As Buchbesprechung brought to my attention, some authors have pondered what would be if Twilight had been written by a skilled and famous author. Find some great ideas on Lizzie Starks Blog.
Here is my go:
Goethe a la The Sorrows of Young Werther:
Edward is in love with Lady Bella, who is married to the noble man
Jacob. Jacob is often out of town with his “wolfpack”, that’s how
Edwards secretly calls them, because they are all way to proud of their
royal blood. In the meantime Edward accompanies Bella throughout most of
the day.
They spend their time reading books and playing with Bella’s daughter
Ellesmera, who is a very smart little girl. When Edward is at home, he
ponders a lot about the “other” family, how he wishes Ellesmera was his
child, how he wants to dive his lips into Bella’s bosom and how he
pictures himself as a much better father than the dull Jacob.
Secretly, Bella has feelings for Edward too, but there is no way she
could leave the house of Jacob, especially since they have a daughter
together. She covers her sorrow with fake laughs but unfortunately it
also results in her absence from social events, so that she becomes
somewhat of an outsider.
Edward spends more and more time in his little study from where he
can look into Bella’s house, particularly the upper window where Bella’s
bedroom lies. He fantasizes more and more, writing down every single
thought into his diary, every little detail of Bella and their
experiences together. He starts to think he is the only one that can how
beautuiful she is, what qualities she really possesses, which makes him
somewhat of an ubermensch in his own eyes. The loneliness finally
drives him crazy and he has flashes of drinking Bella’s blood. He
becomes so afraid of hurting her that he kills himself, leaving a poem
for Bella which ends in:
“no longer do I request your love,
will look down on your from above
and whisper to your ear,
with every leaf that’s near.”
So my smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S2 has proven its power to me
over the last few weeks and mastered difficult times as in Christmas and
New Years, where I travelled a lot and interacted with friends more than usual.
So here is my conclusion:
Objectively seen, I'm completely amazed. Subjectively, I don't know how I could live without a smartphone.
The S2 has been my daily companion since day one and after learning the language for the device, I learned what it was capable of - and vice versa where it lacked a bit.
The camera as shown in my last post has fascinated me and I've been
using it wherever I can. However, it depends largely on the light source
whether pictures turn out well. On the other hand, for New Years and
Christmas market lights, I used the scene feature and it was quite
stunning.
The display is more than I wished for. My
photographer friend gave me some high-class pictures (I used the phone
as a USB-device and it's working smoothly) and even she was surprised by
how clear and bright the photos looked. On the plane back to Germany I
watched a film, which was never really comfortable on my old Nokia N96.
Now it's pure pleasure and would even work without headphones. I didn't
think the speakers would be that great - but then I guess I don't have
really high expectations for sound. The headphones were quite long,
which I love, and the sound is great as far as I can tell.
Internet
works perfectly. Only downside are trains but even there it worked
better than my friend's older Samsung phone. I used Google Maps and GPS a
lot to find my way around in London and also used the internet for tube
directions - have never found it easier to travel. I don't have to look
up plans before my trip anymore.
Battery - my one and only
criticism - relatively seen. It lasts for a day in heavy use, however,
on trips when I take lots of pictures, it runs out quicker. That's a bit
annoying. However, other smartphones don't seem to do much better here
and considering that the smartphone is a small laptop, I can live with
that. I just need to remember to charge it in between or buy a new
battery for those rare occasions on trips where I might want to use it
as Ipod and camera all day.
Organizing skills. It took me a
while to snychronize the S2 with facebook and have my events show up in
the calendar (but only the one's I said yes too). Other than that I love
using my calendar and have the most important ones per day show up on
my widget. I also finally got Skype and Twitter working - I guess I made
some installing mistakes at the beginning. All in all I'm really happy
about the Android market for apps. Everything I need and more.
I
even used the phone to read e-books and it's fantastic. Never had to
wait for anything to happen. Well, Samsung Kies is not really working on
my computer but I didn't have problems using the Kies Air function
instead (or mostly just USB - it's faster anyway).
I can honestly say I'm happy with my choice. Today I read about the Android 4.0 version coming out for the Galaxy S2 soon. We'll see how that's like.
Smartphone, Android, Touchscreen, Internet - for someone who has never owned any of these on a phone, this is a quite scary and exciting adventure.
First I had to get internet, I can't use my old simcard with it. Then I charged the phone. When I bought the small package, elegant black box with silver sweeping letters, I was surprised and amazed. It's so small for such a huge device - huge as in lots of features.
I was even more surprised when I opened it. The phone was almost as big as the box but it was so thin and light. First I was afraid to hold it. Even though I had seen it in the shop, owning it is a different experience.
The clear charging light battery already amazed me, it was so bright. When it was finally full (barely took a few hours, wow) and I had my new Internet Sim-card from Vodafone, I opened the back. Quite easy and against other comments the back is very robust. Putting in the Sim-card was easy, too, didn't even have to take out the battery. Closing worked great. The hooks clicked with a nice firm grip and in the end the back is very smooth.
Now turning it on. OMG. Nice first opening screen, wonderful graphics. Then there is my screen. It looks so awesome. I had seen HTCs and Iphones but this was just amazing. And such a big screen. I did the jeans pocket test and works perfectly.
Then I tried to make a call. Working with the keys needs some work, yes, but it was better and easier than I thought. (better than on my Ipod touch). But then I pressed the wrong button and the call menu was gone.
But I was still on the line of the service center. I freaked a bit, tried to get back to where I can end the call. I usually consider myself a computer, technology etc geek, a small one, but the smartphone first impression literally took my breath away. I finally realized how to get back to the call menu by swiping down the top where there was a red phone sign.
This really is a device for the future. I'm looking forward to exploring it in detail.
In my last post I compared prices online. There are two online shops that offer the Galaxy SII for 399€; Amazon and a few others are 20 € more expensive but don't have shipping costs.
Amazon is the only online retailer that I really trust. Only once did I buy a laptop with T-online. Buying my flatscreen with Amazon was a huge decision but when prices are hundreds of Euro cheaper, you just have to give in. Usually I prefer to go to shops and wait for offers. A huge problem for me is that I'm only in Berlin for a short time, so I can't wait too long for shipping.
When looking back on Amazon, the price is at 465€ and only other partner firms sell it for 419€ there. This rules out Amazon for me - and due to lack of trust online retailers in general.
My subjective and biased view on shops: I can pick up the product right away, no waiting. I get service when buying but most importantly when something is wrong - bringing the device back and receiving a new one takes only minutes. In case there is a hardware problem later in my 2-year warrenty time, they take care of all the hassle with sending, repairing etc.
For me this is worth paying a few Euro more, however, not extensively more. When being so close to the buying experience. I really need to be careful not to rush into the shop and just buy anything only to own it.
Luckily, I found the cheapest offer today at my Media Markt in Berlin. 399€! I really didn't expect that. Cheaper than online retailers! Perfect. So I stood there in the market, thought about it, well, and after this whole process, I'm sure, I want it, I got it. I own a Samsung Galaxy SII now. Amazing.
The service was great, they offered me some insurance which I declined and they already had all my details saved because I shopped there before. The seller was friendly and I enjoyed having a quick chat while getting the phone. And the best: In the shop I was also able to buy some extras. A silicon case for example. I think I will also look into screen covers online.
Today is full of suprises: The box in which the Galaxy S2 came was tiny. My old phones always had boxes about three times the size. Anyway, it's all too exciting. I will unpack it now and see what it's like.
All of my phones so far I have bought in conjunction with a contract. As my phones tend to be top-range and quite new, I often have to pay 100-200 € on top of that. Way back this was the way to go. Now times have changed. My own contract is too cheap and you don't get nice deals when you just renew it.
I would have considered getting a new contract but unfortunately I'm travelling in different countries too much, a few months in England, a few months in Germany. Very inconvenient.
I still went to Vodafone (in Germany that's the best connection and I like their service after 10 years of experience in my family). My Dad has a contract without a phone and pays 8
0 € per month. He said he is fine to renew his contract but Vodafone says they won't give him the Samsung Galaxy SII I chose, because he doesn't want an internet flat. He wouldn't use it and for me it would be worthless. That's really frustrating.
Then I tried with my mothers contract but it's the same deal. We played through all the possibilities but it's no good.
I even started looking at new contracts for many networks. Vodafone has nice student offers but either I have to pay about 250-300€ extra still or my contract will be about 30€ a month. I know I can get cheaper contracts without a phone, with internet and texts for only 10 € or tops 15€, so as a student who isn't even in the country most times anything more is unmanagable.
Christmas offers from T-Mobile and Vodafone offer the phone much cheaper now, for 65 € for example, but only with their overpriced tariffs. 3 years ago I could call Vodafone and landline for free for only 20€. Now, 30€ for a contract is probably reasonable including internet if it would include the phone completely. Groupon.de has such an offer for the SII. Only 19.95€ for the phone. But that is only Telecom and I really don't want to switch. Also I have to pay at least another 10 pounds in England for the network services that I will want to have there too.
A friend told me nowawdays you just go to Amazon or MediaMarkt to buy the phone seperately. So I guess I will have to do that now and get a cheap contract. I calculated it all together and buying the SII for about 400 is still cheaper with a 10€ contract than paying 30€ for 24 months (which I can't even use completely yet).
Endline: a smartphone makes you very mobile but the network industry doesn't provide good international, flexible offers yet.