction, I have become intensely invested in Mulder and Scully's relationship. I . . . dunno.
ReplyDeleteYeah, everyone who has an iPhone loves them, and your alarm is brilliant. But they are SO. EXPENSIVE. without the contract. If I find an AMAZING phone, I am willing to spend upwards of $200, because that's what the Droid 2 Global would have been with the contract. But I won't really go over that. For anything more expensive, it better be the bee's knees AND have dinner waiting when I come home.
B. (my dude, not B. above) got a Droid Incredible and it is seriously, seriously rad and I covet it.
ReplyDeleteLove Android.
I have a Samsung Intensity in Flamingo Red. It is not a smart phone, per se, though it can accomplish some web access. It has a side-slide QWERTY keyboard that I adore. I text quite a bit, and it's very useful for that. The camera is decent enough if you don't try to do pro-level photography with it, and I find that it doesn't have the awful "listening down a tunnel" effect that makes some phone hard to hear over.
ReplyDeleteIt's about $200 without a contract, but is usually free with a contract, if you end up going that way.
FUCK
ReplyDeleteI am now desperate to watch the early seasons of The X-Files AGAIN despite having just finished watching it all the way through as of two weeks ago, but cannot do it because the first three seasons are loaned out to someone else. Totally with you on being fascinated by Mulder and Scully's relationship.
It is basically the best when they are checked into separate rooms in a motel in Buttfuck, Arkansas or wherever, and they are both working on stuff late into the night because they are nerds, and one of them visits the other's room and it is midnight and there is no sexual tension, only nerdy excitement and jokes at Mulder's expense. Show! ♥
I love my QWERTY keyboard. It makes my whole life easier.
ReplyDeleteYeah, ok, that pretty much settles the fuck it, I am getting a QWERTY keyboard debate in my head. I don't trust only touchscreens now, let me tell you.
ReplyDeleteMy phone is the motorola android dext, and it has both a touch screen and a flip-out QWERTY keyboard... I really like it and will never go back to not having a keyboard. I also don't like only having the touch screen because it doesn't work well when my fingers are cold (which is practically all the time).
ReplyDeleteStill, my phone flipped out on me yesterday too, it decided to re-send old text messages... nothing important, but it did confuse a few of my friends who got messages from a week ago redelivered to them. Other than that and having to turn it off and back on every week or so, it has been working great for me.
good christ man!! here you have a "genuine" case of an advanced artificial intelligence and you just take out the battery? the phone is just going to learn some way of supplying its own energy, then its going to come up with some plot to ruin your life. its going to send mean and horrible text messages to your friends and family, threats against the president to the c.i.a! quick man destroy the phone before it destroys you!! rage against the machine!!!!!
ReplyDelete