Every so often a really great new bit of kit comes along. Take the Nokia 6250 as an example. It is shock resistant, dust (and sand) resistant, water resistant, big keys for cold fingers, large Lion battery with 14 day standby, automatic volume control that increases or decreases the loudspeaker volume level to cope with background noise (designed for use on building sites but very effective in a howling wind), outstanding transmission and reception, built in sound meter to set the surround sound on the home cinema and it even lets you make phone calls!
It sounds like the ideal sea kayaker's mobile phone. Yes indeed and where may these paragons of maritime functionality be purchased? Well sadly they were last available in the year 2000 and mine is now 6 years old. A victim of the fickle fads of aficionados seeking the latest fashion flavour in phones, it sold like a brick and was discontinued. It is a brick and I look after it. It has an incredible additional effect on anyone under the age of 50. If I produce it in public, which is rare as I find the necessity to call in such places occurs infrequently, it causes much hilarity and occasionaly, some little sympathy among onlookers.
The shops are full of the latest miniature devices that have a multiplicity of myriad functionalities within their delicate and, dare I say, gaudy and ephemeral cases. None tempt me.
The lack of commercial success of my Nokia 6250 is a metaphor for all that is wrong with our society which is consuming resources and energy and polluting the planet in a spiral of self destruction. Perhaps we should learn to be happy with what we have got and expect products to have a decent working lifetime. My Nokia 6250 has only one failing. It not only looks like a brick, it sinks like a brick.
Well said! And well worth saying repeatedly, as although recycling is much improved, consumer consumption continues to increase.
ReplyDeleteI share your sentiments.
ReplyDeleteI had a device that more recenty fell prey to fashion. Nokia discontinued the 6310(i) leaving me bereft of a phone that fits my hand and the carphne cradle.
The cause of its loss was its failure to survive a swimming test!
Hello Graeme and Michael, I think sea kayakers probably buy more phones than most, but through necessity rather than fashion!
ReplyDeleteMichael I love your picture of the buoys in the rock cleft.
Douglas :o)
I was so impressed by the description of this phone that when my fancy little flip open thing broke the next day I bought a 6250 for £20 from ebay. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteDavid, good to hear from you. Mine is not locked to any network so when I was in Pakistan last year I bought a cheap local sim card for it. This saved a packet in roaming fees and meant when I was phoning locals the call did not need to go back to the UK then back again to Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteDouglas :o)