A cell phone's blood on my hands

Bicycle commuting has changed everything. I especially like how I have been dropping pants sizes, although this means revamping my wardrobe. I'm taking this opportunity to learn about the exciting changes in pants technology. Indeed, I have been missing out. I bought a pair of pants with a special cell-phone pocket in them -- an awsome innovation, worthy of a spot in a trouser hall o' fame.

The addition of this feature should come with a warning label: "ACHTUNG! modify your laundry protocol so that you check this pocket!" Most expensive pants ever when you factor in the cost of replacing your Motorola v710. And the lost pictures and phone numbers.

The silver lining to this story is that I was never happy with the v710. It was so frustratingly close to being the right phone: it had Bluetooth, but the OBEX protocol was disabled. OBEX is the protocol that makes it possible to download pictures from your phone to your computer (as opposed to mailing them to yourself) and upload ringtones from your computer to your phone (as opposed to buying ringtones). Note how disabling this protocol forces consumers to buy things from your carrier. Funny coincidence, that.

My replacement is an e815, which fortunately had the OBEX service enabled right out of the box! (Others have had to hack their e815's to turn it on.) Thank you, Alltel. You don't suck as much as I thought you did.

So last night I transfered my first free pictures to my Mac, and uploaded some nice, subtle ring tones. I felt so free. Next step: make some of my own ring tones with Garage Band in my copious free time.