Monday, October 19, 2009

Phone Trivia

The other day over lunch, I was talking to some friends about handphones (mobile phones, cellphones, don't be anal) and the fads that was considered the in thing back then. Behold I present, Top 10 Handphone Facts Of Days Yonder!

1. Remember when every other person owned a Nokia 3210 or 3310? The biggest draw was the Snake game, which can keep you occupied for hours on end. Getting your name on the High Score of your friend's phones was the ultimate reward.

2. Circa the same period, these phones made it possible for users to compose their own ringtone. No more annoying factory standard tones, hello annoying self-composed ringtones! Some people would buy the small booklets with the codes to the latest songs, some had the musical gift to be able to dictate the codes by ear. Bless!

3. Somehow it became a (very daft) trend to hang the phones by a lanyard around the neck. For those who can afford the prohibitively expensive small phones, it didn't look too bad. But then you'll see idiots with a 3310 trying to do the same and end up with a stiff neck at the end of the day.

4. Phones then was very much customizable physically. You can change the plastic casing for about RM10, and also change the screen backlight from boring yellow to white blue or red. Then some bright light discovered that you can put a picture on the LCD which only shows up when the screen is off. When the screen lights up, the picture disappears *gasp*.

5. There was a time when transparent plastic casing was a sought after item for it's cool factor. How to make it much cooler? By using a special battery with multicoloured LEDs that lights up whenever the phone's active i.e. incoming call. Groovy!

6. Remember Ericsson T10, Philips Twist, Nokia Banana et al? Those used to be cool...

7. Now how about Sagem, Alcatel, Siemens, Mitsubishi? If you have no idea that they used to produce handphones, then you must be quite young. I wonder if any of them are still producing handphones?

8. Simcards used to cost an arm and an ear. I bought my Maxis simcard for RM198 at a stall in Carrefour Subang Jaya (it was even pricier before that, RM200++, does anyone remember the price?). Now they're practically giving it away for free. Bummer.

9. It used to cost 60 freaking cents per minute to make calls from prepaid numbers, and for most folks they had to make a RM50/RM60 topup last for a month. SMS was the way to go brother.

10. When desperate, or whenever you know the other person is using postpaid, or whenever you feel cheap, just do the popular thing - misscall! It's the Malaysian equivalent to the 'hey, call me back' message at no cost at all. People who misscalled me often will just get one from me in return. It's my way of saying 'can't, my credit's running low too'.

Got any more?

9 comments:

idya said...

hahahaha... your entry reminds me of two things..

1) ingat tak mase first sem.. ade this one fat guy yg suke pakai sluar jeans londeh ala2 hip hop (aku rase nk lempang je) yg kutuk aku pasal handphone aku smpi aku nanges kt kau gile babsss nye.. (oh, thank u soOoo much dude.. never had the chance to say thanks before.. huhu..)

2) kau pakai prepaid ke? i thot pakai bill.. sbb remember we were on the phone for 7 freaking hours sampai line tibe2 terputus sbb rupe2 nye phone kau dh kene bar.. hahahaha..

well, those were the good old days.. oh, tetibe sedih sbb i was such a bad2 friend back then..

Embrace the Mystery said...

omg! just the other day my colleagues and I were laughing about handphone zaman2 kegemilangan pls?!

sony ericsson dulu, screen muat for a line of number je..so just imagine time sms br nk popular..penat nk baca pls?! hahahaha

cacah said...

saya ada siemens dulu. antara handphone terawal yang tak ada antena panjang.

:)

yeah. simcard dulu sangat mahal dan tak ada sistem sms. costly giler.

Bangla Tambak Johor said...

nice post!!!

ha ha ha ha

karihijau said...

my first phone i got when i was in standard 6 [alcatel i think] with the number 010-blablabla. n yes, the simcard was expensive before. but now, i can simply change my number whenever i want, and throw away the old ones. hahaha.

nice post. :)

Zubaidah Arshad said...

maxis forked me RM238 for the sim card. that was around 2001 i guess and i had myself a grip of Nokia Butterfly. One of the chic phones at that time.

hahahhaa

i just cant stand those idiots who hang the phone on their necks. plain moron.

The Banker said...

idya: namanya sofi, haha..and yes aku pakai prepaid then.

shz: manade sony ericsson, it's ericsson je la dulu

cacah: siemens's interface was not user-friendly, leceh betul time pinjam phone siemens kawan2

nora: thanks!

karihijau: whoa, 010 lagi classic! now the 010 number is back, i think tune is using it

za: haa yes, rm238 was the price then. maxis was the 'premium' provider then, lol.

kitt said...

huh..my first phone siemens as well.A series ape tah..and i got my celcom number for rm50 in year 2001, college promo price i think.. n still using that number until today!!

haa..i remember motorola startac..

-kitt

The Banker said...

a8jnme: haha startac, forgot to include that one as well!