Wednesday, January 11, 2006

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? HELLO? HELLO?

I got a new cellphone today. A friend called me this afternoon and asked if I was doing anything exciting this weekend. I told her no. I can't go out and play with anyone until I figure this thing out.

I've downloaded a ringtone. But I can't find it. It's buried somewhere in my new phone. I checked my account and was charged for it, so I know it's in there somewhere. Check under "ringtones?" That does sound like a good idea, but it's not there. Check under "downloads"? Another good idea. Not there either. So, right now when my phone rings, I get the "Cingular Theme Song." And that just screams "HEY, EVERYONE!! SHE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY DOWNLOAD A RINGTONE!!!"

The SIM card that was supposed to transfer all of my numbers to my new phone? Somehow, the only numbers that transferred were the ones I deleted on my old phone. !?!?!? So, after I figure out my new phone, I have to spend the rest of the weekend re-entering everything. Oh yeah, and I complained to the rep about the wrong phone numbers on the SIM card, and she just said "sorry." And she was the one who told me how to set it up so the right numbers transfer.

Sorry? SORRY? SORRY!?!

I'm also supposed to be able to do mobile blogging. That had been set up with my old phone. To check my camera on the new phone, I took a picture of my computer and sent it to my blog. So far, it hasn't shown up.

It's probably out there in cyberland with my ringtone.

Hope they're having fun. Maybe they'll write soon and let me know where they are.

Oh, hello! Look what showed up:




This article, posted by insomniac in the last thread, is proving to be woefully true.

UPDATE: AND, someone suggested "beaming" the contacts in my PalmPilot to my cellphone. The only result was a series of photos I inadvertently took of myself trying to mate my electronic devices. However, vanity prevents me from posting any of them. Apparently, I subconsciously think that sticking my tongue out of the side of my mouth is an important step in accomplishing that.

7 comments:

wysiwyg said...

Sly,

You appear to be one of those technology victims that are doomed to repeatedly find out what IT people have always known - technology only works if you really really don't care if it does or not.

The corollary to that is, of course, if you don't WANT a piece of technology to work, it stubbornly will.

Hence (a) the new ringtone is gone, as are the phone numbers (you care about that) (b) the old ringtone is intact (you don't want that).

Some people think that if you persist long enough you can get technology to work for you. This is a fallacy. All that happens is that you end up accepting a bunch of compromises forced on you by the technology, and then kid yourself you got your way with it.

There is a theory that taking up new technology is akin to adopting a puppy from the pound - you have to persevere with "training" technology to do what you want it to.

All I can say is that the more features there are, the longer it takes. There is a shortcut, however. My own handy-dany cell phone/organiser thingy can do an extraordinary range of things, none of which I have managed to get working the way I want to.

But then I don't really really need them, so I ignore them, and they live a sort of hidden mysterious existance on my cell, very likely doing dispicable things amongst themselves that I'll never know about. If I'm lucky.

In the meantime I just use it as (a) a basic phone (b) a place to take simple notes.

All that hype about synchonizing my diary and e-mail messages, let alone surfing the net, are WAY out of scope.

I do occasionally pull out the manual to try and do a bit more with the thing, but I'm always defeated.

You can't teach old technology new tricks you see...

DonnaJo said...

Tamara, I don't have my old phone BUT, I still have my daughter's old phone which is just like it. We attempted the SIM card switcheroo last night....let's just say it didn't work.

BUT, on the bus ride in this morning, I found I can surf the net on my new phone. I got to the Dave Barry blog, and then received an error message that the memory was full. At that point, I also got a call and my phone exploded. Well, I think it exploded. That COULD have been my new ringtone.

Anonymous said...

Sly: Can you hear me now?

Anonymous said...

use 'iPants' in a sentence:

"When I think of Sly mating with various electronic devices, then iPants."

(actual sentence I find myself using more and more: 'How do you turn this phone off?")

Anonymous said...

It's stories like this that make me glad I'm a shut-in and just use my cell phone to call CG on the rare occasion I'm out and say, "Look, I'm out of the house." Then I turn it off because I don't know how to even retreive messages *sigh*.

When I was a CDA I was very up-to-date on all this stuff *sigh*.
/end nostalgia. (hope I didn't use too much space)

Sarah said...

Sly, do what I do. Find a 10 year old to get your ringtone, etc. working.

And insist that he/she make your phone vibrate, too.

It's the little thrills that make up life.

wysiwyg said...

Durn fine idea Scat. You see technology doesn't recognise a 10yo as a threat, and hence the kid can generall slip under its guard. That or make the phone so unusable you can take it back to the shop and complain.

However, I would not recommend a vibrating phone, particularly if you plan to mate it. It'll have you up at all hours pestering you for that...err...little something extra, and the rest of the time keeping you awake with the snoring ringtone that will somehow work its way into being the default....