Tag: cell phones

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Toilet Training

If you’re one of those offensive people who talk on the cell phone in bathrooms—particularly public loos—your behavior stinks more than your poop. There may not be more appropriate place to assert that you’re on my shit list, bud. Bathroom phone calling is bad etiquette by just about any measure.

I cringe when walking by a public toilet stall and hearing someone talking into their cell phone. I’ve heard men taking what clearly are business calls. Oh, please! I’d fire your ass, for sitting it on the toilet seat and talking to me (your client or boss). Could toilet talking be the real reason for noise-cancelling cell phones or Bluetooth earpieces? Surely someone will hear you doing your toilet business—or that of the person in the next stall—while you’re taking the call.

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Even Paper Is Better Than Windows Mobile

Say, does anyone remember that the Census Bureau was supposed to use HTC handsets running Windows Mobile 5 this year? I briefly blogged about the strange deal on April 6, 2006: “When New Technology is Old Again.”

HTC handsets running Windows Mobile used for the 2010 Census go oddly together—or they did four years ago. The Census Bureau had reportedly planned to buy a half-million handsets for this year’s count.

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Ovi Store Squeaks at App Store Giant

My initial reaction to Nokia’s Ovi Store is “Huh, this is it?” Today, the mobile application marketplace opened for business in nine countries—Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. I really expected more, as in content. Where are those supposedly tens of thousands of applications already available for Symbian OS variants S40 and S60?

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A QPC-860 Story

They don’t make cell phones like this anymore.

Yesterday, as I was cleaning the basement, I found a personal relic: A Qualcomm cell phone from, looks like, 1999. The phone carries the Bell Atlantic Mobile brand, which existed until mid 2000, when the company became Verizon following the merger with GTE.

I hit the “pwr” switch, expecting no response. But, miraculously, the phone powered up. Keep in mind, this phone has collected dust in my basement for about eight years. Disturbing, however: The phone comes up with my old phone number and it makes calls. I did one test call, then stopped. It’s not my number, anymore. I’m not sure how best to dispose of the phone, because of the active number.

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The iPhone Moment

Maybe the iPhone phenomenon is about purpose or community, making people feel like they can participate in something important or unusual.

My wife put forth that theory this morning as we discussed my experiences covering the iPhone launch at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md. No question, the people I talked to in line yesterday had a sense of being caught up in a historical moment.