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Thursday, September 21, 2017

Close call

          
We’re connected at the hip to our smart phones. Or there over the heart. Or back pocket, though I cannot imagine how that one works. Or just in the hand, and able to remember to pick it up whenever we move.

I’m on my second Motorola android. The phone store folks call them Droids. I had the first one at least five years, and gave it up only because the battery died. Unlike my previous flip phone, there is no replacing the battery of a smart phone. 

The phone world was juggling at the time between several operating systems. Blackberry was popular. My daughter, Beth and my friend Ann would never part with their Blackberries. I think Beth even had hers repaired, just to have that pull out keyboard.

I knew people who had I-Phones at the time, but they were so expensive! I picked a Motorola because it’s an American name that used to be in Chicago, Illinois. That was my rationale. That phone outlasted the Blackberries. “You still using this!” said the salesman, when it went down fighting, its battery deader than dead.

That was three years ago, just about the time Verizon removed the option of owning a phone. No, it had to be purchased on time, over the life of a contract. I circled the store and eventually selected a Samsung, based on cost. It was the cheapest.

How I hated that stupid little phone. Nothing about electronics is intuitive, in my opinion, and Samsung did not follow the protocol I’d memorized for my Motorola. I gave the Samsung to Emily and got the Motorola. End of phone drama, until Laura’s birthday, last year.

Laura had a flip phone to then, and I told her we had a long list of errands for the day and bring her phone, in the event I lost her somewhere. The penny never dropped until I told the sales person  that Laura was there to  get a new phone. The only caveat, a Motorola. It is one of my best surprises. I probably can’t beat it this year.

While she wandered, looking for a smart phone, I was literally drawn by the center store display of Moto Mods. All these catch words were new to me, but I understood one item simply by looking. The pistol grip of a camera. This Moto Mod was a Hasselblad. I thought about an old boss of mine who was also a photography nut, lending me his Nikon camera. It was so expensive, I ended my SLR photography days with my tried and true Minolta.

The Hasselblad was on sale for a hundred dollars. Of course, it involved the phone upgrade to the Motorola that could be Modified for other purposes. It was so tempting; it was like walking through treacle to get out of the store with only a new phone for an excited young lady.

For two weeks now I’ve been looking at an email: “You’re close to an upgrade!” I merely have to pay off the phone I have (which will be accomplished in next month’s billing) and the new Moto Mods are mine for the picking.



Damn, that new Hasselblad is beautiful! The email is still there. I’ve thought about it and researched it. So tempting. Lucky for me, no eyepiece viewfinder conversion. And Hasselblad doesn't appear to make the camera in red. I’ve dodged the bullet. But, what a beautiful piece of equipment.


30 comments:

  1. I haven't taken to the iPhone or any electronic phone at all. I envy your enthusiasm and interest in them!

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  2. Hari OM
    ooooohhhhhhhhhh.... nice to have a dream... and dreams can come true. Oh yes they can... YAM xx

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  3. Still using an old flip phone here....but heavily tempted to take the plunge into smart phne waters.

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  4. Oh phones, no. Hooks up with my computer, the new truck and it's all in the clouds somewhere. I just really don't like it all. New iPhones have much better cameras supposedly. Always something.

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    1. My computer nerd told me Google owns us; get over it. I did.

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    2. pS, Donna. It's not really in the clouds. It's in bank after bank after bank of computers, owned and leased by Amazon.

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    3. and accessible by how many unknown smart hackers?

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    4. I wonder where Equifax stores data.

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  5. Motorola - I interviewed there decades ago. It is definitely not the company of years ago. Broken up and rearranged. They did have a very popular flip phone once.
    I do like the Android system (Motorola uses it) better than the Apple system. All these smartphone are too expensive.

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    Replies
    1. I remember, Motorola was our dad's electronics. We'd go shopping with him at the surplus store and he'd look in every bin and move on; we'd look in the bin and move on behind him. Google got a helluva deal.

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  6. It is pretty. My first cell phone was a droid, can't remember exactly what kind. Since then it's been iPhones. I don't use my cell phone at home, the reception is terrible, if you drive around my neighborhood you'll usually see someone outside using their phone. There's just too many tall trees here.
    Once I beat my new phone into submission it's been behaving itself. But isn't it obscene what they charge for phones.

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  7. Those fancy smartphones are very tempting. I buy a new one outright every few years just to avoid multi-year contracts. They are expensive here no matter which way you slice it. There was just an article in yesterday's news saying how Canada has the highest cell phone usage across the board as compared to all countries. It sucks.

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  8. The smart phones (and I was given one) are MUCH smarter than I am. Mine spends most of its days neglected.

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  9. I have no idea how we survived with phones attached to a cord.

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  10. I bought the cheapest smart phone I could find with the features I wanted. I paid less than $150 for it. Then I chose the company to go with it. I have to be careful here because we live where not every carrier has good service or service at all. I hope you get the one you want.

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  11. It's iPhone and AT&T for me, all the way. I've had my third iPhone for quite a few years now and really should get a new one, but this one just keeps doing what I want it to do. I use my iPhone like a computer. It works especially well when I travel. Most of my blog posts are written on my iPhone because that's where the pictures are located.

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  12. I've had the same droid for years. It can't do any new, fancy stuff because it's too old, but it works. We are friends. No iPhone for me. I got the phone I have free when I traded in my even older phone several years ago.

    Love,
    Janie

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  13. Back many decades I was a camera buff, and after seeing 'Blow Up' and Veruska, decided I was going to be a pro shooter. I had two large format cameras, a Mamiya C33, A Hasselblad, and three 35mm....Nikon Photomic, Nikkormat and a Leica M3 (best camera I ever owned). Then I found out the world was chockablock with great amateur photogs....

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  15. All the new phones with add-ons and apps for everything you could think of, confuse me a bit. I don't want or need all those apps, but they download themselves anyway, they're part of the package. All I need is to be able to make and receive text messages and phone calls, so when my cheap android fails I hope I can replace it with something similar. I don't think I'd feel comfortable in the world of i-phones.

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  16. I have an old iPhone, but I am so sick of Apple bullying you into sharing every bit of personal information with them - including your precise location at any given time - that I am considering hanging onto my iMac for homework and binning the iPhone for an Android. They just do what they are told, but unfortunately you have to speak Microsoft to them.

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    1. I won't turn on the GPS, but they know the general location anyway. I don't know how and need to look into that. Or, is it another pint of water over Niagara Falls?

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  17. We gave up our smart phone paid for in advance and paid monthly for a month's service and now only have a flip phone which we only use for emergencies and we load $100 on it at the end of the year and carry over minutes from the previous year, so we now have $150 on it. But with all the natural disasters lately I was thinking we might be lost without one in a disaster situation when our landline didn't work and we have no radio and TV for news, may have to spring for one, one of these days.Is that a corkscrew willow by the pond? Love those.

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  18. We pay through the nose for anything related to cell phone use here in Canada. I watch American commercials and see the prices quoted and cry a little. I now have an iPhone and quite like it, but used to have a motorolla. I'm not really one of those people who is attached to her phone. It stays in my bag during the work day and I only check it when I'm done. -Jenn

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  19. I kept my purple motorola flip phone long after my husband and even my older sister got an iPhone. he finally bought us both new iPhones. I don't think I've had it even a year yet. it is nice to have a smart phone which I usually just refer to as my 'device' since I use it as a camera far more than a phone. personally, I think you should get the Hasselblad. make the red bus pay for it.

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  20. I would have loved to have understood any of that . Really not too sure that I'll ever get an IPhone ... perhaps if I win the lottery .

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  21. Oh Joanne - temptation is always with us - doesnt get any less with age does it?

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  22. "it was like walking through treacle to get out of the store with only a new phone for an excited young lady."

    Just about the time I have figured out how to use my android, its battery dies permanently and have to get a new phone.

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  23. I can only imagine how happy that g-daughter was. We have iPhones here. And it is never far from her hand!

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