Day 1 without my iPhone

So the microphone has started giving trouble on my iPhone 4. It started about a month ago, but just like going to the doctor, I've been putting off the inevitable.......a trip back to Apple for my iPhone.

Apparently it's a known issue with the iPhone 4, and it manifests itself as intermittent microphone break-down. About once or twice a week it would stop working so that people on the other end of a call couldn't hear me. When I tried it on speakerphone, they still couldn't hear me. In fact, the only way to make a call when the problem occurred was to use the Apple headset with built-in mic. Not a very handy solution.

Anyhow, Apple took my iPhone away this morning, for about a week or so (I'm told.....let's hope it's no longer).

So that means I have to use an old phone that I had lying around the house. I had a choice of 2 handsets:

Nokia 6120  

or

Samsung Tocco 

Both are handsets I used in the past for a year or so. I tried the Nokia first, thinking the novelty of a small phone would be fun. It wasn't. The sim card lasted about 20 minutes in it: I found the screen was way too small and the navigation with the buttons far too slow for my liking.

I should say, this series of posts won't be about knocking either of these phones. They were both pretty much state of the art when they came out first. The times have changed, though.

So I tried the sim in the Tocco next, and it's been in there all day now. It's still a bit of a pain using the native Samsung browser, and the screen is nowhere near as responsive as the iPhone. More importantly, it's the lack of apps that is the main problem. I will stick with the Tocco until I get the iPhone back, because at least it doesn't have fiddly buttons and the screen is a reasonable size.

Over the next few days I'll report on how I'm getting on. I already sorely miss the iPhone, and I reckon my time away from it will really highlight the things I like and miss about it most: the apps.

So watch out here for some renewed enthusiasm for the apps I used to use every day!

Number 1 app that I miss: e-mail. This CAN be set up on the Tocco, but nowhere near as easily as on the iPhone, and with no unified inbox. So, after spending 20 minutes trying to set up an email account on the Tocco, I gave up. So it means I won't be able to check my mails as often as before. Good or bad thing? Time will tell. Right now, it has frustrated me that I couldn't check mails whenever I wanted (waiting for the coffee machine to finish filling the cup, waiting in the queue at the phone shop, and in that rush-hour traffic jam).

Photos from blog.mobiles.co.uk  mobile.engadget.com iphoneangels.co.uk