You know what I really don’t need ? Another mobile phone. But today I fell in love and, within an hour, I had bought the object of my desire. A Motorola F3. No bluetooth, no camera, no wi-fi, no Java, no hi-res colour display and no data. It’s the antithesis of my M600 but as soon as I saw it I feel in love. Mainly because it costs less than 15 quid brand-new, with no contract. But also because it looks nice, feels nice, uses next to no power, is beautiful and well-made. William Morris would have been chuffed. In a way, it’s very UNIXy: it does one job, but it does it really well.
These were designed for use in the third world and don’t use LCD. Instead they use “e-ink” that only needs power when you want to alter the display. Consequently, taking the battery out leaves whatever was on the screen intact and looking like it was written with quink on parchment.
A guy I work with introduced them to me; he bought three of them in different colours. Now I want to collect the set.
Yes I know, and I do plan to get a life one of these days.
