Meet my new Sony Ericsson T-610 camera phone. It’s got more features than I know what to do with. All the cool kids have one.
My old cell hadn’t been able to hold a charge for a few months now, and I’d learned that I could buy a new phone for the price of the replacement battery. As of last month, the Federal Communications Commission required all U.S. cell carriers to provide “phone number portability,” and this change has substantial altered the climate in the cellular marketplace. Despite the millions of dollars the implementation of this portability is costing these companies, many of them are now making efforts to retain their existing customers while attracting new ones from their competitors. (My favorite comparison of this state to date is in reference to a “land grab.”)
Now, I’ve been playing with the idea of buying a camera phone for quite some time now, for a number of entirely frivolous reasons. Among these self-justifying pangs of techno-lust, I’ve realized that there are a quite a number of sites that feature photos from phones–most of these being just as crude and limited as this technology. Also, the idea of fueling my interest in photography compels the notion of always having a small camera on my person. And most substantially, I’ve also known that the G4 PowerMac I bought last year came Bluetooth enabled (a wireless technology). It soon became just a matter of time.
So, last Friday, after scouting all of the online resources I could find and then calling cellular companies and telling them that I wanted a better deal than I’d been getting, I called my current provider, T-Mobile, and gace them one final crack at keeping me as their customer. I’d talked to them two weeks before, but they hadn’t given me the deal I was looking for. The rep I talked to this time, however, made me an offer I just could not refuse.
“Jason” reduced the price of the phone while I was talking to him, added a $100 “customer retention credit” to my account (which gets applied directly the now-reduced cost of the phone), and finally arranged for me to receive my sixth month of service for free. Combine these niceties with the $100 rebate that comes with this phone and, in the end, T-Mobile is actually giving me around sixty dollars, a better calling plan and this cool new phone to stay on as their customer for another year. (Oh, yeah, that works for me.)
So, tonight, as I’m sitting here, typing and waiting for my brand new camera phone to charge its battery, I’m playing with ideas for adding a steady stream of photos to my site. I’ve been preoccupied with personal issues lately, and I really don’t know if this will ever work out, but it sure is a fun idea.