death, is a dream to some and a nightmare to others
So says Merlin, the magician, in the film Excalibur.Well, we too have experienced the nightmare of this situation, in electronic form. My mobile phone, the redoubtable Samsung Omnia, has hopefully been killed temporarily. My 18month phone contract is soon due to end, and having suffered at the hands of vodafone's 1 star customer service I am leaving their network. I have decided in these tumultuous times to avoid a long 18/24 month contract and have resorted to a pay monthly SIM only deal. This will decrease my phone bill by more than half, which is great, obviously. The only drawback is that I have to continue using my Samsung, which I actually do like very much, with two small exceptions; a bizarre locking system when you are phoning from it (I see why, the designers thought, 'We need a locking system so that our customers ears cannot hang up phone calls by hitting the off button with their ear', what thought didn't go through their mind is that, if you are ringing a company who are prone to deliver their service via, 'for mobile queries, press 1, to unleash the dogs of war press 2, to allow the Americans world hegemony and arrogance beyond the Romans, press 3 (Ooops, I fell for that one once), to live in a world of fluffy bunnies and marzipan houses, press 5.
Now this is great, but with the Omnia impossible to do without actually removing the phone from your ear, press the unlock 'action' button, then pressing the keypad button, which reveals the keypad, by which time the mechanised operator, has begun the 'I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that, transferring....', not good. The other is a poor keyboard (Which I think I am verging on solving), but if you have sausage like fingers or do not have the money to have reconstructive plastic surgery to have your fingers whittled to a point, then you are stuffed. As much as I like the idea of having my fingers whittled to a point I guess, the face needs doing first. It's a bug bear.
Apart from this, it is a good phone when not dead. So thinking I could be having it for a while longer, I set about upgrading the firmware (what makes it work). Sadly this firmware (from the samsung website), didn't make it work, in fact it was like seeing the arrow go into achilles' heel. The poor little thing just sat their on the table displaying on its now black background (you see even phones grieve), 'Samsung Omnia', an expression of self awareness but no more than this, nothing. When my device died, I wanted it to go out like the ultimate device that dies in the greatest sci fi film, 2001, the HAL 9000. Machines die like this is my mind.
Singing nursery rhymes. Not mine though, it went blank, no singing, no attempting to flush me out of an airlock, nothing. At some point in my life if no one attempts to flush me out of an airlock, I may die with one disappointment, just saying.
Anyway, back to the now dead phone, cue huge Monty python skit, 'this phone is an ex-phone', 'no, it's just resting', etc, etc. I rang the Samsung helpline, hoping it would involve a visit to the nottingham repair centre, to be told, no, they don't repair software. Nope, it's a freepost job to Glasgow. Oh, how long? And he says with straight face, 28 days! 28 days? It took Nazi Germany 40 days to beat the French, how can it take 28 to fix a phone?! He did suggest that I ring up after 10 days so they could chase the engineers! I do somehow like the idea of having the power to authorise a duncan norvel chase sequence in some Glasgow industrial estate, a 1000 engineers shouting 'chase me, chase me'.
Sadly this has left me in a state of no smart phone world, having to rely on an old Nokia 6230. Which, bizarrely can't handle my twitter app. Mainly because it is a mobile phone that essential just makes and receives phone calls and texts, that's it. You could also potentially use it as a clubbing weapon if you happened to get attacked in the street, either that or they'd all laugh at you and take pity, perhaps give you a £1!
Fortunately I have an old PDA also, that is Wifi enabled, which is now being juiced up. A hp rx1900. I discovered some pretty good music on its hard drive too. bonus there. Hope my phone comes back soon!
Now this is great, but with the Omnia impossible to do without actually removing the phone from your ear, press the unlock 'action' button, then pressing the keypad button, which reveals the keypad, by which time the mechanised operator, has begun the 'I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that, transferring....', not good. The other is a poor keyboard (Which I think I am verging on solving), but if you have sausage like fingers or do not have the money to have reconstructive plastic surgery to have your fingers whittled to a point, then you are stuffed. As much as I like the idea of having my fingers whittled to a point I guess, the face needs doing first. It's a bug bear.
Apart from this, it is a good phone when not dead. So thinking I could be having it for a while longer, I set about upgrading the firmware (what makes it work). Sadly this firmware (from the samsung website), didn't make it work, in fact it was like seeing the arrow go into achilles' heel. The poor little thing just sat their on the table displaying on its now black background (you see even phones grieve), 'Samsung Omnia', an expression of self awareness but no more than this, nothing. When my device died, I wanted it to go out like the ultimate device that dies in the greatest sci fi film, 2001, the HAL 9000. Machines die like this is my mind.
Singing nursery rhymes. Not mine though, it went blank, no singing, no attempting to flush me out of an airlock, nothing. At some point in my life if no one attempts to flush me out of an airlock, I may die with one disappointment, just saying.
Anyway, back to the now dead phone, cue huge Monty python skit, 'this phone is an ex-phone', 'no, it's just resting', etc, etc. I rang the Samsung helpline, hoping it would involve a visit to the nottingham repair centre, to be told, no, they don't repair software. Nope, it's a freepost job to Glasgow. Oh, how long? And he says with straight face, 28 days! 28 days? It took Nazi Germany 40 days to beat the French, how can it take 28 to fix a phone?! He did suggest that I ring up after 10 days so they could chase the engineers! I do somehow like the idea of having the power to authorise a duncan norvel chase sequence in some Glasgow industrial estate, a 1000 engineers shouting 'chase me, chase me'.
Sadly this has left me in a state of no smart phone world, having to rely on an old Nokia 6230. Which, bizarrely can't handle my twitter app. Mainly because it is a mobile phone that essential just makes and receives phone calls and texts, that's it. You could also potentially use it as a clubbing weapon if you happened to get attacked in the street, either that or they'd all laugh at you and take pity, perhaps give you a £1!
Fortunately I have an old PDA also, that is Wifi enabled, which is now being juiced up. A hp rx1900. I discovered some pretty good music on its hard drive too. bonus there. Hope my phone comes back soon!
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