Beep beep beep on the bus
Sat on the bus at the moment on the way to Victoria. Efficient way of getting round London.I am surrounded by people from all walks of life — and they are all texting! Every single one of them. One huge, huge lady sat behind me is slowly, slowly, slowly tapping out a message on her piece-of-rubbish Samsung. I could almost tell you what she’s writing because for every sodding key press, the handset lets out a BEEP. For every sodding character. She is a) clearly not familiar with T9 and b) an utter cretin for not putting her handset on silent.And when she is not typing she is coughing over me. Joy. Man of the people, me.
It’s certainly not a cost of mode of transport issue.
I’ve run a few impromptu ‘how to silence your Blackberry/WM device’ classes on my train for Colonel Blimp types. They have obviously had Jeeves procure them one to help run the empire from afar, but have no idea how annoying it is to listen to another’s hesitant polyphonic twitterings whilst trying to knock out an urgent preso before 9:30.
New campaign for SMSTextNews (the Daily HateMail & Torygraph have nothing on you):
***Make all handset manufacturers ship device profiles with SILENT as the defaut keypad volume***
We only need to influence a handful of people globally. They probably read this very blog. You are making millions of people unhappy with your incorrect assumption that users LIKE their keypads to beep. Guess what? We are 15 YEARS into mobile phones, and the ENTIRE developed world has one or more. We don’t need to hear a beep to acknowledge a keypress, FFS!
Friday again.
/m
Posted by Mike on March 14th, 2008 at 2:31 pm.You’re sure the bus isn’t heading for Clapham?
I’ll get my coat…
Posted by HeavyLight on March 14th, 2008 at 3:06 pm.HeavyLight’s last blog post..Apple, RM Battle Shapes Up
And yet people look at me like I’m some kind of snob when I tell them I don’t get on busses!
Posted by Dan Lane on March 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm.@Mike: Where do I sign?
Ben Smith’s last blog post..My other phone(s) shame?
Posted by Ben Smith on March 14th, 2008 at 4:32 pm.The worst thing on a mobile is the sodding BEEPS the keys make. The 1st thing I do with a new phone is SILENCE the key Tones. It just shouldn’t be aloud. It’s like the sound effects on a PC have just gotta go.
Posted by james vincent on March 14th, 2008 at 9:09 pm.