On 1st December 2003 a new law comes into effect in the UK prohibiting drivers from using hand held mobile communications devices whilst driving. Of course, this is an incredibly sensible and long overdue law which will hopefully cause a lot of morons to think a bit more carefully about how they use their phones on the move. For sensible motorists who use their phones responsibly, it means either investing in a fixed installed hands-free system or working out how to use their phone without touching it. As installing a hands-free system costs more than I’d care to pay for any phone, I went for the latter.
I don’t particularly like my phone. It’s a Sony Ericcson T68i, which was the first non-Nokia phone I’d had, owning previously a 3210 and an 8850. The next phone I own will be a Nokia – I should never have strayed. Anyway, I use my T68i with a Sony bluetooth headset whilst driving and so wanted to work out how to activate the voice dialing features. I had voice dialing on the 8850, but it was always complete crap. It would work one time out of ten. After a quick foray through the T68i’s hideous menus I managed to record some voice comments for calling home. Now I can leave my phone in the back and dial by simply pressing the button on my headset.
[Press button] beeep Rachel beeep Home beeep [rings]
It works every time – seriously, it always works. It’s unbelievably good. This leaves me with a problem. After a year with this phone, I need to get my phone book organised. The T68i enables you to store four numbers against each contact in the book – home, work, mobile and other. For people I call a lot (like Rachel) I have multiple numbers configured, but for the rest I use the phone in a pretty much one-number-per-contact way. My problem arises with companies and organisations. Not everyone I wish to store in my phone book is an individual. For example, my place of work. Sure, I can enter that as a new contact, but which category (Home, Work, Mobile, Other) gets the number? I guess I have some options:
- Store work’s number as a contact and store the number as one of the categories.
- Create a contact for myself, and store the number as my work number,
- Find or create a contract entry for one of my colleagues and store the number as their work number.
Option 3 sounds like it makes sense, but feels a bit like storing the number under ‘P’ for ‘Place of Work’. I’m not sure how to solve this. I guess it comes down to the shape of your phone book. The T68i tries to impose a wide phone book when I need something both wide or long, depending on the circumstance.
So how do you do it? What shape is your phone book?
Comments
I would just create a contact for work if I were you. but that’s just me.
:shrug:
Personally I’ve adopted the strict policy and filed her under her real name. Which is what I would do for the company name as well. File it under the Company Name and then the number under Work.
That being said, I also hate how my t69i works. It’s slow as molasses when working the menus, and everything is just one click further away than what seems necessary.
Sending a text message is something like 10 clicks JUST for the administration of saying ”new message to XX”, man I hate that.
Anyway, I seriously wish the phonebook was a bit more flexible. After all if you only have one number within a contact, why does it need any more info than the name to dial that contact?
Ok, now that you’ve done that, go out and buy yourself a T610 (or T630 if you’ve got the cash). You are now able to bask in the glory of having a phone that actually ”works for you”!
Well, mine does anyway. After started with a Nokia 3310, I tried a few other nokia phones. Not bad. Then tried the T68i. Better. Had that for about 3 months, then moved on to the T610. Godsend.
I get my email to my phone. I send email from my phone. No computer needed, which for me is a blessing as my box tends to be down for ”maintanance”. I can take pictures. True, on the T610 the resolution is a bit poor compared to the T68i cam attachment, but it still works fine for quick snaps which IMHO is really all you should use a phone for. Pictures should be taken with a camera, not a phone.
The Bluetooth features on this phone are just amazing. You can even have fun bluejacking. Java games, phone-book ”sync”ing (with either your desktop or an online server), and a fast wap browser. What more could you want?
Regarding the phone book, I’ve done what Eric has - created an entry for myself. The T610 allows you to send it using to another phone using IR, Bluetooth, Picture txt (so you can include the picture you’ve attached to the contact), or standard txt.
Be wary of nokias. My GF has the 6100, and she has to connect it to her laptop to do anything with it apart from phone or txt. Sending/Recieving Pictures or ringtones has to be done via the Nokia Data Suite - a pain in the a*se, I can tell you. I heard it was a conspiricy betweeen ringtone/game creators and nokia to get people to spend more money on such items. Pathetic, especially when all you’re trying to do it send a picture of [insert cute pet’s name here] to someone’s phone.
IMHO, SE phones are more like the leatherman of the phoneworld. I’ll never go back to nokia again.
I agree about the voice-dialling - it really is great. My experience of Nokia’s voice-dialling system is, to put it frankly, apalling.
The phonebook system on the T68i is great. Being able to store 4 numbers for each contact is really useful - it makes calling people much quicker, and I know I couldn’t go back to a phone without a similar system.
On the other hand, I’ve never been able to get WAP or Email to work. However, me being the cheapskate I am, I bought the phone refurbished from the Carphone Warehouse for £60 less than the ’new’ price. Therefore, it wasn’t set up with Orange’s WAP settings, so that could be the problem (I’ve tried getting the settings from my old 3330 and from the net).
Yes, the menus are a bit slow. And yes, the camera has broken. Yes again, it’s had to be sent away for a fortnight twice when it’s refused to switch on. However, having a colour screen, camera capability, multi-number contacts, etc etc for just £140 eight months ago I think is pretty bloody good!