Phones Are Toys Alright

It’s no secret I have a lot of Nokia phones. Comes with the territory of working for the company and occasionally knowing the right people. As a result of having all these phones, I will sometimes give one of my older phones to someone either as a temporary loaner or on a more permanent basis. Some of the oldest phones that I probably could not give away, aren’t prototypes, and not terribly useful any longer get recycled.

Meanwhile, a couple of the phones have ended up as toys for my kid. I had an old Nokia 6185 that I used to let Jaden use when he was a little younger. Being it’s the only CDMA phone I have, it’s probably useful to have around “just in case.” Jaden lost interest in it, so I returned it to the phone drawer. Meanwhile, Gracie has a couple of different phones: an old Nokia 3650 with a deactivated SIM and BabyToy on it–best 10 Euros I spent–and an old SIMless Nokia 8890 that’s has a funky display. It beeps and buzzes just enough to let my daughter pretend she is calling people. It’s cute to watch.

Meanwhile, I am always playing with my phones. Today, I discovered how to use LifeBlog to post a text-only blog entry. Late last week, I upgraded my Nokia N80 Internet Edition to some newer, not-yet externally available firmware (PR4, if memory serves). On the whole, much happier with the device now, though I did find a rather irritating problem with the camera in Sports mode, which is apparent in this picture. Notice the pink lines throughout the picture?

Of course, I am always looking forward to the next big thing. With all the reports of the Nokia N95 and N800 shipping, I wonder when I am going to see those through Nokia Blogger Relations or through some other channel. Wonderful toys, they are…

Edit: Don’t get me wrong, I am a serious phone user. However, I just flat out have fun with these thing like toys I had when I was a kid.