My contract with Three UK ended 2 months ago, since I’m still quite happy with my K800i that I got 2 years ago, I thought I will just continue with the contract as what they’re charging me is quite reasonable (£10 per month). Last Sunday, they called me and asked if I want to upgrade my mobile, at the end I decided to get the LG Renoir. I surprised myself this time as I didn’t read any reviews before getting it, but since I am not intended to keep this phone for myself and they are charging me a one off £40 for it, I decided to get it.

The phone arrived today, it was packed in a very nice and a relatively small box, which is good because nowadays products tends to come with excessive packaging. My first thought was that this looks so much like the iPhone! I’m impressed by the phone, and here are some of the features that I like:

• Wi-Fi - Can do without having a computer at home if all we need is checking email and some browsing…
• GPS - Very useful for travelling especially when we are driving (not yet supported)
• 8MP Camera - Since I’m using my K800i as my camera, this would be nice
• 8GB SD card - Surprisingly it comes with that much memory, I can’t believe memory is getting so cheap nowadays!
• Touch screen - I find touch screen a clever invention for human to interact with computers/machine, much more user friendly when implemented well.

There are also something that I think it can improve on:

• GPS - only for geotagging at the moment, no software support for navigation
• Speed - The interface can be slow at times
• Touch screen - not quite sensitive enough, sometimes I’ve push it!
• Application - As the phone is still quite new, many are not supported yet. The good thing is, most of the points mentioned here can be fixed in the next firmware.

All these features used to be what I want in a mobile, integrating everything that I need into one! It’s all nice to have, but none of these are necessary!

The world has changed so much, and our wanting never ends, so does our suffering. Often, we want something so much, and after much hard work, when we get it, how do we feel? Satisfy? Happy? May be for a moment, a very short moment! This phone remind me again that these materialistic things really doesn’t bring happiness, peace nor make us feel contented, all these are impermanence! After getting the object that we long wanted, moment later we often move on to wanting the next object, our wanting never ends! You may not agree with me, but try to ask yourself if these materialistic things give you long lasting happiness or does these wantings bring endless suffering.

On Sunday, I went to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery to join their Kathina ceremony this year. This is my third time attending this ceremony, the first time was in 2006. One of the points that I remember from the talk after the ceremony is that advertisements are decided to make us feel discontented! I found this very true myself, many advertisements often try to make us want more, make us feel unsatisfied and a feeling of lacking something, suggesting that buying their product would satisfy us.

Adverts are everywhere nowadays, even if we don’t watch TV, they are on websites, bus stops, train stations, you name it. Often we are not aware of what they are doing to us, no wonder why many of us always feel unsatisfy and wanting more all the time! I’m not blaming the companies for advertising here, it comes down to supply and demand again. If there is no demand, why would they advertise anymore. It’s ourself who is reasonable to watch our mind, as soon as we start blaming others, we are not doing ourself any good. I will share a quote from the Dhammapada (法句經):

 As a well covered house is not penetrated by a rain,  thus a well developed mind is not penetrated by passion.

如盖屋不密，必为雨漏浸，如是不修心，贪欲必漏入。

I still have a great interest in technology and it’s one of the things that I still do get affected by. I’ve to admit that I do like this phone, but I must watch my mind from wanting it! So I’ve decided to keep to my K800i as long as it lasts and not keeping the LG Renoir for myself. I still have much to work on!

Tags: k800i, kc910, lg renoir, mobile, Technology, Weblog
Categories: Weblog, Technology