I was not a early adapter of these new technologies or gadgets. Unless I see the need and utility of the service, that's the only time I would subscribe to the service. I was pretty practical about the things and services I would pay for.
Below are the chronology of technologies and gadgets that I have subscribed or used in my attempt to be wirelessly connected:
Wireless Paging
Pagers or beepers were a common phenomenon in the late eigthies and nineties in Manila. It was hip then to sport this gadget - maybe hang it on the backpocket of your jeans or as an accessory, much like a fashion statement. Early adapters included professionals, such as doctors and lawyers who were always on call no matter what time of day or where they are; or the noble messengerial staffs who needed to get paged for the ever changing errands they need to attend to and what not.
EasyCall was the leader in the paging business in the Philippines. At one point, its subscriber base reached 250,000 and got the not so good reputation of being on "BusyCall" mode. Pocketbell, also a major player had a good market share. However, I was a subscriber, of Beeper 150, a Pilipino Telephone Company. It had a service variant called Beeper 125 and my pager number was 125-1149860.
My pager looked like this, only it was colored blue and somewhat transparent. I can't recall for sure, but I must have that pager sometime in 1996. I remembered, I last saw that gadget in 2002 when I moved houses; and it was gathering dust in my TV rack. However, I was not too sentimental to keep it for good.
First Cellular Phone
Sometime in 1998, I got myself a cellular phone service from Smart Communications. It was an analog phone which can be used to make and receive calls. It was a good phone for its utility. And I think, it looked something like below.
It was a real brick phone, quite bulky and may I say, lacking sophistication in its design and form. However, it served my purpose and I was satisfied then. Me and my friends would joke about this phone as an implement to shave ice for Halo-halo, a summer sweet treat. When I get to upgrade to a digital cellular phone, my sister Lynn asked to keep this unit for me. I don't know what she did with it or if she had sentimental reasons to keep it for posterity.
My First 2G Phone
My first 2G phone (digital cellular phone) was a Nokia 3210. I got mine sometime in 2000. It looked something like this:
An excerpt from Wikipedia on the brief history of this noble phone:
The Nokia 3210 was a highly popular cellular phone, first launched in 1999. A combination of cutting-edge features such as built-in antennas and T9 (predictive text) ensured the 3210 huge commercial success (approximately 160 million units) especially across Western Europe and North America. The 3210 can also attribute much of its success to an advertising campaign which was aimed predominantly at young people, a first in the mobile phone industry. The inclusion of 3 games, changeable covers, customisable ringtones and competitive prices led to the handset's huge popularity with those aged 15-25.
Notable features
•3 Games came preinstalled: Snake, Memory (pairs-memory game), and Rotation. The addition of such games encouraged high sales within a youth market which was enlarging at a very fast rate. Some versions of the 3210 included "hidden" games, React and Logic. They were activated by special software using data cable.
•The 3210 was one of the first mobile phones to feature an internal antenna. This distinguished the handset from others which featured large, awkward and unsightly antenna. Reception, although poorer than that of its predecessor, the 3110, was still very good.
•'Picture messages' sent via the SMS texting service, were implemented in the handset, allowing users to send preinstalled pictures to one another. These included a 'Happy Birthday' picture amongst others.
•The handset was competitively priced and aimed particularly at teenagers and young professionals. This was at a time when few young people had access to a mobile phone, which was generally identified with older professionals and business people.
•The 3210 was the first to allow users to compose their own ringtone, a substantial benefit as previously customized ringtones could only be sent via SMS and at a charge.
My Experience:
This was indeed one of the hippiest phones at that time. The TV commercial featured a phone user who was cutting off the telephone wires and was removing the prominent phone antenna. It was touted then, as the sexiest phone there is in the market. It was small and light at 150 grams and is the preferred phone unit of the hip and young. I can change its covers with vibrant colors of blue, red, green and what not. The ladies who preferred this model would even attempt to match the colors with their outfits and bags.
Being the predecessor of the Nokia 5110, it was packing a lot of heat. Plus, it was the last of its kind that's really durable, sturdy yet stylish. I remember giving this away to my niece, Cathy, who used this phone for a good number of years more.
My Smallest Phone
The Nokia 8210 model was the smallest and lightest phone I've ever used. At 79 grams, it was such a beauty.
From Wikipedia:
The Nokia 8210 was, at the time of its release in 1999, the smallest, lightest Nokia mobile phone on the market,[citation needed] thus its selling point was based on its design and customization, with removable Xpress-on covers. Six differently coloured Xpress-on covers are available, as well as many third party ones. Unfortunately one of the design faults of the Nokia "82XX" series was that many developed "screen fade" which is a condition where figures on the display would eventually be so dim that it was impossible to read the display.
Popular Culture
• The Nokia 8210 was featured in the movie Charlie's Angels (film). Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu used a white, red, and black colored phone respectively.
• The Nokia 8210 was featured, in use by the characters in the action movie So Close, along with the Nokia 6210 and Nokia 9210i.
• A silver Nokia 8210 is seen briefly in Jackie Chan's Accidental Spy (2001).
• The Nokia 8210 featured in an episode in Series 4 of the popular British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. Edna hears the phone ringing but does not know what it is. The sound of it leads to Patsy's asking "Is it a bee?" On discovering the phone, Patsy instead questions "Is it a small shoe?" on account of the phone's small size, especially for the time (2001); they later realise that it is a phone and answer it.
• The Nokia 8210, red, was also featured in Series Two & Three of At Home with the Braithwaites by the character Virginia Braithwaite played by Sarah Smart.
• The Nokia 8210 was also featured in the movie About a Boy used by the character played by Hugh Grant.
• A red Nokia 8210 is used in the film Cats and Dogs by the mother.
• A Nokia 8210 was featured in Ali G InDaHouse where Ali G gives the phone to a woman (Rhona Mitra) and tells her "set it to vibrate and finish yourself off".
• A Nokia 8210 is used by actor Danny Dyer in the film Football Factory.
• A Nokia 82XX is shown in the 2001 film Domestic Disturbance featuring John Travolta and Vince Vaughn.
My Experiences:
It was a darling because the phone was so small you can carry it around even in your breast pocket. Of all the phone models I’ve used so far, this would win it all in terms of utility. However, when the N8250 model was introduced, I liked it even more, if only for its blue screen.
The Very Close Variant
From Wikipedia:
The Nokia 8250 is a variant of the Nokia 8210 designed for Asian markets sporting a slightly different design and blue backlight.[citation needed] Another GSM version of the Nokia 8210 is the Nokia 8290, designed for the North American market using a single-band GSM-1900.
My Experiences:
I got my N8250 after I traded my N8210 with Allan which he gave away as a gift to some friend of his.
I nearly forgot about this phone model. I just can't recall what happened to it after I used them.
My First Camera Phone
In 2002, our office got us a corporate service with Globe Telecoms. This is the very first time that I switched telecom carriers and had started my long love affair with Globe. I would get my handset free from Globe through its loyalty program in exchange for locking up with their service for the next 24 months.
During the year, techies and gadget whores got the first bite of Nokia 7650. This phone series achieved many first during its launch. It featured a camera, the first smart phone on Symbian platform, the first slide phone and got promoted through the film Minority Report with Tom Cruise headlining the movie. However, it lacked the expansion card slot that its next model of phones sported.
I got myself the unusually designed Nokia 3650. The first and maybe one of the few models that sported a rounded bottom. It looked something like this:
An excerpt from Wikipedia on the write-up and features of this phone:
The Nokia 3650 was the first Symbian Series 60 smartphone to appear in American markets. It was also the first phone with an integrated camera delivered to North America.
One of the common complaints of the 3600/3650 was its unique circular keypad. Many owners wanted a Series 60 device with a conventional keypad.
The Nokia 3600 and 3650 was replaced with the Nokia 3620 (GSM 850/1900) and the Nokia 3660 (GSM 900/1800/1900) respectively, both of which feature a conventional keypad and an improved 16-bit color display.
My Experiences:
Because of the memory card, I can store unlimited pictures in my phone (constrained of course by how many Megabits of memory the card has). Plus it was tri-band, which means, I can roam with it even in North America. You can get used to its circular key pad in no time, but it is indeed quite a challenge to hold and compose the SMS with just one hand.
My sister Lynn fell in love with this Nokia and convinced me to sell this unit to her. Another model from Nokia, the N6600 was getting introduced, and I relented to my sister's request; I got myself a new phone model.
My First Video Phone
Nokia 6600 was launched to include video recording features. It was a blast taking pictures, but recording some video was not bad at all to have. It can run applications to make it a portable entertainment device. The advent of video sex scandals in the Philippines was never more pronounced than during this phone era.
The Nokia 6600 was launched in the second quarter of 2003, costing approximately €600, was Nokia's high-end model of the 6xxx Classic Business Series of mobile phones. At the time of release, it was the most advanced product ever launched by Nokia.[1] It is a smartphone running on the Symbian OS-based Nokia Series 60 platform.
A variant of the Nokia 6600 was launched in the U.S. market as the Nokia 6620.
Features
• Integrated (VGA 640x480) camera
• Video recorder with audio support (records up to 95 KB - from 9 to 27 seconds - with built-in recorder application)
• Streaming video and audio
• Wireless connectivity with Bluetooth and IrDA
• 6 MB internal memory
• Memory card slot for additional user memory and applications
• Java MIDP 2.0 and Symbian(series 60) applications
• Data synchronization with PC via PC Suite and iSync
• Tri-band operation in GSM E900/1800/1900 networks
Additional features:
• ARM compatible (ARM4T architecture)
• Symbian Operating System 7.0s
• CPU running at 104 MHz
• 6MB of built in memory
• MMC card slot
• 176x208 (65,536 colours) TFT display
• 5-way joystick navigation
• HSCSD and GPRS, for internet/WAP access
Although the initial batches of the Nokia 6600 were not stable, later system software upgrades corrected the situation.
The phone has the capacity to support the installation of a wide range of third-party software such as mp3 and multimedia players, games, web browsers, GPS navigation, office suites, and GUI themes, via Java and ePoc (*.sis) installers. GUI themes can be created using the free Nokia Symbian Theme Studio.
The model was released to the general public in two color schemes: black and white and full black. Additional color schemes (blue and white, pink) were produced for promotional purposes.
In the year 2007, Nokia stopped production of the 6600 handsets. In India, this mobile phone dominated the mobile market for a lot of time.
My Experience:
This was a good phone, loaded with features that I loved so much. However, after about a year of use, I traded it for a PDA Phone from Sony Ericsson, the P910. I sold this phone in the venerable Greenhills market thereafter.
My First PDA Phone Combo
In 2004, Sony Ericsson released its second generation of PDA Phone Combo, the P900. I got myself, courtesy of the Globe Telecoms Loyalty Program, the variant P910i. It looked something like this:
Wikipedia has this to say about the P910:
The Sony Ericsson P910 is a smartphone by Sony Ericsson introduced in 2004 and the successor of the Sony Ericsson P900. The P910 has a full QWERTY keyboard on the back of the flip (the flip can also be removed completely, allowing for a 'traditional' PDA form-factor.) The biggest change from the P900 to the P910 is that the P910 now supports Memory Stick Pro Duo and the phone's internal memory has been upped from 16MB to 64MB. Although Memory Stick Pro Duo comes in larger capacities, the maximum supported by the P910 is 1GB owing to performance lags. It is powered by an ARM9 processor clocked at 156MHz and runs the popular Symbian OS with the UIQ graphical user interface. Also, the touchscreen displays 262,144 colours (an 18-bit colour depth) , as opposed to the P900's 65,536 (16-bit). It comes in three versions:
• P910i (GSM 900/1800/1900)
• P910c (GSM 900/1800/1900 for China mainland)
• P910a (GSM 850/1800/1900 for North America and Latin America)
One of the key aspects of the P910 is its ability to input text via several methods; multi-tap and T9 text input using the numerical keypad, hand-writing recognition with the pre-installed Jot-Pro software and touchscreen, virtual keyboard on screen and the new QWERTY keyboard on the inside of the flip.
Other enhancements (compared to the P900) include support for HTML browsing, a new numerical keypad with larger keys and a slightly changed outer casing.
Its closest competitors are the palmOne Treo 650, and the Nokia 9500 Communicator. Other competitors include several PDA-phones powered by Windows and manufactured by Taiwan-based HTC.
Sony Ericsson released the successor to the P910 in early 2006. It is called the Sony Ericsson P990.
My Experiences:
This was indeed a smart, office productivity phone. I can manipulate spreadsheets which I use during the regular international operations meeting I had with my bosses in the US. I need not have my laptop with me anymore during meetings. Working with the stylus was a fast and efficient way of doing things. I can type words away on the screen using its handwriting recognition application. Games and fun applications were never scarce.
It got to the point of what's important to me from a utility perspective from my personal phone. I did not see anymore an urgent need for a PDA smart phone combo. It's too bulky for me. I stopped using altogether and moved back to the Nokia series in my next loyalty program availment.
My First 3G Phone
The Nokia N Series was launched and it was a beauty to me. It did not include the PDA functionality, but has all the mobile entertainment features which I really loved.
My Nokia N80 looked something like this:
From Wikipedia:
The Nokia N80 is a multimedia 3G smartphone made by Nokia with support for high-speed UMTS/WCDMA connections. Features include a 3.0-megapixel camera (interpolated from 2.0-megapixels) with built-in flash (on the back of the device), another camera (on the front) for videoconferencing, Wi-Fi (802.11g), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), FM radio, Bluetooth 1.2, digital music player functionality, MiniSD memory card slot, and support for 3D Java games. Because of its memory card and relatively large screen, it can function as a portable media player.
It uses the third edition of the Series 60 user interface (S60v3) and the Symbian operating system version 9.1. It is not backward compatible with software compiled for earlier versions of the Symbian operating system.
The N80 is Nokia's first UPnP-compatible phone, allowing the transfer of media files to compatible devices over Wi-Fi.
My Experience:
My very first phone that allowed me to make video calls. Back then, video calls were a rarity and were only allowed for users of the same network carriers. I remember trying to make a test video call with OJ Ontiveros, only to find out, he was a subscriber from Smart, another carrier. I had a successful video call with Vee Fajarito, and we had a blast that we can see each other while taking the call. I remember, she was on her car driving for work when we made the test call.
This was also my very first phone that can receive live TV broadcast. I was showing my colleagues TV shows like Wowawee, Eat Bulaga and CNN on my cellphone. When the Glorietta explosion or bombing incident happened, I was getting my up to the minute updates from ABS-CBN and GMA TV on what was happening. You see, when it happened, me and my colleagues could have been dining at Luk Yuen, the center target of the alleged explosion. We got only saved by the grace of God, when we outvoted Mimi from choosing Luk Yuen and took our lunch instead at Market! Market!
The original plan was we should be having lunch at Market! Market! However, we have a new company driver in the office who didn’t know his way around Makati that well. Ver took us the Ayala Avenue route, which was terribly heavy with traffic during the lunch hour rush and Mimi was exasperated with the traffic she wanted to dine at Glorietta instead. It was almost 1pm and everyone was hungry, but nobody budged on going to Luk Yuen for lunch that day. And it did saved our lives. The Glorietta explosion happened at about 1:30pm and Luk Yuen was the hardest hit shop in the Glorietta area.
My Continuing Romance with the N Series
The slick design, the beautiful features and updated functionalities get me hooked on the next generation of the N Series. This time, I got myself the Nokia N95.
It looked something like this:
From Wikipedia:
The Nokia N95 (N95-1, internally known as RM-159) is a smartphone produced by Nokia. The N95's functions include those of a camera phone and portable media player, in addition to offering e-mail, web browsing, local Wi-Fi connectivity and text messaging. It is part of the company's Nseries line of smartphones. The N95 runs on Symbian OS v9.2, with an S60 3rd Edition platform with Feature Pack 1. The phone uses a two-way slider to access either media playback buttons or a numeric keypad. Three newer versions have also been released: the upgraded N95 8GB (N95-2), the N95-3, which adds 3G support for North America, and the N95-4 which is an America-targeted version of the N95-2.
Features Included that I loved so much:
5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera
Integrated GPS with downloadable map navigation service
A music player/video player with TV out
Compatible with NGage video gaming services
My Experience:
The N95 was closer to my heart as I could almost get through its functionalities with my eyes closed considering that this device was very much like my Nokia N80 phone. It’s like the souped-up version, with more muscles and bells and whistles. I get to use this for only about 2 weeks. I liked this phone already, but my heart beats like a drum for my birthday gift, the 16 Gig iPhone black. The iPhone I'm getting is part of my loyalty program availment with Globe Telecoms. How's that for a birthday treat!
I gave away this 2 week old beauty to my wife who was excited to own it for herself. Now, I should dispose of the old N80 pretty soon.
My iPhone
As I say, I was never an early adapter. Hence, despite the iPhone being available in the market, I did not get myself in the craze until after it was offered in the loyalty program. This is the second generation of the iphone, otherwise known as the iPhone 3G.
I love to post a picture of my iPhone:
Wikipedia has this to say about the iPhone:
The iPhone is an internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a flush multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface. The device lacks a physical keyboard, so a virtual keyboard is rendered on the touch screen. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and portable media player (equivalent to the iPod) in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. The first generation phone hardware was quad-band GSM with EDGE; the second generation also adds UMTS with HSDPA.
Apple announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007. The announcement was preceded by rumors and speculation that circulated for several months.[13] The iPhone was initially introduced in the United States on June 29, 2007 and is in the process of being introduced worldwide. It was named Time magazine's Invention of the Year in 2007.[14] On July 11, 2008, the iPhone 3G was released and supported faster 3G data speeds and Assisted GPS.
My experience:
This gadget is truly superb. The multi-touch screen function is pure genius. The internet services including email, web browsing and Wi-Fi connectivity are already great, but I am more entertained by the countless Applications that go with the iPhone. For instance, I have my Bible now, with offline versions to choose from, complete with a suggested daily reading, etc. I have limitless games I can download, like trivia, sports, soduko, etc. I am watching full length movies in my iPhone and have the latest music videos. I don’t need my iPod anymore, this 16 Gig beauty completes my mobile entertainment need.
What I don’t like is composing SMS. The iPhone included a texting suggestion that gets irksome especially if you want to contract a lot of the words in your message. Nonetheless, I still love my iPhone so much.
