New Phones and What the BLEEP?

We were due for new phones on the New-in-Two program from Verizon. We did a bunch of research and E wasted no time in getting them delivered on our exact contract anniversary.

We both chose the Samsung Rogue. We’ve never had the same phone before, so this should be interesting. It’s a little iPhone-ish with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It’s nice. I really, really, really like the device.

…but…

During my first two phone calls, I kept hearing this awful beeping during the call. From the sound, you’d there it was some kind of super-emergency broadcast warning. But when I look at the screen it’s blank (presumably because I’m on the phone.)

OMG how BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP utterly annoying!! Am BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP I not going BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP to be able to BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP be on a call be- BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-cause of the BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-ing going on?????

Apparently, that’s the sound of a text message coming in. What the BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP??? And why is it so BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-ing loud??? It’s really piercing.

If I’m on the phone, I’m probably not texting, so why does the sound have to be so intrusive? In the past with my (Samsung Alias), a very subtle “blip” would alert me to a new text message. [I never understood that, either, since text messages are practically never as important as an actual phone conversation…] but at least that sound was somewhat “ignorable”.

In the day-and-age of Twitter and all the tools it provides (timers, package tracking, alarms, weather alerts, missing kids, recipes, stories, humor, etc.), text messages and their alerts need to be treated as a normal/usual operation. Severe interruptions to a phone call in favor of the next Tweet are not acceptable.

And, while we’re at it, how can I turn off the pop-up that alerts me to a NEW text message? I can see the icon, #thankyouverymuch. I don’t need a whole other alert for this, either. It just interrupts whatever I’m doing and makes me far less efficient…and it’s annoying.

So, how the BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP do we BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-ing turn off the BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP-ing sound? Oh, yeah, you can’t. It’s built into the operating system for the phone or something. And changing phones wouldn’t matter because they all do it, now. Apparently, that’s the new way it’s done.

Mantra: It’s not a “feature” if I can’t turn it off (just like the doors that automatically lock on E’s car, making it very easy to lock the key in the car with it running)!

And when, exactly, are they going to put high-traffic users like me in their beta test groups before the new “feature” goes live???

One thought on “New Phones and What the BLEEP?

  1. That whole “interrupt everything I’m doing with a text” that is a ‘feature’ (HA!) is one reason why I don’t follow Twitter feeds via text messaging – I got an ap, but it’s still not quite what I want.

    And, dude, I’m not even a high-traffic user. I just wish they’d get y’alls input because I can’t imagine you coming up with something that I disagree with.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *