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1) What the heck are you doing with a cellphone in your back pocket?

2) I gave up the clamshell design after I went through two Motorola StarTAC's in a year (admittedly a few years ago) that had connection issues at the joint between the halves. I now prefer a solid state design, which is why I now have...

3) ...a Nokia 6600 through T-Mobile. Fits fine in a FRONT pocket, is a GSM phone so it's got a chip with your data inside, and it's got Bluetooth so it syncs with my Mac at home. Data is safe!

4) Clamshell design is much easier to break than a non-clamshell design when it's open. I think you're forgetting that. Unfold one, accidentally sit on it or drop it and then get back to me. I've dropped and sat on my 6600 a bunch of times, still rugged as heck.

5) The 6600's camera sucks hard. But it's more than made up for by the neat apps you can get for SymbianOS which drives the phone (such as the Opera web browser).

We're in the same boat. My boss decided to get me and the other folks at my department Nokia 9500s so that we could come to rescue when it's needed, anytime, anywhere (almost). Well I agree that Nokia 9500 is a huge brick. But the boss already ordered the phones. Luckily the nice manager of sales department was in need of a new 9500 too, so I gave mine to him and he ordered a Nokia 9300 for me. What a sweet deal it was! It's basically the same thing as 9500. It runs the same OS minus the WiFi (have no need) and camera (have even less need! Besides the 9500 camera is utter crap anyway) bits. All software is compatible. But it's so much smaller and slimmer! About the size of a regular GSM phone from 4-5 years ago. You can happily carry that in shirt pocket (not a chance with 9500). Due to its compact size, the keyboard is slightly smaller than the one in 9500, but that's not a problem for me at least. The display is also a bit smaller, but the resolution is the same as in 9500. No problems reading mail with mutt etc. in Putty session. Highly recommended device. Especially if you find Nokia 9500 suitable if it only was smaller. Namely this thing is exactly that! Maybe missing WiFi is a show stopper for some people, but if you can handle that, then there's no excuse not to get a Nokia 9300 to handle this kind of job.

FYI: Nokia already offers a one-button cell phone - the Nokia 7280. Actually, it's closer to an iPod's scroll wheel, but still...

* Networks: GSM, UMTS (W-CDMA) 850/900/1800/1900 (GSM/UMTS), 2.4GHz (UMTS)
* UMA on 802.11 and Bluetooth
* 3 Megapixel Kodak-quality camera
* Works as a peer or a hub on 802.11, share your GPRS and 3G connection with your friends
* 11G hard disk
* Supports MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and WAV music
* Standardized headset jacks, none of this Nokia-proprietary nonsense we usually do
* Opens up to show full colour 1024x600 touchscreen and miniture keyboard

Price: $0 with service, $49 unlocked

Quite honestly, I wouldn't touch that kind of thing with a bargepole, I prefer flip phones.

here you go

Now you tell me. ;-)

Surprisingly, there's only one flip phone I've ever wanted to get. It was this Nokia model that was like a "Candy Bar" phone on the outside, but would flip open to reveal a full keyboard and joystick. Plus it had a built in FM radio (although it was really the keyboard that had me interested). Unfortunately, I need a tri-mode phone because of the areas I travel through, so the phone I *really* wanted wasn't an option. :-(

Ah, here it is.

Everytime a cell phone is discussed on slashdot we get cries of everyone going "I wish they'd just have a phone you could call people on! wa wa wa camera wa wa wa ring tones wa wa wa...."
These comments are usually brought up because the poster thinks they are being witty, pointing out something that does not exist, while in fact, they are WRONG.

Almost every carrier offers a base model phone, usually for free, for becoming a new customer. Sometimes these free phones still come with extra features which may upset the "simple phone denizens". Shame on the carriers for trying to give you more for free! They will surely pay for this!

Thats where carriers who allow you to use whatever phone you want with their SIM card come into play. I know Cingular in the US does this and I"m sure countless others do. Then you can buy whatever old phone from 1995 you want that only makes phone calls.

Even still, modern carriers still offer bare bones phones. Sure, they don't put them on the front page of their websites but they exist. I just found this phone in about 3 seconds on nokia.com and Cingular is even offering a plan with it.
http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/1261
This phone came out years ago, this whole "bare bones" phone thing is NOT NEWS. You really think the first cell phones were bloated with features? I remember using a Motorola Startac, and that didn't even have an LCD. So stop your whining and actually look at the products available.

Yes, this works great for the Nokia 3595: http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/3595

I forgot to take my cell phone out of my pocket while I was fly fishing about a year ago. During a cast the phone hopped out of my jacket and went for a swim for about 5 minutes.

When I realised what had happened I retrieved the phone from the water and removed the cover and battery immediately. I put the phone parts on the front seat of my car and went back to fishing.

By the time I was done the phone was dry and ready to reassemble. It worked fine then and has worked ever since.

The 3595 is just a plain vanilla cell phone with no camera, mp3 player, etc. It's the best cell phone I've ever owned.

1. Add Bluetooth to the iPod.
   
2. Make white headphones with a built in mic and answer button.
   
3. iPod becomes a bluetooth headset for your phone in the other pocket.
   

Yeah, it sounds a bit ridiculous, but think about it. People don't like carrying around multiple devices with them, and out of all the portable devices out there, the only one that has emerged as a necessity is the cellphone. These days, most cellphones you can buy have most of the features of the PDAs of yore. Listening to music is a fairly small feature to add to a device.

If you look at Nokia's cell phones, about half of them have cameras. A few years ago, a camera phone would've been pretty rare. I think that's where things are heading with hard drive cell phones, and once you have a hard drive, playing music off of it is pretty simple. Sure, the iPod is fairly entrenched as of right now, but when people's iPods break, they'll already have a device that can play music, making another iPod purchase much less lucrative. As more iPods break than get replaced, these Windows Mobile phones will be waiting to take the MP3 player market away.

I'm sure it does play video. My current Nokia phone, a model 6600, plays back AVI files that I run through Apple Quicktime Pro on my Mac. Before I take a road trip with my daughter, I load up my phone with some anime videos discovered through Animesuki.

The nice thing is that this is an industry standard file format, 3GPP, supported by multiple vendors, operating systems, and software packages.

WMV, on the other hand, is not.

PDAs are dying.

PDAs would have been dead a long time ago if the industry wasn't so greedy. For example, as you have illustrated, even the most basic of cell phones have had adequate PDA capabilities for years now. My Nokia 3588i certainly does. But I don't use it because Nokia wants to rape me to the tune of $50 for a data cable. Then I have to get proprietary software. So I don't use this functionality and never will.

If some bright spark in the industry realized that they could win most of the market over by simply offering a "non evil" policy on parts, accessories and service. For example, if someone adopted the USB standard for charging and data transfer, I wouldn't ever have to buy this shit over every time I bought a cell phone. I realize that the ultra high-end has already adopted this but there should be a friggin' law that requires all phones to adopt this policy.

But our government is run by big business so this will likely never happen.

But it's not free. You can't even redistribute it. See http://www.nokiausa.com/support/warranty/item_deta ils/1,1955,item:gatesoft,00.html

So get a Nokia 6010, T-Mobile's bottom of the line, and quit your bitching.

There are plenty of cheap, boring phones that work primarily as phones. They don't get much attention from the tech press because they don't have any useless whizbang features.

I bought a Motorola v180 for $80 cash -- you can get it for free or less (really!) with a contract. It's a phone. It's small, lightweight, durable to the point where you don't panic if you drop it, and it has a readable color screen.

It even has a USB port if you want to hack it. It does not, however, have a substantial PDA (basic phone book and datebook), have a camera, play MP3s (as far as I could tell), or do any other fancy stuff.

Nobody's forcing you to buy a camera phone. And if the v180 is too ritzy for you, T-Mobile offers a Nokia 6010 for even less money.

You can get a phone with no features if you really want. Quit this "I just want a phone that makes phone calls" bitching.

But what if it IS called a Communicator

Well, then take a look at this. This is the US version of the rapid charger sold with some nokia's here in Europe. You can see, there is no phone that originally came with a NI-MH battery listed in the compatibility list. The 5110 had a NI-MH battery.

The totally universal slowcharger is to be found here . Now, I know there's no 5110 listed here, but I think that's because the 5110 wasn't sold in the US. Since the links are for the US-only online store, the phone wouldn't be listed.

Well, then take a look at this. This is the US version of the rapid charger sold with some nokia's here in Europe. You can see, there is no phone that originally came with a NI-MH battery listed in the compatibility list. The 5110 had a NI-MH battery.

The totally universal slowcharger is to be found here . Now, I know there's no 5110 listed here, but I think that's because the 5110 wasn't sold in the US. Since the links are for the US-only online store, the phone wouldn't be listed.

Nokia 1100. Nokia 3120 (if you want color).

I'll keep my though. A SmartPhone seems kind of useless until you get one and then you realize all the stuff you can do with it (e.g. GPRS modem anywhere I have cell service, remote control for XMMS using bemused+bluetooth, wasting lots of time, ...). It works great as a PDA too.

To each his own I guess.

Nokia 1100. Nokia 3120 (if you want color).

I'll keep my though. A SmartPhone seems kind of useless until you get one and then you realize all the stuff you can do with it (e.g. GPRS modem anywhere I have cell service, remote control for XMMS using bemused+bluetooth, wasting lots of time, ...). It works great as a PDA too.

To each his own I guess.

Nokia 1100. Nokia 3120 (if you want color).

I'll keep my though. A SmartPhone seems kind of useless until you get one and then you realize all the stuff you can do with it (e.g. GPRS modem anywhere I have cell service, remote control for XMMS using bemused+bluetooth, wasting lots of time, ...). It works great as a PDA too.

To each his own I guess.

The big question that needs to be asked is why???

I used to own a Palm III and still own a IIIxe...the my xe hasn't even been used in over 2 years.

Now, don't get me wrong. There are some kewl things that can be done with a palm (or more specifically a Zaurus), but I (like most) have a cell phone that does almost everything I could want in a PDA.

The applications are done in Java (ok, maybe it's a cut down version, but at least it's a fairly open standard)...

There are all kind of games available for it, a good selection of applications, voice recorder, scheduler, memos, todo list, email, pager, cell phone, browser, etc....and all in a package smaller than a Palm.

And it's not even a new phone!!!

I know some phones run PalmOS, but those are generally over $400 and generally don't perform either job particularly well (too big for a phone, to awkward for a PDA)...

Bluetooth makes syncing with the scheduler, todo list, and memo much easier.

It's really hard for me to see a future where stand alone PDAs serve much more than a niche market...

• Dual color LCDs
• Bluetooth, infrared & USB
• Plays MP3s and AACs
• Built-in FM stereo radio
• Digital Camera (640x480 with flash and zoom)
• MMC slot
• Voice Recognition
• Speakerphone
• Phone book, calendar and to-do list
• Alarm clock
• Tri-mode (800/1900 MHz CDMA, 800 MHz AMPS)

While I agree that watching video on the tiny screen of your mobile phone is pointless, think of the future when a mobile phone could have a projector built in. Now that could be interesting

I'm just glad that companies in the US are actually pushing mobile devices for more capabilities. Remember that not everything is going to appeal to every user. Those that want a phone that is just a phone will always be able to buy one.

Try this...

Nokia 6310i

T-mobile offers the Nokia 6010, a GSM phone that supports both 850 and 1900 MHz bands.

This one fits in my jeans pocket, cost me next to nothing, and gets a decent signal everywhere except in the bowels of office buildings. I've used it for almost three years, so it may be discontinued.

The Nokia 6800 is pretty damn awesome; I have one myself. You know they do make a camera attachment that acts as a headset? Don't have it but would like one. Description
You can buy it for about 35 USD here

when some company comes out with the cell phone that doubles as an mp3 player (downloads songs as easily as ringtones), bye-bye iPod.

I wouldn't say it's quite as easy as having an iPod, but Nokia has multiple mp3 playing phone models. And the original N-Gage plays games too.

was it too much to ask that this was included?

http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/6820

I'm assuming you're from the USA. If so, here's a Nokia 1100. Simple, cheap, small. All good.

On a seedy Phoenix area bus, in 110 degree weather, on the 80386-powered 13-oz Nokia 9000i Communicator, over a 9600 bps connection provided by VoiceStream now T-Mobile Wireless in the summer of 2000. This I think was just about the cutting edge of accessing the mobile internet from a converged device in the US.

In 2001, I was reading slashdot on a Mitsubishi T250 wireless phone through evil ATT, on a marginally improved 14.4 k CDPD connection.

I didn't know anybody else doing what I was doing at the time, so I guess I'm cool like you all.

I love Nokia phones, never had a problem with one of them, my old phone (8260) still works, and I was hard on it.

Cell phone user cares about two things: One, the phone looks good to them, and right now this means flip phones.

My last phone My current phone
If you ask me these phones look good.

I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't buy a nokia this time but they just didn't have what I was looking for. I hope that when I buy next phone (1.5 years left on contract) I can get a Nokia. I'm not sure what has gotten into Nokia lately but there phones are going the wrong direction in terms of size. Smaller is better. Buttons in a semi-circle is stupid. Put a compact flash mp3 player in a tiny phone phone and you will own the market.

here :)

connect through the data cable

Hope that helps!

The problem is that people say "ooooohhh! Look at the shiny flip phone with the COLOR screen. COLOR!!!!" Too bad that battery won't last you more than half an hour and the antenna can't get a good signal.

I've logged more than 125 hours of talk time (I'm probably getting brain cancer, but it's more likely to come from my CRT anyways) with nary a dropped call.

I guess good for me, but I guess I'm proof that cell phones can work reliably.

• I'd like to sit and do my main development / nerding / hardcode gaming at my desktop
• I'd like to sit on my couch and do surfing and lighter gaming / coding / nerding from my laptop. Also a good place to watch movies, since I can plunk the laptop on my belly and lie in bed
• I'd like to be able to check email, have an up-to-date calendar and contact list, and browse them web only if I need to from the phone.

I have a Nokia 9290 Communicator, and I'm drooling over the up-and coming 9500, with a metric shitload of connectivity and usabiliity. I like the screen on it. I like the keyboard. Because of that, I don't mind the size (I keep a smaller, spare GSM phone for when I need it).

If I'm on the move, the small, mobile phone device provides me with the connectivity that I need at the footprint that i need at the time. Since I cannot lug my desktop machine with me everywhere, so times the phone (as a convergence tool) will be easier to use

I recall this quite from the startop of Crosstalk: "Easy to use" is easy to say

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

Damn right. The 8xxx series were the last decent phones Nokia made. I gave up and switched to a Sony Ericsson t68i, because I needed triple band and the Nokia 8890 was way too expensive.

I don't know what Nokia's industrial designers have been smoking recently. Stupid circular keypads, stupid slanting keypads, eight symbols on every button, an even dumber circular keypad, keys designed so you can't tell where to push, and what the hell is that? I don't want to make a statement, I want to make phone calls.

To make things worse, even today they still only have one small normal phone with Bluetooth, according to their web site. It's a camera phone, but at least it doesn't have swiveling keyboards, circular keyboards, or a big 80s style shape like all their other Bluetooth phones.

No wonder they're seeing a huge drop in sales. It just staggers me that the CEO can't see what the problem is.

I want Nokia to go back to a design like this
nokia 8290.
It is a no frills phone. Doesn't have a camera, doesnt have a gamepad.
It's small and I love it.

-Grump

I can sympathize. I own a Nokia 3300, Nokia 3595, and Motorola V400. After a signifant trial period with each, I now use the 3595, which though it has less features, is the best performing, most durable, and easiest to operate.

However, I do want a Nokia 6820 if they are ever available for Cingular GSM service.

I can sympathize. I own a Nokia 3300, Nokia 3595, and Motorola V400. After a signifant trial period with each, I now use the 3595, which though it has less features, is the best performing, most durable, and easiest to operate.

However, I do want a Nokia 6820 if they are ever available for Cingular GSM service.