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About a year ago I wrote about the trauma of switching mobile phones. Although not ‘technophobic’ because of my computing background, I tend to buy “tools” rather than “toys” into which category and apparently like many sane adults, I cast mobile phones. To me life is far too short to be bothered with trying to bend my life totally out of shape to try and use every “feature” available on today’s average mobile, indeed much of what they can do seems little short of banal as in “Just why would I want to read the web on such a tiny screen ?”

But oddly today through an event, I found out that a mobile phone is an essential part of my life in a way I had never thought about up until now. I moved down to the Somerset Levels to look after my Parents who were well into their 80′s almost 5 years ago now. My Father died coming up for two years ago and now there is just my 88 year old Mother who is in failing health and housebound.

Every morning I go out for a bike ride after I have seen to her, given her breakfast and so on, it gives me an hour for some exercise, a bit of “soul riding” and photography. Also I obviously have to do the shopping and run errands common in the usual petty commerce of any life. I cannot leave her for more than an hour or so but should she have any difficulties, she can phone me so for this alone, a mobile has become crucial.

The Kindness of Others

I had, still have a Panasonic GD87 and after 6 years use, decided last year to buy a new cheap phone which I did for around £45 from O2 and just moved my SIM over, it was a Nokia flip phone, very basic but fine for what I wanted. A couple of months later, a friend of mine decided to buy into the iPhone and gave me his Nokia N73 which is a very nice ‘smart phone’ with lots of ‘features’ I really couldn’t be terribly excited about due to the current limitations on my life but even so if I was out on the road and working full time, I suspect that few of them would be used – games, music player and so on…As for camera abilities…as a keen photographer I have a number of ‘proper’ still and video cameras that I use.

Interestingly, the same friend some months later was eligible for a free iPhone upgrade, ended up with two so gave me his original one. I was impressed with that, the keypad screen is brilliant compared with the Nokia N73 however and again, I really do not have the lifestyle that goes with that so, it ended up with my youngest son who in his early 30′s has a decent use for it.

Accidental Damage…

This morning on my ride along the dike by the River Brue, I hit some black ice and the bike slid sideways under me so, I landed with a thump which bought forth a torrent of expletives that I didn’t know I knew. Bike fine, cameras and lenses fine, Baldy fine, Nokia which took the impact, not so fine, cracked screen. Quite amusing, it seems to still work because you can hear it turning itself on and off, just can’t see what its doing. My guess was that a new screen would likely cost so much as to make a repair totally uneconomic.

When I got home, I looked up the Nokia UK site, found the nearest authorized “Repair Centre” which is in Bristol and tried phoning a number of times to be greeted by a robot voice and no answer from the extension. How is it that people in mobile phone shops never answer the phone ? In the end I emailed Nokia who have promised a reply within 48 hours.

We Move On…

Back home to dig out my old Panasonic which I had kept as a ‘backup phone’, put it on charge it up but after 5 minutes use, the battery died, I guess a year in the drawer, neglected and unused doesn’t help so, I needed a rapid cheap replacement.

I looked up O2 on the web and saw that they still did the little Nokia flip phone I bought last year but given to a mate when my other friend gave me the N73. I therefore legged it into Weston Super Mud and the O2 shop to pick one up. My memories of buying mobile phones is that it always seems to take forever, amazingly I met a mobile phone shop chap who was friendly but very efficient and I was in and out in 10 minutes. I thought I had a great deal last year but today was far better, £29.35, a spare SIM and a £10 airtime voucher, so I guess it cost less than £20.

But the best bit about it all is that the phone I got, which I had lived with last year for a few months is a really brilliant bit of kit, does the job with no fuss and does exactly what I want it to do. There was one thing about the N73 I particularly liked, it was the PC suite that came with it so that you could synchronize your ‘Contacts’ and stuff between your phone and MS Outlook it appears you can do all of that on the Nokia 2760, you need to download the software and I need a ‘Bluetooth Dongle’ for my PC, on the way as I write.

Back to the Panasonic GD87

Of course when the battery on my “standby phone” didn’t hold its charge, I sort of remembered that was likely the reason that prompted me to replace the phone. My reasoning had been that it was 6 years old, so I could buy a new battery but probably it would be better to replace the whole thing.

Anyway today I decided to get a battery for the Panasonic, bung the spare SIM in it and use it from time to time to keep it ticking over so that I have a ‘known’ working backup. Although it is an ‘old phone’ I know you can get third party batteries for the GD87 and did a Google to find a supplier. I came across one web site and when I looked up the phone model, what astonished me considering the model is about 7 years old, you can still buy accessories and it appears you can even replace the case and screen !

A battery will cost about £10, if I bought a new charger, about the same and the Nokia 2760 cost me £20 brand new…. I’ll wait and see what a new screen for the Nokia N73 costs before I decide but what is certain is that I still want a backup…

Well that’s enough excitement for me, time for some Horlicks and cheese Gromit !