In case you haven’t noticed, I have have a new cell phone. Give me a call if you have my phone number. Actually, if you can find the number, then I’d even more love for you to call. If only to congratulate your mad skillz.

Back in December I read online Amazon had fantastic deals on cell phones with purchase of a plan. So I looked. It occurred to me I ought to be at the end of my 2 year agreement. I checked and sure enough I was. However, did I really want a new phone? What features did I want? Maybe I should switch carriers? The iPhone announcement surely didn’t help.

There wasn’t a straw. There wasn’t a deal. It just dawned on me that if I didn’t take the plunge right at that moment, then I probably would still be using the same old phone until I broke it. Maybe I’d even be that guy carrying a phone from 1985. in 15 years (assuming I didn’t break it). I did realize one of my apprehensions was visiting a store. So I looked online a couple times, dithered, and finally, I went with the Samsung SYNC.

New phone, new manufacturer, new menus, new features, new cables, new problems.

Problem 1: I made the move. AT&T’s web site didn’t say what would come in the box. Probably I could have found this out with some research. At the worst, I could have gone to the store. The whole point was to avoid the store. So, I ended up ordering accessories about an hour after getting the phone out of the box. Two of the three arrive today.

Problem 2: Profile timers are “teh win”. I am lazy. A feature I enjoyed of the candybar was the profiles could be set to expire at a specific time. So every morning I could set it to silent and expire after the end of the work day or after a movie.

Problem 3: Put MicroSD card in slot, try to format card, see “Error”. No, really. Just “Error”. What does THAT mean? I thought maybe the capacity of the card was more than the phone could accept. So, I looked on the web. Eventually, I did find that my card is of the right size and made by the right company, so it should work. Then I read that one of the cons of the phone is the springs have difficulty ejecting the card. Maybe they also had trouble in seating it? So I tried reseating it a couple times, eventually choosing to use a point object to push it more than in the slot. Bingo!

All that said, I am more than happy with my new phone.

Awesomeness 1: It feels right in my hand. The buttons are not made for 10 year old kids.

Awesomeness 2: The convenience of a camera in my phone.

Awesomeness 3: The brick contributed to the potentially illegal sagging pants.