The moment I bought the smartphone, with it’s touch screen and plethora of apps available, I thought it was love at first sight. Then, over the course of a two-year locked-in cell phone contract, the love affair began to wane. New, faster, better models came out within two weeks, some cheaper than mine. I discovered what the phone could not do and many apps I needed were not compatible. As a hearing-impaired individual, many of the features were useless: talking to the phone’s “AI”, for example. Useless. The newer version of TTD/TTY, TDD were not compatible, so that was out. Many friends and family refused to text me, so the phone was an expensive paperweight. No matter, I could still use the apps from the app store. Surprise! They had features I could not use or were impractical.
Still, I spent a large chunk of change on the stupid thing, so I kept trying new apps, different features and just came to the conclusion that I really missed the keyboard, an actual, physical keyboard from my older phone, an aged, sporadic Nokia 9500. I didn’t need an app for everything: all I needed was a keyboard for texting my husband and a few friends that would text me, a calendar for appointments, a calculator and a few other odds and ends. I’ve found a much cheaper phone that has an actual keyboard–I’m neither that popular or busy with my books or a job or travelling to warrant a fancy smartphone with 1,001 features.
Brick ONeil 