A Good Phone, not a crappy camera or web browser

I've had a cell phone for about 10 years now. While my current phone is considerably smaller than my first one, it really isn't all that much better.

I had a generic Motorolla clamshell, but the design was so depressingly bad, I ditched it for a Nokia 6015i off ebay for $50. It lacks some of the must have features, but it works and it's pretty tough. Still, I feel like like it could be much more useful, though some features would require a pretty heavy infrastructure redesign.

We'll start with a list things we put up with which seem unacceptable:

1) Suddenly dropped calls
Cell tower placement can only be so dense, especially in certain areas. When you've lost signal for several seconds, it makes sense that the tower will give up on you, but what seems unacceptable is when your call gets dropped for no apparent reason.

2) No call recovery
OK, so you went into your bomb shelter in the basement to get some canned peaches while you were gabbing, and you lose you signal. Why do I need to re-dial? It's stupid. Even internet connections don't work this way. Ideally the other end of the call would get a notice that the call was lost, and allow them to hang on.

3) No simple way to download and upload contacts
This should be able to be done on a web page that can export to a textfile.

4) Have to use phone to configure
Why can't configurations be done by a web page as well?

5) Poor Voice mail integration
Visual Voice Mail is a nice start. Using voice recognition for transcription would be better.

6) Ability to use VOIP when in WIFI range
It's no mystery why this is the case, but being able to switch back and forth when necessary would be a great feature.

7) Poor voice quality
Most phones seem really stingy on their bandwidth. It seems like having extra bandwidth that willgracefully degrade would be a good feature.


8) Reliable voice send mode
There are some situations when you want to give a clear message to whoever's on the other end. Emergencies that arise in spotty reception areas, and leaving voice mail with detailed information are another. A solution to this would be like an SMS like voice message where the sound is recorded and played (potentially with some delay) on the other end. To use this generally would require some major changes to the the telephone system, but to integrate this with most voicemail system ought not to be too difficult.

9) Indestructible
My Nokia is pretty tough, but it's keyboard is flakey and won't stand up to water. A waterproof metal case with high quality buttons would be nice. Something that works like this would be a start.

Sadly because of the incestuous relationship between device makers and providers, I don't see a lot of these features getting implemented any time soon.

I'm not fired

So the layoffs came through and I'm not fired. That's nice.