Communication

My simple, basic, and generally trusted Nokia 1100 has died a slow, gradual death. It had a monochrome screen, did phone calls and txt messages… and not much else, but that was fine by me. As anyone who has tried to call me recently will know, its only sporadically been accepting calls recently. Making calls was just asking too much. Cue the k800i – a new all singing, all dancing, shiny new phone. It does everything a phone could possibly do, and more. (not to mention probably more processing power than your average NASA mission)

Bit of a change, but It’ll be nice having a good camera in my pocket, be able to check my email away from work (I just discovered the open hotspot I’m writing this from, but it’ll be nice to do it all indoors in the warmth of a house!)

Being connected to my laptop (Also, if you remember, pretty new, all singing all dancing, full featured, etc) turned out to be rather harder. Both have bluetooth, both directly next to each to each other, both products with the correct settings turned to ‘on’. 9 drivers installed (Each two times) on the laptop, 3 pairing attempts, and an entire software suite installed later, they kind of talk. Windows can see the phone, and i can transfer files across. the phone sees the computer. the sony/ericcson software does not see the phone, so most of the syncronisation features fail miserably. It’s not been a happy coming together of technologies. Hopefully I’ll get them talking eventually – any hints on how to do it much appreciated.

And a note on packaging: The box the phone came is is very nice – nice graphics, the product and all the bits neatly arranged. Why they feel the need to put a 300quid phone and all the associated accessories in cheap and nasty bags, I don’t know. The memory card I got thrown into the bargain had the most frustrating packagine I have had the ill-pleasure to use for ages. It was one of those made by ultrasonically sealing (?) two sheets of vac-formed plastic together, and if a pair of scissors happen to e unavaiable, its is practically impossible to actually access the purchased product. not a good start.

Anyhow, other than not actually being able to use it as a phone to make outgoing calls till next week (my number is being transferred and that takes time, apparently), I am happy with my new aquisition. It is a lovely product, at least on the hardware side. I love the material choices- it feels sturdy, and the surface finaish, especially on the back, is great. The interface on the phone itself isn’t bad either, so no complaints there. It’s just a pity they didnt quite worrk through the final kinks in getting it talking to the outside world.

Now, it’s just too cold to be sat outside typing, and my fingers are actually stiff. I am off to find warmth.