I have a new phone. It's one of those fancy-pants smart phones (defined by one online dictionary as a device that functions both as a cell phone and a hand-held computer) with a touch screen and "qwerty" keypad.
From it I can take and store pictures, stay updated on what's going on in my friends' lives through Facebook, track NBA games as they happen, read up on my favorite comic book sites and even Tweet my lame jokes whenever I feel like it. I can also take and store pictures, play games and listen to music. Oh, it also sends text messages and makes phone calls. Pretty sweet right? This is my first smart phone and honestly, I was pretty stoked to get it. (Thanks mom!)
I still carry around my old cell phone because after using it for over two years now, I've grown accustomed to both its features and quirks. Dropping it for good in favor of my new phone would not be practical as I have yet to master the nuances of this modern-er device.
So on the way home from work today, I decided I wanted to listen to music on my old phone. However, it was almost out of juice and I did not want to drain the battery. No problem, just sync up my two phones and transfer the songs from one phone to the other. Okay, it worked, where is the file saved? There it is, in the memory card, huzzah! Hey, let's make a new folder where I can put all the songs so that they're nice and organized. Ha! I named it 'Jeri,' how clever of me. Now, let's transfer the songs into the fol- Wait. It's not working. *confused* Maybe I should make the folder first before transferring the songs ergo I will delete everything again and start from scra- Wait. It's not working. Huh?
I could not for the life of me figure out how to transfer songs from my old phone to the new one and save them in a new folder for easy storage. Something as simple that, and I was stumped. A smart phone should be able to do that, right? Was I missing something obvious? If I was, why wasn't it obvious-er? Why make it not as easy as it should be to do something like that?
And then all of the other things I noticed over the first week of using my new phone popped into my head. Why does the screen go blank like some power-saving feature while I'm using it? Why can't I use wifi to connect to surf the web? When I'm composing a message and I want to go back to a certain point, why does it seem not as easy to do so using the touchscreen interface than it would have with a thumb stick or mini D-pad?
Questions like these make me feel as if I'm stupider than I previously thought. Am I not using it properly? Are their secret functions that are just eluding my sensibilities? My old phone, which came out around three years earlier than my newer phone did not have a slick touchscreen interface but never blacked out while I was using it and I could easily edit messages. Surely, this newer phone can do what my old phone did/does? And if it can, then the problem is with me.
Actually no, it's just that manufacturers love subtracting one thing from the older model when they come out with the new one. It's stupid, yes, but they do it. They can't just give us what they want because if they did, we'd stop buying new things. Look, this is a rant, because I don't know why the hell my phone goes dark WHILE I'M USING IT. I mean come on! And would it kill you to have some sort of directional pad on it? The space bar is gigantic for crying out loud!
Well that felt good to get off my chest. I'm going to back to watching Justified now.
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