Mobile phone designers - go outdoors and get a suntan

icelava — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:10:42 GMT

Following the demise of my very first Microsoft mobile phone, and three days of compassionate leave, I decided it was time to wipe the tears and continue to live on. It's time to forget the days of old and look ahead to the future of new toys.

The problem is, the phone ruptured at approximately 1 year 3 months after purchase (there was a one-month period inbetween when i sent it in for servicing as well), and there're still around two months before my mobile plan is up for renewal, which gets me a S$400 discount for the current Dopod model. I needed a lifeline in the mean time, or I could just remain uncontactable during this stretch.

And here is a wonderful example of a luxury technology turned critical for life/work productivity. Can you imagine reverting back to twenty years ago and just relying on land line phones? In fact, during that weekend I was without a mobile phone, it dawned onto me just how few public phones are left in this nation.

Working in an MNC with frequently travelling colleagues across the region has its perks. I have a Thai colleague who is making a side line making available to us the nifty and nimble I-Mobile 310 (watch video), so I thought it would serve as a good stand-in until I got a "real" phone. I was fortunate enough to have a colleague give up his unit for my sake so I don't have to wait another fornight before our Thai "dealer" returns to mainland for more goods. Probably means the company intends to call me during the weekend....

Sleek and shiny, everybody is talking about the phone (since just about every alternate person in the company has ordered one) and I have not heard anybody talk bad about it. Well yesterday I discovered, by sheer chance, possibly the biggest flaw of the phone; the entire casing turns into a capsule mirror the moment I walk outdoors. That's right the plastic surface is built with reflective material, including the area around the LCD panel. The amount of light the sun provides outside overwhelms the puny power output of the LCD. Probably needs a halogen lamp to make it visible in broad daylight.

So the usefulness of the phone outdoors extends to teeth checking, and with good potential as a morse code mirror to signal overflying rescue aircraft should I ever get stranded on a lost island. All these without being able to see the phone interface, until I drop the book I carry on my other hand so I can cover it up as though there are students around me copying my model exam answers.

Guess the I-Mobile designers figured funky people who listen to MP3 on-the-go do not venture into the sunlight.

Electronic Hardware

Mobile phone designers - go outdoors and get a suntan