More fun with your new cellphone

[randy_byers]

Well, I'm certainly off to a rocky relationship with my cellphone. Perhaps this is a sign that I'm not intended to keep it!

So what's happening now is that, well, it's dead. Which is to say that when I flip it open, the screen stays dead, there is no happy little sound, none of the buttons work, and it otherwise appears to be pining for the fjords. I thought it was a dead battery, but I recharged overnight and it's still dead. (The battery recharging light did go from red to green, indicating that the battery is still functioning.) Any thoughts from the masses before I go back to the store and make an idiot of myself? It's a cheapo model that I got with my GO account from AT&T.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Kick me if this is obvious: normally you have to hold the power button down for a few seconds before the phone will actually power up....

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it, for I was going to suggest the same thing.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Nice icon, BTW, although I was a bit startled to see it pop up in old posts yesterday!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Well, I do have a Minneapolis in '73 Time Travel Committee button....

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Hm, maybe you could be the next Doctor Who!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You've allowed me to make an idiot of myself in front of all my friends rather than in front of a complete stranger. The sad thing is, I had to ask a co-worker just now which button he thought was the power button.

*sigh*

So I guess the thing powers off automatically if it's inactive for long enough? Because I don't remember doing that. (Although it's quite possible I forgot doing it.)

[daveon.livejournal.com]

If the battery runs down then it'll power off and you'll have to restart it by pressing the button. You'll also need to learn to do this if you take it on a plane... say, later today :)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to take it with me. If I can't even figure out the power button, I don't think I can figure out how to make it work in a foreign country.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Best wishes for a great vacation. I look forward to reading all about it when you return.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Actually that part should *just* work :) Assuming you tell your network to let you roam. It's expensive tho'.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

The only reason I could think to have it with me would be to stay in contact with Sharee, but it looks like I'll be doing that via e-mail, which should be cheaper (although still not exactly cheap, since the resort charges $7 for a half hour on the internet).

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I hope you have a great time. Yeah! Cell phones are stupid anyway. I think they're a false convenience.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

But that's how I feel about phones in general! And it did come in handy a couple of times during the convention, believe it or don't.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

False convenience :)

Like VCRs and DVRs were before I got them too.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I have a cell phone and think it's a false convenience. But I'm also stuck with it now.

I also own a car and think cars are false conveniences.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

The learning curve is steeper than I thought it would be. There are lots of menus I haven't even looked at yet, and maybe never will. I did learn how to send a text, which is perhaps the key feature for a writing-oriented person like myself. When I had a borrowed cellphone at the 2005 Worldcon, I used it almost exclusively to send and receive texts.

[crowleycrow.livejournal.com]

Static charge on the chip. My daughter's Mac stopped turning on for that reason. De-Gauss the chip (I think, thiugh that might erase the phone memory). Ask your provider.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I wish it had been something that complicated. De-Gaussing sounds impressive and highly technical. Instead, I just had to hit the power button. Ahem. Hey, it's my first cellphone, okay? (I actually had to ask my co-worker which button was the power button.)