The Anonymous Widower

Goodbye to my Junkberry

Despite a lot of help from O2, I’ve decided to chuck my Junkberry.  Not sure what I’ll do yet, as a lot depends what happens to my life. I will keep it for a bit as my son is a fan and someone might nick his.

On the other hand, I might strike up a relationship with a gorgeous redhead, who is an absolute expert at the whys and wherefores of a Junkberry and I could have fun learning how to use it. Some hope!

So today, I did the first thing to get it out of my life.  I sent the two Nokia 6310i, that I own to those clever refurbishment people at Tonik, to get them as-newed! It’ll cost me a few pounds, that I can well afford.

So what do I find wrong with the Junkberry?

1. It’s Incompatible With My Experience

I’ve been programming for nearly fifty years and using a mobile phone for nearly forty.  In fact, I was one of the first people to have a mobile phone in Suffolk. My first problem with the Junkberry, is that it does everything in a different way to my computer and my past experience. It would be like putting me in Moscow and trying to find my way to the Olympic stadium. I actually did the Moscow task incidentally, as I had a map of the city and even in cyrillic some things are understandable. But the Junkberry uses icons, I have no knowledge of. Yesterday, I looked at a Samsung phone, which didn’t break any of the rules of the past.

2. My Left Hand Isn’t Good, But My Right Hand Is Superb

Because my left humerus was broken by a school bully and I’ve had a stroke, my left hand at present is little more than something to hold something with. I do use it whilst typing for the Shift key sometimes, but often, I span the fingers of my right hand and use the thumb on the Shift key and a finger on the other key. I have a feeling, I’ve done this for years and because of that my right hand is extremely agile. It always was very good and I put that down to making Meccano models extensively as a child.

Since, I stopped biting my nails, I’ve also tended to use my mobile phone or an ordinary phone for that matter, by holding it in the palm of my hand and dialling with my thumb, or on a mobile, the thumb nail. On a Junkberry, this means entering numbers is difficult, as it’s either a double keystroke or hold one down and hit another. Try doing the latter with just one hand.

3. I Can’t Send the Bus Text Message With a Junkberry

In London to find out, when the next bus is coming, you just type a five digit code to 87287. I talked about the system here. With my Nokia 6310i, it is a very simple operation, I can do with one hand. With the Junkberry, I’ve not actually been able to do it yet, as the phone tries to be clever and gives me the last of-date message. In other words, it gives me wrong information. That’s all you need at eleven o’clock on a cold, rainy night.

4. I Miss All My Messages and Incoming Phone Calls

Every time I get the phone out, someone has rung it and I’ve missed them.  I have to recover the messages by phoning my phone with a land-line and then accessing the mailbox. Not very useful for a mobile phone.

5. I Can Only Send Phone Calls By Dialing The Number In or Selecting a Previously-Called One

This is because, I’ve not found out how to select a number from the address book.

6. The Address Book Doesn’t Work

My son’s phone number is in the phone in two places; under his name and also as the ICE number.

It always picks him up as the ICE number and ignores his name completely.

Obviously, they don’t have serious emergencies in Canada.

7. It Doesn’t Like Weak Signals

Going up to Liverpool today, it didn’t seem to be getting a good signal on the train.  Certainly, the Nokia 6310i didn’t drop out as much.

8. Appalling Battery Life

By the time I got to Liverpool, the battery was dead and I charged it overnight.  My Nokia 6310i generally lasts at least a week. That is the real problem, in that I expect it to last days from previous experience and it lasts just hours. Imagine buying a new modern car and finding the fuel consumption was much worst than your old one.  Would you be pleased? No! You’d be straight round the dealer to tell him where to put his motor.

At least the guy in O2 let me make an urgent phone call.  But finding helpful O2 shops every hour or so to make a call isn’t always practical.

I’ll leave it now, but I’ll come back to this topic later.

Hopefully my Nokia 631oi will be back in a few days. I’ve just heard, that Tonik has received the phone and hopefully, it will be back next week.

May 30, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | World | Blackberry, Nokia 6310i, Phones, Technology