Mobile phone wish list

Saturday, March 20th, 2004

Now that I know for certain that we’ll be moving, I’ve got what’s probably a far-fetched fantasy about Earthlink letting me transfer to one of our offices up in the bay area. But if I can’t, which is likely, I’ll be needing to buy a new mobile phone when I leave this job. I’ve been doing a little research on them and have come up with a list of features I want and don’t want, but have yet to find a phone that meets those requirements. But hey, knowing what I’m looking for is half the battle, right?

Features I want in a phone

  • A decent user interface
  • SMS
  • Bluetooth
  • A ringer that sounds like a ringer, not a MIDI version of Für Elise or something
  • An address book that can be synced to Apple Address Book
  • The ability to make a dialup internet connection from my laptop through the phone, so I don’t have to look for a local POP number if I’m out of town (this is possible, isn’t it?)
  • Bonus points if I can get GPS coordinates out of it, but I don’t know if any phones do this yet.

Features I do not want

  • A camera (I have a regular digital camera for that)
  • An MP3 player (I have an iPod for that)
  • A gajillion ring tones
  • To be tied to a specific carrier/service

I’m willing to pay a little more for a nice phone as long as I can get reasonably-priced monthly service. There are so many different types of phones out there that I hardly know where to begin looking. Should I be looking at GSM/PCS phones? That’s what I’ll need to be able to change carriers, isn’t it? Something with a replaceable SIM card? I don’t really know how that works exactly, I’m painfully out of touch with current mobile phone technology.

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