Stop this blinking thing

Can we stop making gadgets like mobile phones with LEDs that flash all the time? The point of something flashing is to say "Hey, look over here, this needs your attention". It's a police siren that says "Get out of the way dummy!" or a warning light on an aircraft saying "Engine fallen off". It does not mean "Everything's AOK, situation normal, nothing to see here".

So why is it manufacturers insist on creating mobile phones, headsets and other devices that flash constantly during normal operation? My mobile flashes once a second to say, well I'm not sure what actually, except "I'm a mobile phone". But when my brain sees something flash out of the corner of my eye, my instinct is to turn and look at it. This is not good when I am driving my car at night and the interior is lit up by my phone and bluetooth headset impersonating a mobile disco.

Wait, I think I have a solution. Where's the Tippex?

If you are not prone to epileptic fits and find it easy to ignore flashing lights, you may want to get the otherwise rather good Motorola Bluetooth Headset from Amazon.

It works pretty much as a headset should - switches on when you fold open the mic and connects automatically to most mobile phones although it needs to be handled gently as the build is quite fragile.

"I've got 10 minutes spare, I'll just upgrade the software on my Treo phone..."

And 3 hours and 172 steps later, I have a working phone again. This has without doubt been one of the more hellish install procedures I have ever been foolish enough to attempt.

It started badly when the installation said I needed to free up 15 Megabytes of memory on the phone before I could start. I don't remember the phone having that much memory free when I first bought it. I very carefully moved programmes from the main phone memory to the expansion card one by one to free some space. This quickly resulted in the disappearance of all my contacts, my entire calendar and pretty much all data of any value. So I anxiously moved the key programmes back. The data was still blank.

Now in theory, all this data is backed up in Microsoft Outlook on my PC. But a terrifying thought struck me - what if when I re-sync the phone, Outlook sees the empty data on it and deletes everything on the PC to match the blank state of the phone? This is exactly the kind of disastrous action Microsoft would set as the default. I was concerned that the combined idiocy of Microsoft and PalmOne might create a kind of chain-reaction of stupidity that would leave me in a state of total technological amnesia. I backed up my Outlook data file as insurance.

Things sped up from this point as I now had nothing to lose - my phone being about as useful as a dead goldfish in its present state.

Numerous resets and re-syncs later, I do have a working phone with data in it. Is the sound any better (the reason for attempting the upgrade)? Well it does seem to have improved somewhat - but only time will tell whether it was worth the pain to get here...

PalmOne Treo 650 "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

If any piece of technology deserves to kick off this site naming and shaming the very worst of new technology, it is my PalmOne Treo 650. It runs the Palm OS and functions reasonably well as an organisor, succeeding in cramming one day's diary appointments onto one screen. The only problem is that noone can hear what I am saying on the phone. I'm curious about the quality control process that went into this product. They must have made a phone call with the thing right? Or is the ability to make a call no longer considered an important feature for a phone?

What is particularly strange and warrants our first "Complete Clucker" award at TechnologyTurkey is the unique one-sided conversation feature. It appears that while the person calling me is talking, they cannot hear anything from my phone as if it has cut my microphone out. It's rather like having a conversation on a walkie-talkie. I've had a number of conversations with the kind of people who rarely pause for breath where I can't get a word in because my "yes, but"s and "hold on a minutes" are never heard by them (this seems to suit some people just fine of course).
I think I'm going to have to start punctuating my conversations with the word "over".

But it gets worse - if someone calls me from a noisy bar or in the middle of traffic, they can't hear anything I say! My girlfriend avoids speaking to me on my mobile because it sounds like I'm not listening to her. This is quite an achievement - a communication tool that actually damages relationships.

I emailed PalmOne tech support about the problem and they replied saying that I needed to perform a hard reset to remove all my software and personalised settings before they could help. Is this a test to get rid of support queries? Perhaps the NHS should try this "Please abstain from all food and drink for 7 days before consulting your GP".

But there is hope. There is a software update (although currently Orange has mislaid the installer on their website). And software updates always fix everything. At least that's what I always think before I install them. Maybe that's the problem - I'm still an optimist.

If you have similar experiences, can explain the strange behaviour of this phone, or have a suggestion for an alternative gadget (which can actually make phone calls), please post a comment.

If you are a pathological optimist and want to try a new Treo in the hope that version 1.20 of the software will work, try Amazon below.