I'm not a Technophile
Published: 2020-01-11 12:35:36

---
title: I'm not a Technophile
published: true
description: Got a cellphone recommendation?
tags: 
---

To be clear I'm not using technophile as pejorative and just want to make sure we're on the same page that I literally just mean someone who loves new tech. In 1998 I worked at Office Depot, in the technology center. My co-workers had cellphones...I did not. My coworkers had Bluetooth headsets and other devices...I did not. They had laptops...I did not.

You get the idea.

## The Horse is Dead, Josh

Given some responses to date, I really feel like I need to beat this horse.

Sorry if this seems over the top. It's just that given the reaction so far when I mention the following I really want to set the stage in three ways:

1. Not about money, it's about value.
2. Not being anti-change or anti-technology.
3. I usually know what I'm looking for and am willing to wait for it to show up (again, in the case of cellphones).

Smartphones are getting out of hand for me, [quite literally](https://vimeo.com/8foldvideo/prodctivity-2-1), I'm also not using the capabilities nearly as consistently as I used to.

1. 90% of the cellphones I know of are larger than the iPhone 8, which I find to be the most tolerable of the lineup and given I've entrenched myself with Apple for now.
2. Not a big fan of Android, I had to spend way too much time setting up the device I tried in October.
3. I can't go back to something like the Alias, but I don't need much. Mobile hotspot at a minimum (then I can buy an [iPod Touch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Touch_(7th_generation)), yes, they still make those - and be pretty much set). Potential for a navigation solution would be good. Music. Bluetooth. Wired headset. QWERTY keyboard. Message threading. Decent battery life.

Kinda thinking about the [Nokia 800 Tough](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_800_Tough) (not available in the states) or the [Light Phone 2](https://www.thelightphone.com) to give you an idea.

Now for the ask:

> Got any cellphone recommendations to help me reduce anxiety over this (long story)? (Really want to feel like I looked everywhere.)

## Supporting Words

I don't see new tech that I don't own sitting on a shelf and buy it. I don't know what's planned or subscribe to the newsletters of labs at MIT and Harvard. I bought my first computer in 2002. My first cellphone in 2005 (after building my first tower at that same time). My first laptop in 2010 (same with my first smartphone). My first Bluetooth device that saw regular use in 2017. I believe, in 2019, I finally found a tablet.

"Woh, you're a laggard," some might say.

It gets worse. I actually own my media still. That's right: 4,000 songs, 300 movies, and 400 books (granted they’re all digital). And here's the kicker, I'm subscribed to maybe four services: internet, cellphone, iTunes Match...that might actually be it, unless we count the two or three under 8fold.

"Wait. You're not a laggard, you're a luddite."

I actually look at this way: I'm a pragmatic, utilitarian, minimalist, futurist, which is probably what a luddite would say. Further, there's a big difference between cost, price, and value. 

Cost is about the total price in time and materials to build something. Price is what others will be charged for something. Value is that fuzzy area that most people talk about...or argue over.

"I don't think X is worth Y," is a comment on value, not cost or price.

For desktops (towers), I did not see the value until 2002 because none I was aware of had met my criteria; that [250MB Zip drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_drive) alone was priced at what I paid for that tower. 

For a cellphone I wanted one that could be held like a phone, fit comfortably in my pocket, and had an easy to use QWERTY keyboard instead of T9 for texting; that [Samsung U740 Alias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_U740_Alias) was perfect and cellphone plans had just gone through a major competitive right-pricing as carriers started making more of their money from technophiles purchasing smartphones and data plans.

For laptops, which my Office Depot colleagues used to pressure me to but all the time I had a pretty big list, explaining that, if I was going to spend over $1,000 on a computer (specifically a laptop), it needed to have a metal body, full-sized keyboard, non-carbon trackpad, no eraser joystick thing, glass screen, with at least an active matrix display (higher viewing angle), and it had to pass “the twist test.” (The twist test means I can grab the laptop like a food tray in a cafeteria and twist it without it sounding like I was grinding gears on a manual transmission.) The active matrix bit is funny because as soon as that became a standard companies like 3M made a killing [developing screen protectors](https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/privacy-screen-protectors-us/) that would limit the viewing angle - basically taking us back to what we used to get for free. That second generation [MacBook Pro(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#Second_generation_(Unibody)) was perfect.

For smartphones, I realized I was calling less and less, texting more and more, and didn't need a phone, I needed something that could do a bunch of stuff pretty well and just so happened to make and receive calls. Too bad I didn't like any of the options available at the time. Apple was the closest and I already trusted them, considering they had the operating system I had been  holding out for, we seemed to be in sync, and they had proven themselves with the Mac Mini (which met all the criteria I had for being able to switch to Mac in the first place). Then the [iPhone 4 hit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4) and it was all over. Switched carriers, signed the contract, and was in business.

For Bluetooth devices I have the AirPods 2 - also the first gen but I thought they were the second gen because I don't buy first gen (I rarely by third, in fact). The other day every time I would put the iPhone display to sleep it would disconnect the call I was on. I happened to be at the Apple Store and was told to do a factory reset. I said, "I have to do a factory reset to get them to work the way they're supposed to?" He said, "Yeah. It's technology, sometimes you have to reboot." I asked, "How often? Because I thought we would have had this figured out by now." He said, "It's newer technology and had bugs," with a shrug. I said, "Come on, man. I was selling wireless Bluetooth headsets in 1998. It's gen 4 Bluetooth, but it's taken us a minute to get here." I shrugged and walked away thinking, "Switching back to the wired EarPods is actually not seeming too bad, at least they're dependable."

For tablets, I went through the [iPad 2, Air, and Mini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad) followed up by making another [video on rapid capture and recall](https://vimeo.com/350626695) wherein I lament the fact that despite it being 20 years into the 21st century I still hadn't found a digital replacement for pen and paper. Then I found the [reMarkable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReMarkable), which is proving to be valuable to me. 

I waited until I bought the mini to digitize my music (most of the music was in the form of mix DVDs not what I bought myself). I waited until movies came to iTunes to start really building my collection (had about two dozen DVDs before that). Started really buying books when Apple Books came out.

What I like about this make a list and have the patience to find a thing is that I’m not constantly chasing the next hot thing that walks by. Unfortunately, it also makes it difficult to change when it comes to something you’ve had for a decade and everyone heavily advertised variant is pretty much the same.

So, yeah, cellphone recommendations or just things you’ve heard about?