Phone debugging

[dmaze]

I've known, especially on this phone, that an occupational hazard of my pocket configuration is that my keys can make the phone "open" enough to register, and then random rattling around can push buttons. Tonight's discovery is that pushing "speaker" twice will redial the last number called. Great. And there's no way to turn it off, since I never ever want to use the speakerphone function on my cell phone. Even better. My apologies to the various people who have gotten random calls because of this (tonight, 76trombones).

Next time I really am going to pay money for a nicer phone. "Next time" seems to be come next February. "Nicer" might include "works outside the US". It probably includes some sort of PDA functionality. But it'd be really nice if it didn't include things I don't want, will never use, and will arbitrarily hurt me later on.

Comments

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

This sort of "feature" is a common problem with phones. I highly recommend removing any unwanted external buttons (needle-nosed pliers for ones that protrude, a dremel otherwise) and filling the resulting cavities with silicone sealant or epoxy.

If you often have problems with pocket cruft opening flip-phones, you should look at flip-phones where the body has a lip that covers the opening. The Nokia 6131 springs to mind.

[fyfer.livejournal.com]

Does it have a lock button (or series of keypresses)? My old phone was trivial to lock and unlock. My new one is annoying to lock, but it stays shut quite well.

[jered]

I recommend physically removing the button.

Or get an iPhone. :-)

[dmaze]

iPhone hasn't been written off my list...but I'm still indentured to Sprint for the next six months. This is actually useful, in that hopefully some of the initial bugs will be ironed out by then, and if there are problems that it doesn't hold up to regular abuse those will hopefully have come out by then.

[dmaze]

I can lock it...but doing so involves going three levels deep in the menu and entering the four-digit code. When it's locked I can receive incoming calls, it looks like, but I can't do things like access the address book without unlocking it. Which is fine. But once unlocked I have to go through the whole process again to relock it, which is a little too cumbersome.

[fyfer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my new phone is exactly like that. It's annoying.