Who knew that buying a regular old phone - the kind that you use for your standard landline hookup - could be such a pain?!! Having only used hand-me-down units for the past several years, and given that my work-from-home schedule requires me to get something slightly less craptastic, I found myself in the market for a new phone. However, the people designing these phones would appear to have never used one before. Seriously, I went in looking for a pretty basic set of features:
- Mute
- Speakerphone
- Ringer on/off switch
- Caller ID
- Cordless handset
Unfortunately, modern phones seem to be chock full of useless features that are never the ones you need. For some reason cordless handsets are getting their design inspirations from cellphones. WTF?? Cellphones are getting smaller to make them easier to fit into your pocket, not because they feel comfortable to hold or talk into. I like the bulkiness of a large handset as you cradle it between your neck and shoulder. Cellphones are actually really cumbersome to use because they are typically the wrong shape and size for an ergonomically sound phone conversation. Now why would you make cordless phones increasingly smaller? Who the hell wants to carry a cordless phone in their pocket? Talk about misguided design choices!
In addition to making these things small and sleek, the manufacturers seem to throw in things like bluetooth and musical ringtones. But it doesn't occur to them to include a mute button or a fracking off switch. Grrr!
And you can't just get a simple phone any more without getting 4 additional handsets to decorate your house. In the end, I got the one phone that the customer rep was embarrassed to have in stock. The "grandma" phone as we like to call it:
Complete with a flashing visual ringer for when the baby is asleep!
