I'm on the Hunt for a New Cell Phone…

My old flip-top phone that I inherited from my husband only a year or so ago is great, but it's not cutting it anymore. It's amazing how much and how rapidly technology changes. Back then I was just happy to have a phone that took pics. Now, with the advent of successful sites like PodTech.net that Robert Scoble left Microsoft for, I'm ready and willing to get into the Vlogger podcasting arena.

I began my search this morning at http://www.thephonespot.com/mobile-phones/nokia/, a great site that allowed me to easily research my phone needs:

* Camera (gotta snap those pics!)
* Works in USA (no brainer)
* MP3 Player (my current one only holds five songs for some weird reason)
* FM Radio (They still make FM? Does this include XM?)
* Video Recorder (vlogosphere here I come!)

I like that - the site's ability to check boxes of what I want and don't want. Gary B. will be happy to know I didn't choose the Blue Tooth option, but, as tech savvy as those Japanese can be, my resultant options came with it anyway.

Here's what I found: This sweet Nokia 8800 Sirocco mobile phone. I didn't even know they made Sirocco phones! It reminds me of this girl named Pam who went to my college. A pretty and petite Michigan native with an asymmetrical bob, Pam drove a Sirocco that had "P body" listed on the license plate.

Hey, if I buy this phone, dubbed "one of the mobile industry's supermodels" with "stunning good looks," maybe I'll finally feel like I'm in Pam's league after all these years.

I can forget buying a new digital camcorder, though. (Ours is so old that is doesn't even have a USB connection.) The Nokia N93 mobile phone found at http://www.thephonespot.com/mobile-phones/nokia/ looks just like a camcorder with its ability to twist the screen and record "movies that are good enough to save on DVD" with stereo sound and a built-in digital stabilizer to alleviate shaky filming.

I'll soon be able to catch breaking local news over the FM radio or the "always on internet option" of some of these phones, rush to the scene, video record it and vlog about it all in one fell swoop with one device. Or I can watch live footage. Or videoconference face-to-face with any of my tech savvy editors or interviewees. And finally, FINALLY, I can have a speakerphone, which my current phone lacks.

Man, we sure have come a long way since the days where my grandparents' mustard yellow phone with the rotary dial and clanging ringer sat in the hall corner next to the bathroom. Now all I need to figure out is if any of these Nokia phones has a voice recorder so I can get my interview subjects' quotes right. Once I find that baby, I'm truly sold!