So today I went to the Telstra shop to look at new units. Basically, it appears, between the time I got my last one and now, they stopped making them free in the plans, and now one has to buy the unit separately. Not wishing to spend the $300-$1500 a passably decent new mobile phone costs (depending on features; the Nokia 7650 looked temptingly doovy, though there are more important things I could spend that money on), I went down to Northcote and found a Nokia 3310 (one model up from my 3210, and obsolete enough to be cheap) for $130.
The 3310 is basically like the 3210, only with a few other features (such as more slots for ringtones); a good inexpensive model. I looked at the ones with infrared, but they either lacked custom ringtones or cost more than I was prepared to pay for the convenience of beaming contacts from my Visor. The only annoyance (other than having to rekey my City of Lost Children organ grinder's theme ringtone) is that the 3310 doesn't have the 3210's dictionary-based text entry system (which I had gotten used to using in SMS messages).
It's not bad. The 6 or 8 user ringtone slots are nice. If I was made of money, I'd think about buying phones for the coolness value; but my phone-buying philosophy is somewhat spartan, as long as they do the job and have custom ringtones.
I can't really see the point in spending too much money for one, actually. I spent a little extra to get the 3330, which is just the 3310 with WAP, and I still haven't been bothered configuring the WAP portion.
From what I've heard, WAP is not very useful. GPRS may be more useful, and PXT sounds nifty (that's the photo-sending protocol). And Bluetooth could potentially be quite doovy.
Yeah the 3310 is pretty good for a cheap phone. It's got a nice set of features and it's a nice size to boot, unlike those 8310s or whatever the recent ones are. Those phones have incredibly tiny keypads that are just too small too use, imho (not to mention they make playing games difficult). I can also see them going missing easily considering their overall size.
Darn, I wouldn't mind that organ grinder's theme. :) Where can I find it, or do I have to key it in myself? :) I currently have Kraftwerk's "The Telephone Call" and as appropriate as it might be, I'm getting a little tired of it. A friend put the Super Mario Bros. theme in his dad's phone which I'm dying to hear; I can just imagine it now.
The 3310 has predictive text; is that what you mean by dictionary-based text entry? Or is that some nifty feature of the 3210?
Silly me; I had the dictionary switched off.
Re: TCoLC: goof/email me your mobile number and I'll send it to you.
Btw, the current contents of my custom ringtone space are:
- the City of Lost Children theme
- FourPlay's _Meshugganah_ (from Peter)
- the piano part from Radiohead's _Fitter Happier_
- The Smiths' _There Is A Light That Never Goes Out_
- the Casio riff from Ninetynine's _Polar Angle_
- and a little melody I came up with on my PMA-5 a few months ago.
Hmm. So my phone's errant calls while I had the keyguard off as I was up a tree (really) were the last calls you recieved. I've got to put a blank number under "AAA" I think.
At least the 3310's pretty serviceable, they're only just been superceded. Is it still the same number? I'll send you the Lost City tone if that's the case...