The need for a new phone and a new PDA convinced me to finally get a smart phone. I would have gotten an iPhone except that Apple handcuffs you to AT&T, and if you have the phone unlocked, Apple completely disowns it. A phone that only works with AT&T is less than useless when traveling in Asia, and I did not want to pay $500 for an unlocked I-phone (readily available in Bangkok) that would not be updatable and would have no warranty if it broke the next day. In the end, I bought the Nokia E51. The phone has wi-fi, a camera, an SD memory slot, and the usual goodies like bluetooth, speakerphone, etc. It is a smart phone, so it replaces my PDA, with the added benefit that it is with me at all times without taking up extra pocket space.
Why am I writing a blog entry about a new phone? Because it has become an immensely important travel accessory. Here are the handy things I can do with the phone:
My phone is a quad-band, unlocked GSM phone. As such, for any country that has a GSM mobile phone network, I can go to a store, buy a SIM card, use a prepaid plan, and voila! I have a local phone number. Every airport in Asia that I have been to on this trip has had a shop where I could get a SIM card. It is so nice to have a local number as soon as I land. Having a local phone account makes it much easier to connect with people in that country, as well as make hotel and travel reservations. It also lets me exchange text messages with people in other countries at a reasonable rate. Since most such phone plans have free incoming calls, anyone back home can talk to me, provided that they are will to pay for an international call. (I still use Skype for my international calls.)
The phone plays mp3s. Since getting it, I have pretty much stopped using my iPod and my other mp3 player. Because the phone has a slot for a 2G SD memory card, I can put songs, language lessons, etc. on the card and listen to them on the phone, either via headphones or the speaker on the phone. When exercising, it is nice to not have to have to use headphones like I do with the iPod.
I am a light sleeper. Noise wakes me up. The best way to combat this is by having some kind of white noise generator in the room, such as a fan or a loud air conditioner. When these are not available, I can play an mp3 recording of a vacuum cleaner through my phone's speaker. It does a respectable job of blocking out unwanted noise.
The wi-fi capability of the phone allows me to connect to the internet. I can download podcasts which I can then listen to on my phone, either via headphones or the speaker on the phone. I can check e-mail on the phone as well. I can also surf the web, but this can be a slow, tedious process. Wireless access points are not always easy to find, but since the Starbucks empire has infiltrated a whole lot of places, there is usually one around somewhere in larger shopping centers in cities. Some hotels, restaurants, and other coffee shops also have them.
Nokia smart phones have the Nokia Maps program which is turning out to be immensely useful. When connected to the internet via wi-fi, I point the application to whatever city I want to navigate and it downloads the map for it. (There is a separate PC application that can download maps, but I have not tried it.) I can zoom in to street level or out to a view from space. I really wish I had a phone with GPS--the combination of GPS and Nokia maps would be so handy. Unfortnately, Nokia maps do not cover all cities. So far, it has done great with Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta, but other cities like Denpasar in Bali do not show up at all. I have found that Nokia Maps works better than Google Maps in that it is not as tethered to the internet. I could, of course, use Google Maps with a 3G connection to the internet, but that would be crazy expensive.
My old PDA was very useful as a time-waster when I was on buses, planes, trains, and the like. I would read books on it or play games. I have downloaded a book reader and some books for my phone, which works perfectly well, although the screen is a bit smaller. (Books are heavy, take up a lot of space, and are expensive. Reading public domain books on a handheld device works great.) I have also downloaded several games, but the lack of a touch-screen on the phone makes playing games a lot less fun. The phone has a Java interpreter, so I can play games written in Java. (Non-geeks can ignore that last sentence.)
The phone has a 2 megapixel camera, which means that I always have a camera with me. The camera is not nearly as good as my Canon, so When I go to tourist spots, I still take the Canon. Still, there are a lot of shots that I would not have gotten without the camera phone.
The phone has a photo viewer. I use this to view maps that I download from the internet, such as transit maps or city maps.
I have other applications on the phone that are useful while traveling: an alarm clock, a world clock, a currency converter, a program to download podcasts, an appointment calendar, and an application for writing notes to myself.
There are some things that my phone does not have that I wish it did:
- GPS
- a touch screen
- a flash for the camera
- the ability to charge the phone using the USB cable (My phone charger died the day after I bought the phone and I had to buy a new one, since I was no longer in the country where I bought it--Thailand.)
Eventually, I intend to install one or more language dictionaries and phrasebooks--hopefully, talking ones.
I would also like to get a bluetooth keyboard so I can type up my journals and blog entries on my phone.
2 comments:
This borders between bragging and Diva!!
Gimme a break. Like I'm really going to brag about a phone. It's purely a functional tool, not a status symbol. Even if it is better than yours. :p
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