Little Things That Make You Smile 7: The Joy Department

[randombs]

Just noticed I've been a member on here, officially, for 22 years.

Unofficially, I swear I've been here longer when we were NTSC-UK, but think a database copy nuked a lot of our start dates and post history. Either way, what a cosy little online home this still is.

Love you all! Yes, even you. X

It’s hazy, but I seem to remember the database trouble caused one or two years’ worth of posts around 2016 to get lost, but nothing earlier than that.

[Wools]

Interesting, as I remember that their was a database loss of posts but not around the 2016 date, instead it was around very early in the Forums life. Could be totally wrong though!

[briareos_kerensky]

I don't know if it's a smile or an irk, but do you remember the 1st generation N-Gage, and how it was ridiculed because you had to hold it like a second hear when calling? And how everyone nowadays goes with their phones horizontal with the mic basically down their throats? And how they still put the mic end of the phone near their hears when listening?

[Yakumo]

Going on to 22 years here. According to my bios it says I joined 01-05-2003. This place was definitely still NTSC UK back then.
Wow, time really has flown by.

[Neon Ignition]

I don't know if it's a smile or an irk, but do you remember the 1st generation N-Gage, and how it was ridiculed because you had to hold it like a second hear when calling? And how everyone nowadays goes with their phones horizontal with the mic basically down their throats? And how they still put the mic end of the phone near their hears when listening?

I remember walking through Manchester and would occasionally see people using an N-Gage like that at the time and it made no sense. I owned one and you could hold it normal just fine

[QualityChimp]

I do miss the days of interesting phones.

Folding phones are a bit different to the rectangles, but you used to get some crazy phones BITD.

[wakka]

The mic end of the phone has speakers in it these days anyway. At least on iPhones. It's so you get stereo sound.

I never had an N-Gage but the actual internal hardware was the same as other Symbian Series 60 phones. As a consequence you could run cracked versions of the games on other Nokias. I had a slightly more 'normal' handset (7610 I think) and used to play a lot of Super Monkey Ball on it, lol. For the time it was a pretty good port as I recall.

QualityChimp Haha what a delightfully 2000s era montage! A truly inelegant period of design lol, but one I do like for its cheesiness. I had that highly articulated one at the far right, or the sequel to it - it's labelled N90 but I had the N93. It had a fully motorised 3x optical zoom with a single lens and could shoot VGA 30fps video. It was dead nifty.

The thing that Nokia could never seem to get a handle on though was web browsing and navigation. They didn't seem to realise how useful these would become. The former was absolutely terrible, even after the arrival of 3G, and navigation was always designed around cars rather than on-foot, and required expensive TomTom, etc, subscriptions.

When the iPhone 3G arrived in 2008, it was a massive step back in terms of the cameras, but a quantum leap forward in web browsing and navigation.

[Anpanman]

Some really nice phones there, a couple of them I've seen for the first time. Agree with wakka in that the 2000's had some very interesting shapes and the ring tones on some of them were incredibly loud.

[Hirst]

I was still regularly selling used cars from a 1994 Motorola International 8700 until I stopped doing it in about 2010, it's an early digital phone so still works fine on 2G. I even still bust it out when I need a "disposable" number from a SIM card bought in a petrol station. The battery is still just about workable, though I imagine that'll be the death of it in the end. If I ever find a nice condition car kit for it, I'll put it in the car so I can say "yeah I'm on my car phone" (until the 2G gets turned off).

Stock photo but mine looks exactly the same:

You get some odd looks when it rings and you pull out the antenna and whip the key protector open, but I don't care because I know I look extremely cool and that's all that matters. A man of real business.

[randombs]

You get some odd looks when it rings and you pull out the antenna and whip the key protector open, but I don't care because I know I look extremely cool and that's all that matters. A man of real business.

Good Lord, that's a beauty! Looks like it'd blitz every sperm within a 10m radius, though

And is that a full-size SIM card I see?

[Hirst]

Good Lord, that's a beauty! Looks like it'd blitz every sperm within a 10m radius, though

And is that a full-size SIM card I see?

Yeah, it's the old credit-card sized SIM with a hole in it where you put a "normal" size SIM.

[Wools]

And is that a full-size SIM card I see?

No, I'm just pleased to see...

Sorry.

[egparadigm]

And is that a full-size SIM card I see?

Didn’t realise they came this big ever!

[Dogg Thang]

Thank goodness the translation is there. Who knows where I'd have put that if it just had MOBIELE TELEFOON written on it.

[wakka]

To be honest the aesthetic of that Motorola is 10/10. It's got a very 90s stockbroker energy. You pick up a used one today and you'd probably be able to dig enough 30 year old cocaine out of the crevices that it'd pay for itself ten times over.